You still think its unusual for people to do things at hours you dont, well good for you, when you grow up you will realise some people lives and job commitments mean they are up at differant times to you.

Nah if i wanted to be asleep i would be, if while checking my emails and forum posts i can make an aussie look foolish well all the better, especially if its one thats not very bright.

dally doesnt know of much outside of sydney, you see, sometimes to pretend he does he will look up the name of an obscure rl team, then he will ask for praise for knowing the name of this team, bless him.

Which means they dont have to fullfill any criteria other than to convince the RFL it would be a good idea

As for Toulouse above Barrow or Widnes , well if they make the Championship GF they will have qualified , or they might not have to , the RFL are quite happy to make it up as they go along as they have demonstrated with the South Wales franchise

Just for the record , why Barrow ?

Cos they are bloody Champions i tell thee

They've won the GF and they were by far the best side in the Championship last season. The support up there for them is great and if/when they do get a SL licence, it will only grow. Cumbria is ready for a SL side and I think its about time the RFL gave it to them

EDIT - (forgot this bit

)



Say if they got in ahead of Widnes (who have reached the NC final), they have not met any criteria - is it fair?

There'd be uproar. I'm all for expansion don't get me wrong, but the RFL are so hell-bent on it that they are ignoring the 'heartland clubs' such as Widnes.

If Stade Francais met the criteria, fine I would have no problems with it - but as it stands they don't and thus don't deserve/warrant a SL licence.

Their ground is crap. Not fit for SL purpose. Things could change very quickly on that front though.

Nor is Wakefields/Cas/Salford/Saints (although they are set to move for 2011)

One of those (excluding Saints) will be dropped from SL in 2012 I reckon.

Yes they won the league , as for the level of support , no , not enough , if they can add another 1,500 to it in the next 2 seasons then yes , then all they need is a stadium , so about 15/20 million should sort that out

As for ' fairness ' , this is RL we are talking about , since when has ' fairness ' had to do with anything , I remember a club deliberatley infringing the Salary cap to remain in SL , was that ' fair '

Stade Francais dont have any criteria to meet , they are not a current club , so any criteria can be set to suit them

Nah, Quinz suk and should get booted from SL. Boo to our hated derby rivals! I was mostly outlining why 50 years is a reasonable while still challenging timeline.

I was going to say - it takes thirty years [uat least [/uin my opinion. If we are serious about our game then this is what we should be allowing new clubs. All this gash about eight years? Not a chance. Patience is needed.

Neither of those, but your warm welcome to this forum is appreciated !

Anyway FrogRL , is it all a pre new Year wind up or not ? , you've done quite well if it is

Yes, exactly. The criteria of the RFL are for the Championship clubs. Clubs from outside the Championship do not face these criteria.

The last rumors on the French forum suggest that SF would bekeen to follow the Dragons example with the creation of a team in French Elite before applying to get into SL. It is said that they are planning a team for next year in the French Elite with a budget of 1 million euros (while the current champion, Lezignan has a budget of around 500k).

Lol not it is not. I thought you'd be interested by knowing the progress of this project as some more news have transpired in France. It was just a confirmation of a previous announcement, I did not know some here would find it provocative



Personnally, I'd love to see Toulouse and Paris in SL in 2012. That would give another dimension to the competition. I tend to be confident in these clubs prospect. The Toulouse club exists since 1935 and is well managed, the Stade Francais would come with lots of money and the structure to succeed. I'd expect both clubs to do well in SL and the SF to do very well pretty quickly.

30 years for one club to be established or 30 years to grow 5 new clubs?

I like your avatar picture by the way, excellent choice.

Oh dont worry , if they get a spot I'll be adopting them as my pet SL club , I get the impression they wont be content to just make up the numbers , and I can see some noses being put out of joint by it , cant wait

Good luck to them but I expect that they will find that running an LER team is more difficult than they had anticipated and they won't be instantly succesful.

They may have double the budget of Lezignan but Lezignan already have a team, sponsors, fans, coaching staff etc and have the advantage of having had these things for some time.

2012 is probably too early for them and it is doubtful that the RFL will accept three French teams without French TV providing some funding.

The SF is a real success story in RU. Here is what Wikipedia says (no I did not write it myself

):

"Whilst in the third division of the French leagues, entrepreneur Max Guazzini took over the club in 1992 with the dream of bringing back top class rugby to the city of Paris. Stade Français CASG was born in 1995 through the merger of the existing Stade Français club and another Parisian side, Club Athlétique des Sports Généraux (CASG). The team returned to the top division in 1995 which coincided with the appointment of head coach Bernard Laporte. By 1998 the team had reached the championship final, and captured their first title since 1908, defeating Perpignan 34 points to 7 at Stade de France. Laporte left the club to coach the national team, he was replaced by Georges Coste who was in turn replaced by John Connolly in 2000."

They have loads of money and know-how. Like you I'd look forward to their inclusion in SL, and not just for to discover their fancy RL jersey

Sure, regarding the TV funding. But I don't see the SF in a European RL competition without French TVs being willing to put significant amounts of money to secure the rights. The SF would likely be a key to French TV big money.

The SF story is a magnificent one. Probably the biggest rags to riches story in either code.

As someone who loves both codes, has a shed load of SF merchandise, has been to see em a few times and is constantly looking out for opportunities to live and work in Paris, a place I believe to be the best on earth - I really hope all this talk is true!!!!!!!!!

great post. while we shouldnt rush in to any decision with stade, these opportunities dont come up very often and should be looked at closely. isnt stades main motivation in this the need for their stadium to have year round use? so all sorts of long term questions will need to be assked and satisfied.

on a french SL. ultimately instead i would like to see a 2 tier european SL with P & R. this could acheive the balance of giving more heartlands clubs the chance to reach the pinnacle, but with enough teams to satisfy expansion needs. this is on top of the national leagues of each nation which the SL should field "A sides" in as they do in spanish football.

I really hope the RFL/FRL (whose decision is it?) work hard with SF. The potential is there but at the moment it is another Crusaders, building on a pack of cards (in this case the whim of a rich owner). Lets see them develop some RL jnr structures in PAris, lets see them find their feet on a lower league and lets see if they have ANY fanbase to work from. Then they should be considered. Having 3 french teams in SL by 2020 would be great for french RL and Int RL imo.

The FRL also need to take a serious look at their jnr development programs in order to develop enough French players to stock 3 teams. At the moment they can't fill one with enough top quality.

for a thread started by a troll its turned out well

i love talking about expansion into france

france is the one area which offers massive expansion for the game at very little risk. the next is either nz or png but neither have the potential as france, plus some kind of grassroots in place to build on

getting france back to being strong will give RL internationals much more credibility

if we aussies can develop tonga, samoa, cook islands and PNG you have the basis for a very good RLWC.

France is very much a work-in-progress but on and off the pitch it's clear to see how far they've come this decade. France are a hot-bed for rugby talent and if they can break into the RU talent pool, they have the basis for a very very good international side.

DM, I agree with you that Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, PNG, Fiji etc are next in line to be developed. These islands have always produced great talent but not always kept them to play for them internationally. If that trend can be broken, the next WC should be a stormer.

Whilst we're on the subject I may aswell bring it up - Wales, Scotland and Ireland all traditionally RU but if the RFL had any sense about them they would push RL in these countries more. As with France, it's the same with these three countries.

International RL has a long way to go but if done correctly, the results will be fantastic.

Except nobody is interested