I can imagine this 2nd French team in S.L will be crammed full of sacked N.R.L players using the strange "visa" law to their advantage to play in our league.

The "bigger picture" is expand the game of RL (which the obvious place for expansion is France) or die.

The same people that moan about us losing our star players to Union are the same ones that want to keep RL confined to the north of England.
Either expand or go back to playing part time sport, the choice is that simple.

How can we attract significant sponsorship if we confine the game to a small part of the UK.

Making the game truly National would also help but, IF we could have credible International fixtures, it would help more.

Strange that, because when they had the chance they struggled, I certainly saw no "cricket scores".

Its about time the French tried to start there own Superleague instead of trying to piggy backing onto ours. Expansion from the bottom doesn,t work, we are probably better looking at a World Club series now that we have had a taster last week and try global expansion at a higher level.

Sponsor won,t come on board until we get more global exposure, I can see the opportunity of a mini World Club Series Comp Top 3 (SL) v Top 3 (NRL) with best SL team playing best NRL for World Champions, sponsors and exposure at a quality global scale will be the way to go.

Then create a Euro League, dammit!!!!!!



I don't have a problem with that, but stop buggering up the domestic English League to make it appear as "European".

Take Dorcal and Red Star, add in CSKA, the top three from France, get Catalans to play more in Catalonia and the "big five" and voila. One genuinely Yurrupean League!

I'm a Londoner, I'm all for expansion, but destroying the roots

, That will eventually destroy the game!!!!! WHY can't you people see that.... It's just so bloody obvious!

We must agree to disagree... but if we are comparing ridiculous?!? mate you win hands down!

Great idea. I'll just ring my mate with 50 million Euros to spare and tell him to get on it

Toulouse was playing in tier 2, the Championship, before. But their past experience there is not relevant to my comment. I was referring to LambChops suggestion that they start in tier 3, Championship [size=1201[/size, which is the level where I suggested cricket scores would emanate from. Toulouse is much too good to start in Championship 1.

I think the Kieghleys and Barrows of this world might just have something to say about that, I doubt Toulouse would beat those teams let alone put a "cricket-score" on them.

In fact weren't they actually relegated in 2011 and couldn't afford to play in Championship 1 for 2012? So much for their financial backers, eh?

No, the problem with Toulouse, is the same as London, Paris, Crusaders and even Catalans (the so-called "success story" of expansionists) is that they are almost ENTIRELY dependent on the Sky money.

Catalans are no more dependent on the Sky money than any other SL club.

The only clubs that could possibly manage without it are Leeds and a Koukash-funded Salford. Even then it would seriously strain Leeds' finances and test Koukash's will.

Do you think that Catalan have improved SL or made the competition less entertaining/exciting ?

Also, if/when a championship club gets promoted, do you think the fans of this club might enjoy a trip over there to watch their team play against French opposition ?

The aspect that most would agree on, is that the inclusion of an additional French club needs to be handled sensibly, which under the new format makes it almost impossible.

As I said in a previous post, for the game to prosper we need some credible opposition closer than Australia/NZ and France is the only option.
Their current top flight is just behind Championship level and therefore is not in any position to suddenly go full time so, what is the solution,
expel Catalan from SL, tell the French to get on with it themselves and lose large chunks of sponsorship ??

The game would shrink faster than an ice cube in a teapot, and the game would be back as a part time sport and possibly not even worthy of Sky coverage

I think if a club was dropped into the top flight, it would be a 13 team league. Keep the current system the same. There would probably be a dispensation, but so long as it was for a definitive period and no extentions clubs would have no issue as the current system would continue. It would not close the door for others and the current SL teams would need to vote to spread their money.

Seems fair enough, pretty much the only sensible way to include an additional club.

The bizarre issue here is, that the RFL must have known that a Toulouse "bid" was on the table when they were working on the idea for the new structure.
It would have been far simpler to go for 1 up 1 down and if "the million pound game" is critical to their idea, just have the top championship club play off against the bottom SL club, although this format is far too simple to even be considered.
Of course, an odd number of clubs gives us a problem with the magic weekend.

So Rugby League only exists because of Sky TV

What are you on about? How are Catalans any more dependent on the Sky TV money than Wakefield, Widnes, Hull KR, Hull FC, Castleford etc?

Professional RL in England does



Without Sky money, there would be 5/6 full time pro clubs and the rest would be part time.
Do you remember the 80's ?

Face facts, although most of the posters on this forum think that RL is or should be a main stream sport, the reality in this country is that it simply isn't.

How ever much we feel hard done to the game has to grow to maintain or improve its position in the sporting pecking order.

Even the Challenge Cup, which is a fantastic competition with a rich history, is falling off the radar.
The main broadcasters are barely interested.

Depute the propaganda put out by RL HQ, we have to gain a wider audience and we wont do this with 10/12 northern based rugby league clubs.

So, if we shouldn't add a further French cub, what is your answer as to how we attract new investment into the sport.

Him, did those clubs not exist before 1980, then?

Sorry, my bad, I thought most of the Northern clubs were over 100 years old. I'll shut up because I didn't realise Sky had founded/funded these clubs too.

One question though, what happened to the original clubs and how did they survive without Sky's SL millions until 1980?

I have already said I'm not against it, what I have said is if Sky want a European League they should create one, where as what they are doing is simply "parachuting" clubs into the English League.

Take the big five and Catalans, take the top 3 French clubs, add Dorcal, Red Star and CSKA, give them £5M each and there you have it! Job done.

We already have a European League which the likes of Leeds , Wigan Wakefield and Catalan play in. And until last season, so did London. When SL was formed it was formed as the European Super League.

Agreed, what they did though was parachute London & Paris into the top English Division and a lump of other clubs out, that is not creating a European League, it is jerrymandering the English League.

Nobody can argue that the "creation" of SL was done too hastily.

If you believe Maurice Lindsay, who was largely responsible for getting the deal done, the top flight of RL in England was almost bankrupt (especially his beloved Wigan) and to secure the deal, the change was forced through very quickly indeed and the league was "created" rather than places "won" on the field of play.

There have also been undoubted mistakes along the way with some teams (especially Paris) doomed to fail but, RL has a natural base in the south of France, which does need help to make a more competitive nation and the argument is on how to achieve this.

If you allow their game to grow stronger and eventually try and become a full time pro league, it may never happen and again, if we want a stronger international competition the French need help.

Just imagine if we had to try and pull our national team from say Leeds, plus the pick of any English Championship players ?

Wrencat, I whole heartedly agree, I just don't think parachuting yet another club into our own top-flight helps us at all. We need to think better, be smarter!

If expansion and helping the European wide game is vital, which I don't dispute, I don't think stamping over the English League (Europes' strongest) is the way to do it.

We NEED better ideas!

It may have escaped your attention, but rather a lot has changed in the North of England in since 1980.