and the Pacific islands. A further expansion to the NSWRL in 1988 saw the first Queensland teams added to the league: Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Giants, as well as another team from outside Sydney, Newcastle Knights. Expansion occurred again in 1995, with the addition to the League of teams from Perth, Townsville and Auckland. In 1995 Ian Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first rugby footballer in the world to come out to the public as gay. The 1990s saw the importance of television income to the sport continue to rise, and a battle for control of television rights led to the infamous Super League war, which saw the game split between rival competitions. This event affected the sport across the world during the middle of decade, and the damage done is only now being undone. Super League While the Super League war was being fought in Australia, Rupert Murdoch approached the English clubs with a view to forming a Super League, primarily as a way to gain the upper hand during his battle with Kerry Packer for broadcasting rights for the sport in Australia. A large sum of money from News Corporation's UK subsidiary, BSkyB, helped fund the proposal. The new competition got under way in 1996. As part of the deal, rugby league switched from a winter to a summer season. The British, Australian and New Zealand seasons are now played concurrently from March to October, and major international tournaments are now largely played in November. The French, however, have continued to play a winter season. After the 1997 season in Australia the Super League war came to an end, with News International and the Australian Rugby League agreeing to merge their competitions to create the National Rugby League, which commenced in 1998. The first ever team from Victoria, the Melbourne Storm entered the competition. Several clubs were either forced to merge (e.g. St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers became St George Illawarra Dragons), or folded. The omission of South Sydney Rabbitohs, one of the founding members of the original NSWRL, led to mass protests. Although Souths did not participate in the NRL during 2000 and 2001, a Federal Court decision in July 2001 paved the way for them to return to the league in 2002. In 1995, rugby union went professional, and those who had long derided rugby league as merely a professional