Very possibly. Probably even.

Licensing is the proverbial dead man walking now. Which leaves franchising (NRL-style), which would be controversial too.

If there's a majority for 12 teams (which is possible - fewer bigger pieces of Sky cake), I can imagine P&R being the preferred way to cut numbers, just because licensing has been so badly botched and retains so little trust.

Soccer's Premier League seems pretty successful to me.

So, on Smokey's 'logic', one wonders why Premier League clubs vote for three of them to be relegated every season?

In RL, the liklihood is of just one-up, one-down promotion and relegation between the leagues with effect from 2015 season.

I can't see any quotes regarding P&R and I doubt the people involved are stupid enough to want to undo all the good work done by Richard Lewis over the past 10 years, but you never know.

Not for relegated teams it isnt. Even with their huge parachute payment about a third of them go bust within a couple of years of relegation.
Only if they were a complete moron who thought the PL clubs voted for the relegated clubs to be relegated
WHy, who in SL will vote for that to happen?

If (IF) SL reverted to 12 clubs, we could be faced with the interesting scenario of no less than 4 of the existing clubs being given the push as there seems to be a drive for Toulouse to be admitted and a Championship club has been apparently guaranteed a place if one of them meets the required standard (loud grating noises as goalposts are hastily moved!). Which is why I don't think it'll happen - while you could make a case to dump London and perhaps Cas', who else could go? For a start, Nigel Woods said recently that we needed Salford so that we maintained a prescence in the Manchester area.

According to Adam Pearson at a Hull fans forum a return to P & R is looking likely, but then again so were the signings of Chase and Prince

Most clubs relegated from the Premier League get promoted back into it again.

Edit: And a roughly a third go bust, a couple multiple times and 1 doesnt exist any more

The sport has a really difficult choice to face up to - P&R or real franchising. Licensing tried to find a middle ground, but when push came to shove, was more a case of falling between stools. Three cliches in one sentence there!



Anyway - the decision can't be postponed much longer, certainly not beyond 2014.

alot of the prem clubs double drop after having to assemble complete new teams

Seriously, what are you on about? The SL meeting can only decide issues about SL.
The academy/development changes were agreed by both SL and Championship clubs. What do you mean "take the cream from the top"? Are you suggesting that SL clubs don't develop players but just take them from Championship clubs? Because that's patently bull.
Unfortunately you've fallen into the trap of just producing a bitter rant completely devoid of facts or coherent thought.

The 12 clubs plus P & R was said by the 'Fax chairman to his local paper.
This has not been decided by the SL clubs as they have set up a working party to look at this aspect of the game.
As has been said, which SL chairman is going to vote for 12 clubs when his maybe one of them getting relagated.
The HKR chairman has said there was a case for a 12 club SL but he didn't volunteer his club down into the championship. If it came to the vote I wonder which way he would vote?

Surely it would be based on criteria or position on the field at the end of the given season, who would get the chop

do you really think London, Catalan, BRADFORD, and the golden boys who think they are untouchable would be relegated if they finished in the bottom two , i think not the goalposts would soon be adjusted

I'm beginning to thing you don't actually like RL, because all you do is moan about it.

No i do like rugby League, i don't like how it is run, we only have 13 English clubs, to reduce the amount is taking the game down a slippery path, some teams have got a lot more in the way of funding than others, but that should not mean we get treated differently.I don't always moan, i go to sleep some times

It appears you are confusing quantity with quality.

Having 20 English clubs in one league would not necessarily be a good thing.

This sums up what has gone wrong with British RL in recent years...

Fev, Fax, Leigh, Barrow etc don't exist according to this poster.

Why should England tremble...

The same point occured to me as soon as I read it

Nor would it be necessarily be a bad thing, its up to the clubs to bring new talent through, its no good being happy with numbers of foreigners playing over hear, the juniors should be the priority,just look at your area Hull, how many Hull born lads are brought through, with the amount of teams playing on Humberside, both teams should be loaded with home grown players, the same in the Waky, Cas, & Fev, district . Only Wigan, Saints, & Leeds from the top clubs have got it wright with the youth,
Cas bring plenty through even London, have started, for me it should be a big part of the franchise system, if its OK just to splash out on Aussies & N,Zealanders then whats the point in having internationals, when all the foreigners come in, and home grown talent gets over looked, we will never compete, we need less of one & more of the latter

sorry did not mean to offend, i meant SL clubs, we need more not less

As regards the Premier League, about two years ago there was a report (don't ask me which as i cant recall it) which stated only 1 club was running at a profit in the PL and only 3 sides out of the top 44. To me that isn't success regardless of the on the field product because eventually it'll catch up with them.

P & R whilst entertaining leads to haphazard management and short term solutions which lead to long term problems. I don't see the need for change in the SL structure nor franchising just maybe a tinkering with its implementation and the attitude of clubs towards their financing.

I know what you are trying to say, but if Wigan have got it right, why is the best prospect Wakefield has produced in recent years ripping it in Cherry and White?

It needs more than tinkering - it has lost all legitimacy.

It is now clear that although licences are awarded in large part based on the business, the club is regarded as a distinct entity and retains the licence even if the business fails utterly. Making the assessment all rather pointless.
(some) People were willing to turn a blind eye for Crusaders, for the sake of expansion. Wakefield - everybody assumed they were on their way out anyway and it was just tidier not to hasten their exit. Now with Bradford, it is impossible to pretend the system has any meaning or value, even as a fig-leaf for franchising.
You could argue that it was the implementation and lack of clarity that was the problem, rather than the principle of licensing. But a relaunch, with a promise to do it properly this time, just wouldn't fly. It was controversial enough in the first place and its reputation has been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Who?