No, the decision is not where the 2021 World Cup is held. The World Cup itself is important but not that important. The decision is whether NOT to take the 2021 World Cup to the United States.

League has had a long and turbulent history with America. There is an outstanding book called No Helmets Required about the 1953 All Stars who toured Australia and New Zealand, wearing American football pants and pads in matches.

The book outlines some poor decisions by administrators at a time when real inroads could have been made. Since then there have been a cavalcade of characters – Mike Meyer, John Morgan, David Niu, Steve Johnson – who have led various assaults on the Land of The Free, with an Origin in LA and a Warrington-Wigan punch-up in Milwaukee acting as heavy artillery.

In recent times the game seems to have found its level – an amateur league divided into conferences. Rugby union, meanwhile, is learning to stage big events at legendary venues without really threatening the big three of football, baseball and basketball the way soccer is beginning to.

Then came the announcement last week that an Australian sports promoter, Jason Moore, wants to stage the 2021 World Cup in NFL and Major League Soccer stadia, as a business play to carry it off and has submitted it to the Rugby League International Federation.

Moore is no mug. He's the one who brought Major League Baseball to the Sydney Cricket Ground.

I spoke to Moore from New York on Wednesday and he outlined his plans to start a professional domestic league which will recruit players from Australasia and Europe just two years from now. He wants to start with eight teams and move up to 16. He says he'll do it whether or not he gets the World Cup.

Rugby league fans, we've heard this all before, haven't we?

But because the rugby union World Cups are already allocated into the next decade, there does – objectively – seem a great opportunity here; the opportunity to have thousands of Americans think of league, not union when they hear the word 'rugby'.

That's the pot of gold, the holy grail, for all of those pioneers going back to Mike Dimitro and the '53 All Stars.

Of course the one factor which hoses down the excitement is this: rugby league needs to make a profit from the World Cup to fund development for the following four years. It can't afford an 'expo'-style tournament, showcasing the game to curious strangers.

Moore says his tournament will make more than next year's or 2013 or 2008. These are easy things to say … but what if there are guarantees in the bid document. What could be the possible impediment to the 2021 World Cup being played in Australia.

How about the fact that England will have a profound influence on who is granted the tournament, and that England is the only other bidder.

Nigel Wood is chairman of the RLIF and chief executive of Britain's RFL. While not for a moment suggesting he does not have the game's best interests at heart, can you seriously see him voting against his own bid, when it has secured millions of pounds in government backing?

Nigel and other UK delegates to the RLIF board are clearly conflicted here. They should abstain from voting on the venue of the 2021 World Cup. Do they want to be remembered in some 2060 equivalent of No Helmets Required as the men who blew the game's next big chance?

The RLIF is not FIFA. It has never been shown to be corrupt. But rugby league is a small sport and money, for many countries, is hard to come by.

The RLIF must be subject to intense scrutiny between now and decision time. It must explain its call publicly. The process must be completely transparent. If the US can deliver a reasonable profit, there will have to be very compelling reasons indeed to shun it.

If self-interest is in rugby league's DNA, as many believe to be the case, the sport must force itself to defy its very nature with this call – and end a cycle that has kept it one of the world's great sporting secrets for almost a century and a quarter.

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