NRL plans for 28 May return amid coronavirus

The NRL is planning to restart its season on 28 May amid the coronavirus pandemic, while it has been accused by the Nine Network of financial "mismanagement" and breaking its lucrative broadcast deal.

The ARL Commission made the announcement about wanting the premiership season to resume late next month following a meeting with its innovations committee today.

The decision was announced after Nine released a statement this morning taking aim at the NRL's financial management, which it claimed had left clubs and players facing uncertain futures.

"The details on the competition structure we haven't got yet because the landscape is changing around government boundaries," ARL commissioner Wayne Pearce said.

"That will feed into the complexity structure. Today what we landed on was a starting date.

"We haven't finalised what that [competition] looks like yet. Why we want to firm up a date is to give certainty to players and their schedules, clubs and thousands of people who are out of work through clubs and millions of fans.

"It's a mark for everyone to work towards that's associated with the game."

Pearce said the league had not worked out when the season would be completed.

"That's the piece of work we need to do that's subject to a number of variables, one of which is government regulations," he said.

"If they're stringent and players aren't able to go back to their home environment that makes it difficult to expect them to be away from their kids for a long period of time.

"I think there's a lot of positives with the competition up and running again. The players, staff at clubs, services to clubs that will benefit.

"There's a lot of people that will be happy with the decision to get the competition running again."

The NRL season was suspended after two rounds last month because of coronavirus fears, with the league having made the decision a day after the AFL announced it was shutting down its competition.