RUGBY Football League executive chairman Richard Lewis has ruled out the prospect of an expanded World Club Challenge in the near future.

St Helens coach Ian Millward, whose Super League champions take on Australian premiers Sydney Roosters in the annual one-off clash at the Reebok on Friday, has called for the contest to be enlarged to take in four teams from each country.

That idea gained the support of an RFL working party last year and a world club championship was pencilled in for the autumn of 2004 but the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) has instead scheduled a Tri-Nations Series for that time and Lewis admits that Millward's plan has little chance of succeeding in the short term.

"There is no appetite for having more than just a head-to-head match in the foreseeable future," said Lewis, who held talks on the subject with Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) chief executive David Gallop this week.

"I know some of the clubs would like to go with a world club championship but it's just not realistic at the moment. The game is not ready for it.

"I think it will happen one day but it's a way off yet. It's not that we're against it, it's just not practicable at the moment."

Lewis said the World Club Challenge, which has grown in stature since its revival in 2000, would remain in England for at least the next two years.