Yorkshire club win place in League 1 as Leeds Rhinos legend becomes RFL vice-president
Yorkshire club Goole Vikings will join the professional game next year as a former Leeds Rhinos star becomes vice-president of the RFL.
As predicted by the Yorkshire Evening Post earlier this week, Google Vikings have been approved by the RFL board to join Betfred League One for the 2025 season, beating off competition from fellow applicants Anglian Vipers and Bedford Tigers. The Vikings were founded as a community club in 2018 and have been playing in Yorkshire Men’s League Division Four, with junior teams in the City of Hull and District competition.
A separate decision will be made in December about whether to admit Goole to membership of the RFL. The RFL council, meeting in Salford today, approved a proposal to elect two vice-presidents on the same two-year cycle as the RFL president.
Former Rhinos and England forward Danika Priim, who now works in the rugby league media, will take on the role for 2025-26 along with Swinton Lions chief executive Steve Wild. Television presenter Adam Hills will serve as president, succeeding House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, during the same term.
Priim will become the fourth woman to serve as the RFL’s president or vice-president since the positions were introduced in 1988 and the first England Women international. Kath Hetherington was the RFL’s first female president in 1995, followed by Clare Balding in 2021-22. Sue Taylor MBE was the sport’s only previous female vice-president, in 2022-23.