Other than Europe having a fully professional league already, and Canada being a lot closer to Europe than Australia.

Little Englander

Bit of a difference in Canads (7 1/2 hours) and Aus (22 hours) plus, increased jet lag etc.

Chorley voted 56.8% to leave the EU, you would think he would be used to 'it' by now.

Leave Chorley out of this. I am sitting here in bloody Europe, not Chorley.

Chorley is in Europe. So, correct you are sitting in Bloody Europe.

There wasn't an option, " Toulouse OK but not the North Americans"

I am sitting in continental Europe, not on an offshore island.

Of course you are ...

42% think that if a foreign team gets promoted into super league they shouldn't be allowed in?

Really? (Can't see the poll results on my iPad for some reason). Surely if they win they have as much right to be in super league as anyone else.

I agree very much with wrencats post on the previous page. It depends very much what the long term plan is, but the worst possible structure for aspiring clubs is the one we currently have.

If we were committed to expansion, or even just getting some teams out of the championship we would be better off tearing the whole thing up and going back to franchising but doing it properly in terms of teams meeting the criteria.

I can't be the only one that thinks for example if franchising had been administered properly Leigh would probably be in SL right now, in the place of Wakey or Salford.

In either system it is a case of if you are good enough you get in, but if done properly franchising is equally about how well a club goes off the field, which for the game, but maybe not for some fans, is the most important thing.

I'm a little torn on the subject. Expansion is vital for the future of the sport, but I don't think parachuting random worldwide teams into the English structure is the best way. I have no issue with the likes of Toronto. But the long term plan has to be for them to be participating in a strong Canadian league. The same goes for the French teams.

I don't think a "World League" works on any level.

"I have no issue with the likes of Toronto. But the long term plan has to be for them to be participating in a strong Canadian league. The same goes for the French teams."

So what you're saying is that you have no problem with Toronto or French teams as long as they're not playing in the English leagues ?
That's pretty non-expansionist to me !

Why is that then?

Toronto playing in SL would be a good thing short term to raise the profile of the game over there. But eventually you need to build on that by developing a strong domestic scene. Having a couple of Canadian teams full of English and Aus players based thousands of miles away will do nothing for Canadian RL.

A "World League" is a little hyperbolic. It's only the UK, France & Canada.

Random teams aren't being parachuted in either. Parachuted would imply they're being dropped in at the top (SL), but they're actually being pushed in at the bottom (League 1). They also haven't been randomly selected by the RFL or anything like that, this is an extremely serious proposal from Toronto, that we'd be fools to turn down.

How long is 'long-term'? Is a fully fledged French of Canadian SL feasible even in the next 30 years? It's an ideal scenario I agree, but it's just not realistic. After 120years of professional RL in England, we still only have 7/8 strong clubs.

How many countries play in the World baseball comp?

Rugby union has Australian, New Zealand, Japanese, South African and an Argentinian team all playing each other, albeit in different divisions. That seems to work for them, so I'm willing to give the Canadians teams a go. After a few years, who's to say that someone won't invest in a full time Canadian league.

The world is getting smaller and smaller and trans-national competitions are are becoming more and more the norm. MLS, MLB, NHL, NBA all have Canadian and US sides, the NFL used to play games in Canada, now does so in london, and is looking to expand to london.

The NRL has NZ and Australian sides, the queensland cup has the PNG hunters and hopefully soon a fijian side.

Super Rugby has teams from NZ, Aus, SA, Argentina and Japan,

The pro12 has teams from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy,

The KHL has teams from Croatia, CHina, Belarus, FInland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia,

The world is moving away from domestic competitions, to wider multi-national competitions because the advantages of doing so are obvious. £££££

We for some reason not only pull away from that (we have people arguing the NRL are too good so we should give up on the WCC rather than expand it) but that where we do indulge it, we should only do so with an eye to moving back from it.

A 'world league', far from being hyperbolic or unworkable is possibly the only thing that can save our game.

Let me stop you right there...

The point about Toronto is that if it succeeds not only on the playing field, but in attracting 7-10,000 regular fans to games in Toronto itself, then it is going to open up the whole north American market to rugby league. Eric Perez, the man behind Toronto, is already talking about Montreal to follow in Toronto's footsteps. If that happens I can see some people putting money into some US teams (Boston? New York? Philadelphia? Atlanta? Jacksonville?) to join their Canadian cousins in creating a professional club to join the English competition. If Perez really can get serious TV coverage in Canada, as he claims, then so can the USA backers, and then the sky is the limit in north America. A truly transatlantic competition will boost the prestige of the game in England as well.

You can see from the poll that there are a considerable number of people on this forum who don't want this to happen, so they can keep the northern hemisphere game in poverty and isolation, with England and France perennial losers, while the NRL thrives and the Aussies and Kiwis remain dominant, and the World Cup is a joke. I just don't get this small minded attitude.

A new level of buffoonery even for you.

This is all about the RFL and their plan for the game. Over the last 10 years I haven't thought there was one & they've just been making it up as they go along, buffeted by circumstance.

I'm beginning to think they are (although they're never going to admit it) trying to see if they can build up 2x full time divisions of 10 or 12 clubs. The problem is, they would need to negotiate a much better deal from a broadcaster so that more money is available to the 2nd division (SL2?) because the current SL clubs would refuse a reduction in their funding. And I'm not sure a broadcaster would want anymore games to show. And Toronto seem to have arranged their own broadcast deal? So again, RFL need to actually plan, and stick to it and drive it forward. And that is the problem....

As has been stated, if they are good enough to make it into the top league then they deserve to be there regardless of who gets relegated and whatever system is in place at the time.

Having said that, I voted for Option 3 as clearly the OP has a chip on their shoulder and I'm more than happy to keep on antagonising his "little Englander" point of view.

Only in RL could you have a successful businessman with a passion for the game be rebuked and discouraged from looking to self fund an operation to expand the sports base and spread it around the world to more people. Anyone up for a topic about how crowds are dipping, playing standards dropping or we never get coverage in the national media?

Canada RL has announced Heineken as an official sponsor perhaps we could learn a thing or two

Quote ="Fields of Fire"Canada RL has announced Heineken as an official sponsor perhaps we could learn a thing or two'" Definitely. If anyone hasn't listened to the podcast with Eric Perez being interviewed by Dave Woods, I'd urge them to give it a listen. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtx ... /downloads 14th July Starts about 5mins in. Some really good insight into Perez himself & how he's financially able to do what they're planning on doing etc. Woods asked a lot of questions that the everyday RL fan was asking when it was first announced, all answered extremely well.

Quote ="Fields of Fire"Canada RL has announced Heineken as an official sponsor perhaps we could learn a thing or two'" Definitely. If anyone hasn't listened to the podcast with Eric Perez being interviewed by Dave Woods, I'd urge them to give it a listen. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtx ... /downloads 14th July Starts about 5mins in. Some really good insight into Perez himself & how he's financially able to do what they're planning on doing etc. Woods asked a lot of questions that the everyday RL fan was asking when it was first announced, all answered extremely well.