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

Yes that would be great. The Championship may be on its way to be this 2nd tier. For the moment there is not enough money there to include more foreign teams in Championship. If SL expands and cover both the English and French markets, then there will be money for this 2nd European tier who would become interesting in both countries if promotion to SL depends on success in Championship. Orange Sport has already broadcasted 5 matches of Toulouse last season. If SL becomes fully European and some other French teams get into this second tier, French TV will pay for TV rights there as well.

As you say, P&R would give more chance to heartland clubs as well. With 3 clubs in SL, there would not be any reason to expand in France by licencing. In addition, with a real second tier, any expansion in other places could be made by licencing in the second tier.

Depends on your definition of nobody, if your saying not as many people are bothered as in the heartlands thats right, if you mean literally nobody, then your wrong. There may only be a few thousand per country, but its a start and something we can build on.

As a non heartlands supporter I can confirm that not too many people care about RL as opposed to RU. But, they are also the people that are now complaining about how the laws of their game have made it boring.

If, and it is a big if RL can get the right exposure it could gains some ground.

It is the better game but people need to know that.

I'm interested and enough people to form at least a 4-6 team league in NI are intersted. Development officers have been appointed so more people will come to the game. It's not easy when a country has next to no history in the game. France has RL history and they have the potential to reach heights that would be great for league.

The club game being leagues strength is the way for things to reach those heights. We need to see French players playing for other clubs in SL. There are loads of New zealanders in the NRL now and we need a similar situation with French players in SL. I would sure rather see a few French players at a club instead of a lot of Aussies and kiwis.

How's a team based in Paris going to be succesful this time around when it wasn't the first time around?

Fine except when you then get an inbalance between the 2 divisions and the 2 country,s , what happens if say all the French clubs get relegated to SL 2 ? , or conversely you end up with no British clubs in SL 1 ?

Because this time it involves people with money and good proven business sense , or so we have been told

Ah that makes it a guarenteed success then.



Feels like selling snow to the eskimos to me. I'd rather we had a cumbrian team in SL and maybe 2nd French team in RL heartland in the south.

So not enough then

So because there are not tens of thousand ready made fans, it's pointless even attempting to develop a region? Where do you think all these fans would come from?

Good point, well I guess the RFL/FRL would cross this bridge if they come to it, and find some ad hoc solution like going back to franchising. Fortunately it is a bit (hopefully) unlikely that, after some years of licencing 3 French teams, they'd all be relegated to 2nd tier without any new French promotion (the possibility of all English sides being relagated is a bit too theoretical for me to consider it over my lifetime).

The P&R could work within boundaries of non critical proportions of teams from different countries, with the RFL/FRL acting ad hoc if a country tends to get expelled from the competition. I'd prefer P&R because the heartland teams would still have a chance to make it to SL thanks to their on pitch results and their fate would not fully depend on some institutional decisions. Basically the dream of reaching SL could once again be shared by all, instead of the minority who have the right stadium/location etc... Currently the Championship is a bit weird, you have some teams there who have good chances to make it to SL even if they don't win it, and some others who have no chances to make it even if they win it. I may be a bit of a traditionalist, but I like the principle of P&R.

Not enough to convince somebody to stump up several million pounds over 10 years to get one going , now if I was in charge of the RFL , there would already be semi pro RL teams in Wales , Scotland and possibly Ireland , but i'm not , so there arent

Sacre Bleu ! mon ami

Madam giullotine for you