It would provide an "interesting" challenge to the salary cap.

I think with the french rugby union sides spending riduculous amounts of money on foreign players overlooking the academy ranks, maybe the young french players will try thier hand at league, i doubt it but it could happen!

It's aaallll good publicity, especially for the game in France.
I wouldnt treat it as much more

So we can expect the ' Gay Paree weekend ' to be announced in 2011 when they decide all you SL fans are fed up of edinburgh

I agree, Toulouse are at a far more advanced stage, and also would provide a geographical 'derby' for Catalan.

Plus they actually have a RL team at the moment and are working very hard to get to the required level needed ,

While I disagree with them being in the Championship I cannot fault the effort they appear to be making to draw crowds and buid a fan base worthy of SL

What is it about their inclusion in the Championship that you disagree with?

for the future

NZ became world champs with one NRL club and a stack of players at other NRL clubs in Oz. We need to get at least one or two French players in every SL squad, get them competitive and watch French RL grow. Top down development in non RL areas rarely works, Celtic and Quins prove that. Unless there's a massive long term financial commitment I wouldnt go near a Paris SL club. The RFL dont do common sense though.

I am totally shocked by the rampant level-headedness in this topic!

Stade in SL? They would aim for LER in 2012, Championship in 2015 and SL in 2018. Maybe they could accelerate that by a couple years, no better.

I think the RFL will have one eye squarely on how Celtic do, if they continue to struggle they will be unlikely to back another rootless expansion no matter what Stade promise, though the potential is worth investigating.

No matter what they say, this is great publicity, and a clear answer to the question - why was the Oz match played in Paris?

We have never had top down development though with a club that has had plenty of money behind it to allow the club to grow. All of our expansion clubs have struggled from the start due to a lack of finance and thus have had to cut corners with regards to marketing, player development etc.

Rugby Union with the likes of Sale and Newcastle have shown what can be achieved if millionaire owners are willing to bankroll a club. Even Leeds Tykes get bigger attendances than some League clubs such as Harlequins and have got to where they are due to having a wealthy owner. Even the likes of Saracens and London Irish have moved from their traditional bases and grown massively due to having plenty of money behind them. The same can be said in France where the likes of Stade Francais and Toulon have grown from more or less nothing due to having owners that are prepared to bankroll the club

Is this rhetorical

yet you argue for promotion/relegation by saying removing t gives clubs nothing to aim for,


yet you argue Championship clubs cant afford them in that league, yet your willing to force them upon smaller clubs in a lower league because of what is in a large part (especially this season) luck



because they had the same amount of overseas players as salford the year before (when you didnt complain) seems a bit of a grasp at straws



in your opinion,

i disagree, i think it is good they gave championship clubs a little bit of money in this instance

Top Down development has a better record than bottom up development in RL

I don't agree with Starbug but I think he is being consistent.


Champ and Champ1 sides can't afford it, it has to be subsidised by the RFL. So the RFL could just as easily subsidise either level.



No, rules were set for this year, stringent rules. These rules were not enforced for TO for spurious reasons. If the RFL had been more honest about it I think 'Bug wouldn't bring it up.


It's always our opinions. I think TO in the Championship is good promotion of that compettition, that's my opinion. Starbug reckons that the travel money would have been better spent promoting the Champ clubs directly.

I think TO in the Champonship is great, I disagree with Starbug, but I don't agree with the points you are making.

you did manage to ignore one though didnt you





champ 1 clubs have more part-time and fewer full time players making it more difficult for champ1 clubs to go to france

toulouse also bring fewer fans, meaning less income for clubs who are getting less to start with,

it is common sense to suggest rich clubs can deal with more cost and less income than poorer ones




the same spurious reasons no-one brought up for Salford?


i agree, i think its great for the championship clubs,

however the point there isnt Toulouse being in the championship its money being spent helping championship clubs travel to Toulouse

if you arent going to give that money to those clubs, then you either expect those clubs to pay for themselves (which would likely mean cuts elsewhere) or it precludes Toulouse competing in the championship because of other clubs failings

what you can boil it down to is Starbug wanting money earmarked for expansion, not spent on expansion but spent on his clubs and similar ones

I can see both sides but I personally think Toulouse have increased the profile of the Chp.
Me and Starbug have 'debated' over this before and no, I don't have the proof but I know a lot of rugby league fans who took more of an interest since this years rebranding, Toulouse and the competitiveness of it all. Even my dad and his chums took an interest who don't follow the Ch.The Chmps aren't my thing but there's definately more people taking an interest; if only you could get them through the gates.

what is it about leigh fans and french RL clubs.

enjoy NL2.

i wouldnt put them ahead of toulose but if the financial backing is there for Paris then the RFL have to increase the number of teams in SL to 16, and thats assuming an existing SL club gets kicked out for widnes.

One wonders if, as the superleague grows, we will see a conference system similar to the American Football system in the USA...


that would certainly allow more teams to enter without screwing the fixture list.

Try staying on topic guys and not making this a Leigh relegation / Toulouse's purpose in the Championship-type thread please.

Thats the way it's going chief.
Only alternative is if the Chp receives decent funding and there's enough strong clubs left there to create a valid D1 without it becoming a feeder league

,

When the RFL Announced that Toulouse were entering the Championship every single media statement included a reference to them ' preparing to enter SL in 2012 ' , very few if any mentioned anything else



No I stated that the Championships [ both , I have always stipulated that desperatley need money to survive and prosper , be that money given to the clubs or spent by the RFL on those clubs , what exactly do the Championship 1 clubs get out of Toulouse being in the Championship ?

So stop making things up that I have not said

So Toulouse being relegated is me ' Forcing ' them onto smaller clubs , every sporting competition has a large element of luck




Salford had those players already signed up before their relegation was confirmed [ you know this so stop trying to look stupid , however as I posted [ but you ignored , the RFL stated that Toulouse would have 5 quota spots because they had already signed 5 players , but they subsequently only announced these players 2 or 3 months later , how convienient ?





Yes which has as much credence as yours



Sorry you've lost me there , what money ?

Dont understand this bit , which bit did they ignore ?




Irrelivant , only Widnes had more than 2/3 F/T players and they changed their training to P/T when cullen took over , both Championships are 95 % part / time



Dont make me laugh, away fans apart from Leigh,Widnes,Fax and Fev are virtually none existant at both levels [ Apologies to those loyal few that do travel



All Clubs at both Championship levels are ' poor '






As I explained in my other post , Salford had already given contracts before relegation [ in the similar way Leigh had already spent over the Championship 1 SC before being relegated this year , but Toulouse had not given those contracts out when their entry was announced [ or they decided not to say who they had signed for 3 months






Everybody is entitled to their opinion




And Toulouse to travel to the UK



Or Toulouses failings , [ You cannot have it both ways , although you do try quite often



Sorry I didn't realise that they have never played RL in Toulouse till this year , in that case I stand corrected , so this is not the Toulouse Olympic RL club that has won 4 French titles and first played in 1937 ?

You really need to try harder Smokey

Once there are enough teams it will hopefully go back to two divisions.