I'm hanging on to this game by a thread and I don't know why any more, if its not Box and his antics with the council its the RFL and their stupid idiot calls to change the game I despair, it needs a walk out of the clubs to make them listen

It may well be that it's the clubs that they're listening to. A bit reminiscent of moves to reduce TV monies to the lower leagues. Why not hit Catalans too?

Whilst I have never been a fan of non-British teams playing in our competitions, I believe that you have to treat them fairly, once you have invited them to participate. This will just be an additional reason to make our sport a laughing stock, in the eyes of others. I have friends (honestly!

) who support Premiership football teams, and who just can't wait for the next episode in the farce that is RL. Whilst they may admire the players, they see our governing body as the comedy gift that continues to give!

While I prefer to grow the game organically & not give every overseas club a leg up towards or to remain in Super Dooper League this smacks of discrimination !

I have nothing against TW, TO13 or Les Cats per se, I do stand with them on their stance to refuse to be part of this sham.

If RL can a) no longer fill New Wembley or b) afford New Wembley then why not move to a new venue ? New Wembley is not iconic like Wembley was nor does it have the history or are attachment it once had so why not play the moving card ? If the RFL want to keep the CC London based then go to Spurs or Arsenal & broker a deal better than New Wembley ! Surely a full & smaller alternative venue is both easier to attain & more attractive to audiences & sponsors than what we had last year ???

Move & sell it out with better marketing & RL & the CC looks more like a hot ticket than the fire sale desperation of recent times.

I will also add to my previous post that the NFL move the Super Bowl regularly, one modern large capacity stadium is much like any other.

Is there are more embarrassing sport than rugby league? No wonder Sky can’t wait to get rid

I agree. I just don't love the sport anymore and this is just another nail in the coffin. I genuinely don't know where the sport is going. Last season, having paid for a season ticket, with two games left I was having to check twitter to see if a group of men in suits decided if we were promoted via a structure change. This isn't what sport is about. Chairman arguing in public, power grabs, hardly any money and sponsorship. Dwindling crowds. A CEO who makes Nigel Wood look competent. And now this.

That's off the pitch. On the pitch isn't much better. Stadiums are half empty. Dull games. Awful ruck. Players feigning injury is something I never though I'd see in our sport. Fixture fatigue. I don't get excited when I see LeedsV Wigan for the millionth team in a season.

I don't agree about the clubs walking out and being in charge . Too much self interest (e.g salary cap, reserves etc) it needs someone to come in, wipe the sport of the deadwood, and tell the clubs what's happening. I would have liked Elstone to be this man, but after reading interviews in the mirror, he just seems like a front man for SL and has his hands tied by the clubs to actually have any power and make radical changes.

I would have hurled insults at myself, can't believe I said it, but been thinking it a while, it would be no different than BMX and mountain biking moving in with British Cycling and Both are doing great along side track and road cycling.

Elstone is just a puppet for the Super League teams at the RFL.The interview where he said the idea of taking the Magic Weekend to Anfield was to say thank you for the fans who support rugby league so they did not have to travel too far.So London and Catalans fans are based in the North West?

How about the idea Mr.Elstone.Put the magic weekend on in London where it would help promote the sport down south and would also gain more coverage in the media with it being in London.Take the Challenge Cup Final up north to Anfield as there will be no foreign teams in it because of the RFL and their stupid decision. I would love the Catalans to enter, get to the final and not to turn up on the day leaving the Elstone and co sitting in a half empty stadium going what now?

I think fans of all sides should boycott the cup.

Do they not already do this?!

Top post. The sport just doesn't do it for me like it used to. Yes I have renewed my Broncos ST but Im not really that excited even though they are back in SL.

The RFL is an incompetent disgrace and with this move they’ve diminished the Cup and the game: FFS - netball is getting more coverage atm than rugby league. But, perhaps a more effective plan would be for all fans to get off their ar5es and support their teams and the CC generally. Show the RFL how important it is and that it’s not theirs to eff about with, it belongs to all of us. I love the CC and will be at a game every round staring with Millom to see Red Star.

that's the thing pal you then you give the RFL the vision that all is right when it isn't,
they have to be hit hard where it hurts and if that means making some kind of protest then so be it, I get off my ar5e when I see them sort this mess out as for the CC, the RFL can shove it until they remove that stupid rule

at the moral high horse going on here, 99% of people will have forgotten about this by this time next week and ANYONE who claims they won’t attend WILL BE there if their club gets to the SF and Final without fail.

Based on an average attendance since we moved to new Wembley its was over 700k less in revenue than the average. No coincidence that Catalan were in the final. Question is were does that money come from if Catalan make the final?

not me pal when I say something I will stick by it, until the RFL drop their stupid ruling

It depends on the usual ticket allocation for sides that make it to the final.

Certainly most of the sales should be made well in advance of the final, with a certain number kept back for the two finalists and some bright spark at RFL HQ has decided that this is around 500,000 quids worth.

Fundamentally though this is irrellevent. Any club that is eligble to enter the competition and fills in the neccessary paperwork etc should be treated equally or, we may as well start at the semi final stages, with Leeds, Wigan Sanits and either Warrington or Hull FC making up the numbers.
Mind you, even with the so called big boys involved, Wembley hasn't sold out for a very long time.


Last season, just as soon as Catalan secured their place in the final, tickets should have been allocated to all SL sides to sell at discounted prices in an attempt to fill the gorund.


The real pity is that last seasons game was one of, if not, the best games in the las 10+ years

Of course you will. Wakefield make their first Challenge Cup final in 40 years, hoping for their first win in over half a century and you don’t go because a French team were asked to cough up some money.

unlike you I do have principles and while you jest I can tell you I'm getting truly sick of the game and could walk away all together at anytime I'm that close

Ok goodbye

I can remember last year when you said you'd done for good on RLFANS, look how that's turned out

It comes from the RFL doing its job and selling what it keeps insisting is a prestige "blue ribbon" protected event of national importance.

This is basically the RFL running the white flag up the Red Hall flagpole. It's an admission that the body has given up, that it no longer has the ideas, the skills of the competence to sell this sport to a new audience and that they'd privately rather have Leeds v Wigan in the final every year.

It's pathetic and if this is were any other kind of business with this sort of attitude, we'd rightly be saying that they deserve to die.

Never believe anybody who publicly threatens to quit something. If they’re really going to do it they just do it without the histrionics and high horse need to promote it.

Agreed but, surely, any other business would replace the top management. They wouldn't just curl up and die.

Our sport has ZERO vision, we STILL keep on hoping that "innovation" and quick fixes will catapult the sport into the mainstream but, instead, we just look desperate and amateur.

It's time for the clowns that thought up the "overseas club bond" to either walk away or be finished, it's just not good enough.

And, yes, your right about our so called "event of national importance". Unfortunately, all of the importance disappeared just as soon as the Grand Final came into being.