My opinion as well , personally I'd want to see a 6 year commitment financially , and clear guarantee's that they wont just poach all Les Cats and Touloue's players , if that meant a mostly overseas squad to begin with fine , as long as they pour money into junior development in the Paris area

fair enough

The finances are different in France because a large part of the clubs incomes come from local government.

I don't think you're ever going to get a club entering directly into the top flight whose motives are entirely 'pure' - the RL club is there to help with their plans for a new stadium. I'm sure the backers realise that for a tenth of what they spend on the RU club currently they can put together a team which can be playing at Wembley or Old Trafford within a couple of years; whether you call that pure again depends on your point of view.

SF chairman, Guazzini said in 2007 that he'd like to see RL at his stadium as he likes RL from his youth in Mille where he was following the RL team playing there. I'd think there is more than a commercial interest. Though, even if the interest is only commercial, I'd trust Guazzini to make it work.


I think the Federation is 100% behind this project, simply because they know it would change radically the status of RL in France for the better. Catalans will be be for it as well, as it would increase visibility of RL in France, hence TV and sponsors money. For this same reason they support the inclusion of Toulouse. If they had to choose, Paris would even be better for them as it would have a bigger media impact. For Toulouse it is different. SF is clearly a threat to their bid. Whilst I think the inclusion of both Toulouse and SF in 2012 is the best option, it is clearly not the most likely a priori. But what can Toulouse do against the SF application? Nothing, apart trying harder on the pitch this year.


Things are different in Paris. First London is saturated by sports clubs while it is not the case in Paris. Second the SF stadium is ideally located in the centre of Paris while the Stoop is not that close for most londoners. Third, there is a snobbism against RL in London which does not exist in Paris. Finally, I don't know of Quins marketing strategies, but I'd trust SF ones to work.


I support Toulouse and I wish for them to be in SL in 2012. But to be honest, I'd think that there is no comparison with a SF bid. Toulouse is working hard but it is a small club while SF would have the cashflow and the know-how to make it work quickly. I'd expect them to do very well quickly.
If you had a choice between working with your neighbour at his shop and Sir Alan Sugar proposing to build a business with you from scratch, I think you'd better chose the latter.

Sounds good to me

It doesn't matter where your money comes from if you spend more than you earn then you will lose money. The salary cap is designed to prevent clubs from doing this but unless it is policed then it will be ineffective.

Toulouse and Catalans have players that Paris would want. Is there the political will to release them to build a Paris super club?



In Leeds you have it the other way round. Leeds Rhinos are the best supported rugby league club in the Northern Hemisphere and champions three times back-to-back but Leeds Tykes / Carnegie are a poorly supported yo-yo team despite there being no widespread prejudice against rugby union in Leeds and it being widely played in West and North Yorkshire.

Loyalty to Rhinos didn't translate to support for Tykes despite them being owned by the same company.



It depends on what I was doing and hoping to achieve. Sugar has achieved a lot of things but has had his disasters from time-to-time, clearly he isn't a good judge of soccer managers (among other things).

Well I would not expect that the drain on Catalans and Toulouse would be that bad. There are loads of good players in Elite who could be used in a team half filled with Aussies. I'd guess that's what would happen. In any case, I am sure Catalans would prefer to lose some players with Paris in rather than to have Paris out. That is the best option for them. For Toulouse as I said it is different, but they don't have any influence on the SF application.


Hum, well I don't know the Leeds situation, but I'd think it would work better for SF. Also we are talking about the same club here, not another club in Paris. As anecdotical as it is, on the SF RU [url=http://www.stade.fr/forum/showthread.php?t=35549&highlight=xiiiforum[/url, fans seem to be interested by the prospect.


Lol, well it would always be a gamble as the SF is, but I think it'd be a very fair gamble to take!

A popular missconception that all successful businessmen are in some way exempt from cocking up big style , so many times on here we are told " they know what they are doing , they have built a huge fortune " , and then as soon as they are in charge of a sports club it all goes pear shaped

A huge part in many successful businessmens armour is luck , plain and simple luck , being in the right place at the right time , and a big weakness is not realising that in sport you dont have the same control that you can excert in a normal business ,

Well at least with Guazzini we are talking of a sport businessman who know how to turn a third division club in one of the most successful in Europe.

Can't argue with that.

But what is happening in France at the moment is that there are a whole bunch of local government bodies effectively competing to have a top 14 club in their area by funding the local RU team. And that's why these clubs are able to sign top RU and RL players from around the world. And the playing budget is available up-front & guaranteed; it's not so reliant on ticket sales, for example. The stadia have also always been council owned. So changes in the budget are more related to local elections & similar, rather than the club being well run or otherwise. There are some exceptions - Toulon being one.

If the French RU do go for a salary cap, it might mean Gasnier or Sonny Bill are available for SF XIII?

Leeds Rhinos and Leeds Carnegie share the same stadium, the same internet site are owned by the same company (Leeds Rugby), wear the same colours, have shared players e.g. Ewan Dowes, Liam Botham but few Rhinos fans are interested in Carnegie.

My post wasn't directed at the situation at SF , but at many , many posts by others usually when they are defending the introduction of a ' new ' owner to their club

unless the RFL make SF put up a bond covering 10 years worth of TV licsnese money they should be allowed in.

their failure would make a mockery of RL

£ 1,425.00

, not much really

A couple points, at random:

Catalans have enough backrow forwards for three SL teams and enough props for two. At international level we've seen a couple props step up from LER so I would expect that by 2012 we should have enough forwards for three french team (although absolutely no injury cover).

I you look at the Backline in France we have Bosc, Pelo and Duport. On the plus side we have 3 other halves in the 25 for Catalans, so possibilities. We would also expect 24 antipodeans shoring things up in each side.

We need a few more players stepping up a level, as Starbug and Smokey both say, these players won't come from playing in the Championship (what TO in the championship might do is push French internationals who are not good enough for the Catalan side to a higher level than the LER) but an increased effort in the SL academy system would be a good plan for the FFRXIII. They have said that the Catalan academy (invisible to the eyes of Iestyn Harris) will be replaced by an FFRXIII academy side, if Paris are serous about a bid they should have a side involved in that. For a fan base pov it would help them get a side together in the LER or Elite 1 just to get some media interest.

As to Bernie the door, he won't be coaching the Paris side, he'll be an advisor to the SL bid, what with being an accoplished French sport hobnobber and well placed to secure government grants and backing. It wouldn't be like Quinz getting Woody to back them, it would be more like getting the head of UK sports to take a personal intrerest.

As to why Quinz struggle for fans, they have QuinzUnion promotion but that won't get fans coming to watch a side that sux. Similarly Leeds Tykes struggle to get the fans in because they are not a good side.

Its the same reason no one watches Leigh Starbug

One of the reasons , especially the last couple of years , then again this is all part of the problem , clubs like Leigh are always going to struggle when what they provide , be that what some refer to as Entertainment,Quality of product,Atmosphere,Match day experience is not as good , or percieved not as good as what is available on the TV as SL

What can the lower tier clubs do to change that perception ? , because if they dont , they will slowly dwindle and die

I went Leigh one game last year and to be honest I thought it was too expensive.
Leighs crowds do seem to have gone down although I could be wrong there? They're just rubbish, if they won some games i'd have thought they'd get the second best attendances in the Chp.
Personally I think they should target certain games and let kids under 11 in free with a voucher obtained from school, kids need paying adults.
Mainly when we were having that debate regarding chp 'entertainment' I was thinking the main problem is atmosphere, its dead, need to get bums on seats.
Does the Chp give that offer that SL clubs do about free away games as well with a season ticket? Was a cracking idea that years ago

Been doing that for years

LOL you're screwed.
But seriously, get a competitive team on the field and they probably will come, you were very very poor last year the few occasions I saw you live and on tv, like pulling my nails off.

It's Leigh fans that wind me up the flatcapping most actually, having a pop at every development club as if you've some right to be in SL when you can't even get 2000 through your gates. I know plenty and there does seem to be no shortage on here that offer no more than 'zomgotsssss more aussie, kik em ouuttt'. Widnes seemed to get over it a long time ago whereas the Leigh fans I know seem uneducated and bitter.
Im suprised there hasn't been more said on this Stade lark, I wonder, if you took a poll would the flatcappers back this project?

:33wxrajh

Thanks for you positivity



We used to get quite a lot more 8/9 years ago but 4 years of just missing out decimated the support [ then the almost impossible time scale back in 2004 never gave us a chance

Bitter us never ,