that would be like admitting we had a player policy, or a spectator policy or a sponsorship policy. Scandalous!

This time is the only time a heartland club will go into SL , unless a club financially collapses

This time is all about righting a wrong done last time

So you are suggesting that Leigh East want to move up to Championship 1 ?

Even so, you get the likes of Man U making a big push to attract interest from the far east, and repeated talk of the EPL including Scottish teams.

Yes. When did I suggest they didn't?

To say this is the only time it will happen is a poor effort. You can't argue on an assumption. You have no idea if that is the case and I don't believe it will be for one second.

So they have an expansion policy that requires then to introduce licensing

How did you get that from what I said?

Although that wasn't the point I was trying to make at all, there were rumours last year that they wanted to move up.

How do you work that out? Just because they have an expansion policy doesn't mean they require the licensing system. They had an expansion policy well before the licensing system.

You can fool some of the people all the time , you obviously are one of those






it was all a Pishtake

I follow AFC Fylde at football.
We aim to be in the football league in 2022 (thats the clubs and fans goal - its carried on our shirts), so long as we update our ground accordingly (to keep in line with ground regulations) with each step up and win the games that gain us promotion (promotion and relegation exists in our league , you could say we are in Division 8 of the football pyramid) then we will be in the Football league.
Because we have a vision (and nothing that really blocks that vision becoming reality - except ourselves) we are able to secure some good backers at our level and are progressing well in our aims.

Returning to the thorny issue of Mr Lewis and those of similar standing in the RFL..............
RL has always been a great game but always struggled to sell the quality product and experience of watching a live game to a wider audience in the UK, plenty have always felt let down by the games governing body to properley expand the game, I do feel today though many also feel isolated or left out from what once was a RL family (and marketed as such).

Richard Lewis's time at the helm has been eventful and I suppose it depends on which side of the fence your club is on whether you agree with his visions and thoughts or not.
Personally he lost a lot of credibility with myself after the last franchise when being interviewed live on BBC Local tv when he stated Celtic Crusaders (as was) had a better youth , ground and support than Leigh Centurions , whether you are a fan of his (and his policys) or not it showed he was either easily lead or badly informed - neither are good things for a person who is the public figure restructuring our game.

One area I do feel that fallen somewhat during his time at the helm has been the International game.
I used to look forward to watching Internationals at Wembley , Old Trafford and Elland Road (or grounds of similar size), not always packed out by any stretch of the imagination but at least a bold step to sell the game (ironically I remember feeling annoyed at how few big posters we had on the Underground to promote the Wembley fixtures - I suspect we now don't tell the people of our biggest City we play league Internationally anymore let alone where its at).

One other thing under Lewis's stewardship to drop (but not totally his fault) is the RL player profile - the games known personalities.
I don't know much about American Football or Basketball but can name you a few players, in RL we used to have Hanley , Edwards, Schoefield , Offiah and Davies etc known for being great RL players to the non RL audience (in Davies case a truelly great rugby player), we've had Farrell and to a lessor degree Sculthorpe and Robbie Paul but where are the current bunch ?
Does AN Other of Gravesend know who our big players are, more worrying does AN Other of Whitehaven know as the change in the game has seen old RL towns lose some interest ?

And that leads me on to my final point, expansion.
I am a total RL expansion fan , but IMO what I'm seeing (and have seen) isn't expansion in the true form.
Gaining a 1,000 fans in Wrexham but losing a 1,000 in Halifax doesn't properley expand our game to other people.
Under R Lewis's stewardship we have some bold moves to break into new areas but we have also lost some old fans dissilousioned by policys that are often unchallenged or explained.
To give a good example of the above - many expected Celtic to go to SL ,wasn't ideal but it seemed to be Lewis's vision so it was natural he would choose that path for RL / SL to move forward, but rather than saying Celtic would go up along with 1 establised club we had the situation wherby we are expected to believe that Celtic had a better franchise bid than Widnes (with established gates - and a equally rich backer) or any other of the clubs fighting for (what turned into) a non existant Franchise spot.
History (regretfully) showed this to be untrue with Celtic having a multitude of problems on & off the park , fortunatly for us all Wrexham FC needed a club to help get some finance in and the club survived - ironically though we managed to isolate a set of new RL supporters with our quick departure from South Wales !

Currently I'm typing on a forum that has had nearly 3 years of discussion with plenty of for and against the way the game is currently being run.
Franchising IMO has been the most emotive and controversial (or groundbreaking depending on your take of it) thing to come out of RL in my time watching the game (even SL being formed didn't generate as much passion or comment for so long).
Whenever Lewis does leave this will be what he probably gets remembered for most, lets hope for all the current fans of all RL clubs that history shows these decisions to be the right ones.

Good for Fylde. How dramatically does that differ to e.g. Hemel? You're not going to go through promotion/relegation between each league based solely on on-field results. Neither would an RL team.
Or would you prefer to have a system like rugby league, where instead of being dependant on the vagaries of results, you could earn your promotions on the strength of the club, rather than simply the strength of the team?

possibly quite different , Fylde despite being in close proximity to Blackpool would not have to satisfy a location criteria , you use Hemel as an example , why , they are a long way away from being at the top of the amateur game , what if it is Bramley who want to move up to the semi pro ranks ?

Fylde with have a number of criteria at each stage, some they'll meet and some they won't. Just the same.

I only used Hemel rather than Bramley because I'm a little bit more familiar with them.

Yes they will , to be promoted they will have to finish in a promotion place ON the pitch , unlike RL

No, they won't. There are criteria other than just on-field performance/


Just a different criteria. Very short termist IMO.

fylde will have to win promotion on the pitch , then afterwards their suitability off the pitch will be taken into account , just as it used to be in RL before licensing

No different

AFAIN Hemel would be unable to gain promotion to the games highest league if they entered the Championships as they would need to apply for a franchise, they could win all games and move to a new ground but still not get in.
We just need to ensure our ground remains updated (fully within our control) with each step of the ladder (not a unjustified requirement in my book), the rest takes care of itself on the field (again within our control - along with that all important luck !).
This applys right across the board, indeed one of our big neighbours Blackpool have just had to rapidly build a new stand following there recent on field success which earned them a higher league placing, a requirement I'm sure they wasn't too bothered with.

If offered we probably would take a higher league jumpfor "free" !
However our foundations may be weakened as currently we are building up our support and our youth set ups, we have a broadly achievable plan (baring major failures) putting us in a higher division would be totally unfair on those clubs currently above us working very hard to achieve a higher league placing and we could end up with a foundation built on sand should things go wrong.

Answer the question please

no club has, they have all met the necessary criteria to do so, though im not sure what that proves.

If Shorpe won the Championship, do you think they'd be promoted?

It proves that football is actually a sport , primarily based On on field performance , Wimbledon FC proved that

rather than a laughing stock

Almost certainly , as long as they found a stadium to play in of sufficient standard

And if they couldn't?

Then they wouldn't

Just out of interest , what is the criteria for entry into the premiership ?