says MP Andy Burnham www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ma ... um=twitter

says MP Andy Burnham www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ma ... um=twitter

He should stick to trying to save the NHS. He's clearly out of his depth on this one.

Yes TB, because having the wherewithall to thrash out a workable policy for the massive organisaton that is the NHS is nothing compared to the problems of the monolith that is Rugby League.

It's interesting where this ' infamous ' it caused Leigh ' serious financial problems ' being in SL comes from , the club essentially broke even in the 2005 season , posting a single figure thousand profit

But interesting article either way , I can unhappily accept a Franchise system , as long as the sports governing body actually do get off their harrises and do something realistic and positive to build the lower tiers , rather than the pathetic attempts we have so far witnessed

The only way you could claim the system a success is if both sides of the ' divide ' are growing , at the moment the only bit achieving that is the elite 40/50 % of the top tier , the rest including almost half of SL is dying a slow death

I'm happy with a franchise system also - but a proper one - not a sham one that ignores the fact that 3 of it's members have gone bust but carries on regardless and has KPMG sleep walking past the apllications like it's pretended to read them.

he is speaking as a baised leigh fan. you should ask a widnes fan at the end of the year if they are happy there is no relegation. i'm glad that there isn't any more yo-yo teams going up and down and basically just swapping their older aussie players. it isn't the RFL's fault if some clubs don't grab the stability with two hands.

can enthuse their supporters , both walk up and corporate ?

maybe you have just hit the nail on the head, why should a very very very tiny chance of getting to the grand final make you have less pride in your team? if you have bandwagon fans then i feel sorry for you. as it is i love watching rugby league as do a lot of fans so why would promotion have any effect on that. also did you have a massive attendence when you got promotion? as it stands teams now in super league have the stability of knowing if they take a chance with young ones they can develop them and not flirt with relegation.

NRL have stuck with the franchise system and it has worked they have built up rugby league in aus and are about to broker a tv deal which we could only dream of.

Are you for real ?

So essentially you have no idea how to make the Lower tiers attractive enough to bring in fans and sponsors , just admit it

Have the Aussies ever had P and R ? , is it part of their sporting culture ?

When Hull Kingston Rovers came up in 2007 did they Yo yo straight down. The recent history of Super League being a closed shop and the shambles keeping Shuddersfield in as they propped the league up for years gives no merit to your argument.

You're trying to compare apples with wardrobes. The ONLY similarity between the two comps is the oddly shaped ball that its players throw about. RL is the premier sport in Australia. Over here it's a minority northern sport trying to survive in it's own small back yard. Copying the Aussies is like trying to build a luxury yatch out of redundant advertising boards.

well what else are these teams moani

honest anserw no (just like every other fan on here) i dont i am not a marketing genius and if i was i guess i would be working at the rfl. but did having promotion and relegation help it previously NO it didnt.

wasn't the reason behind the sydney team mergers apart of their franchise system?

are you seriously suggesting that huddersfield should be playing in the championship? please tell me you got the wrong or i have misunderstood.

ok one team out of home many relegations managed to stay up and stay mid table?

Dont the championships play for the exactly the same thing as those in SL? a trophy and some prize money?

So basically , ' stuff them ' , they are nothing more than worthless crap teams in little villages , ? Yes

Yes it was , and a whole load of support it cost the game over there as well

So tell me ,are the bottom 4/5 clubs currently in SL ' thriving ' ?

Even though Widnes will finish bottom, I still think the RFL should reintroduce P&R. If Widnes went down we'd have to play well to get back up again. That would be exciting. Equally, we'd have to play much better than we are now in order to stay up. That would make the bottom end of the table more competitive and interesting.

Every season fresh blood would be injected into Super League and every year the deadwood would be removed. Every year a club would get the chance to get back in Super League via nothing more than what happens on the field. That would be a healthier situation for the sport, imho.

Obviously there would have to be some sort of minimum criteria for entry into Super League. But that was in place last time.

Trophy ? yes , Not sure of the prize money , a bit like SL , only we dont get our picture on a Lorry

I can't agree with his comparison of football and rugby. The nature of football means that newly promoted teams can survive despite having weaker squads than the rest, as the physical difference is minimal; just look at the FA cup for example. On the other hand, the differences between clubs in different leagues in rugby league are far more profound, and in our case, with a few exceptions, P and R has just led to a yo-yo system. Without franchising, Widnes would be going straight back down, which is useless for their junior development and their development as a whole.

However, I do agree that those who fall foul of the rules I.E those who go bust should have their licences reviewed.

No, Hull KR didn’t yo-yo back down. What they did do was spend a shed load of money they didn’t have on some average to poor overseas players, some of whom barely lasted a season at SL level and then spent the next 5 years claiming dispensation after dispensation to fit more average overseas players in to their squad whilst making excuses for a poor youth setup. Hull KR are a fantastic argument for why clubs which aren’t ready shouldn’t be promoted. They entirely and admittedly unsustainable.

Its £100k in the championship isnt it? seems a worthwhile endeavour to try and win a comp which gets you a trophy and £100k. More worthwhile than a competition where the only prize of success is to leave that competition imo.

Yes, I can just see the fans of a Championship Grand Final winning team going berserk because their club has just won £100k rather than promotion

no they shouldn't be forgotten and they arn't, do you still have a league to play in? do you still recieve money? can you gain a liecence?

really well it doesn't look like they are missing them as they have never been stronger over there.

no they aren't and they should lose there liecence if they still aren't when decision time comes around. but are they still better than the teams moaning about no promotion? yes they are.

I cant see a point in a competition which exists solely for clubs to try and get out of it. Why bother with it? Winning the championship means nothing, its promotion they are celebrating. Might as well just go in rotation, give each championship club a chance to sign up loads of average overseas players and be whipping boys for a year.

instead of throwing all the eggs into superleague could the RFL not strengthen the 2nd tier and market an elite RL-competition with 2 leagues? maybe the top tier having 10 teams and the next tier being made of as many clubs they can find that have the fanbase/business set-up to support a pro team (surely they could dig up another 10?)

transparent promotion and relegation between the 2 leagues with the bottom club from the 2nd tier having their place open to re-application with competition with any semi-pro clubs from the leagues below

can't be much fun for widnes fans watching their team getting beaten every week even if they can look forward to not being relegated and now that catalans wouldn't be in danger of getting relegated (which is the reason they scrapped relegation in the first place isn't it?) what have the RFL got to lose, the club going down would be going down into a pro-league with decent-ish gates and teams who have something to play for

and perhaps having london broncos actually winning some games and possibly pushing for promotion might even help them market the game in the capital?!

Because team sport engenders a certain amount of romanticism. Fans will always dream of seeing their team playing at the highest possible level and competing for the highest honours. But, of course, you know this. You just prefer not to acknowledge it, because it doesn't fit in with your reasoning.