Hopefully

Sod the two divisions. Get Toulouse in and Paris.

The likes of Salford, Leigh, Wakefield, Wigan and Widnes have had enough chances in Super League and never made the grade. Get rid of the dead wood from the competition and get some ambition and passion into it.

The Paris franchise is a must if it's as cashed up as it sounds, Toulouse look very capable of joining based on their crowds and performance in the Championship too.

Sod the flat cappers, lets make it interesting before it goes out of business altogether.

Are you kidding?

Club loyalty coming to the fore here, but Wakefield have had just one continuous tenure in SL, avoided relegation (celebrating mediocrity, yes, but it is an achievement given limited resources that the club has had), and improved year on year since JK's appointment. Stadium and financial issues (not exclusive to our club) aside, I don't understand why so many people suggest Wakefield should be booted out of SL when it is the likes of Salford and Castleford that have been up and down between the leagues over the years.

As for Wigan, three consecutive play off semi-finals and a CC semi suggest that they're bringing something to the competition and may be able to go one better soon. I hope you were joking with that one.

One of my main concerns with bringing in more French sides to SL is attendances. We've got Harlequins, Crusaders, Huddersfield and Catalans who bring miniscule away followings which can't be doing much good for the coffers at "heartland" clubs. While expansion is obviously important for the growth of the sport, attendances are going to suffer (eg. Wakefield's estimated revenue in 2009 wasn't achieved, definitely not helped by the recession. Nor the quarter of home games that mustered even smaller crowds due to no away following). Games with a small away following generally have less atmosphere and don't advertise the greatest game in the best light. Difficult.

What a funny statement



Come on, reduced away support is no reason for anti-expansionism. Clubs should be able to rely on their own fans to generate revenue. Lack of away support is a nonsensical and pathetic argument.

SL should be full of mediocre heartland clubs and nobody else ....

the real shame about Les Cats is how they achieved more in 3 or 4 years than quite a few heartland clubs in over 100.

both toulose and paris have to be included next time. the RFL have to find the finances for it, be it via offering Sky another game to televise or whatever.

the opportunity to so quickly revive RL in france again is not to be missed

we would all benefit from this.

people still talk about the champagne RL played by the french in the 60s against australia

really? I'd say HKR and Les Cats having worked there way up over a number of years have been more succesful than the likes of Quins and Crusaders (so far) and before them Paris & Gateshead.

Les Cats are a heartland club you kno[ibh[/iead.

then why do all you flat cap dunces decry toulose

You would think that Toulouse will be the next French side in Superleague. The fast tracking of a Paris franchise team would be a serious double standard given the amount of hoops toulouse have had to jump through. I also can't see them having the time to build a team in time to fulfil the 2015 criteria via the Championship.

On the other hand Paris team should not be rejected out of hand. To have a sports team that is itself a successful expansion side behind the bid can only be good.

So instead of admitting you were wrong for making a dumbass statement you come back with a sweeping generalised statement like that and a stupid smiley. I don't decry Toulouse and if you actually bother to read certain other people's posts (whom i assume you also perceieve to be flatcappers) most actually don't decry them either. It's your perceptions that are rabid and unfounded. I'm going to call you a kn[iobhea[/id again too because you deserve it.

Kno[ibhe[/iad.

Go on , explain , they finished next to bottom despite having 5 quota players , as far as their attendances go they were reasonable , nothing more , despite several clubs taking a decent number of fans over to France , Leigh took around 400 out of a gate of 2,300

They managed to get 1,900 locals to go and watch Leigh? Fantastic effort

Toulouse is a rugby (mainly union) mad city. I was taken aback by it when I went a fortnight ago. I still think they should only go into Super League if and when they have met all the criteria. In the meantime the emphasis should be on them bringing through French players.

Brilliant news, we need competition for places in super league wherever it comes from. It is also another step along the road to a potential french league existing on its own and a possible european comp seperate to the league, this is the way to go IMO.

Paris cashed up, that's a very big IF, and even with the cash they need the players: 8-10 SL ready French players to add to top League players from Oz, Nz or the UK.
TO look promising, but they never push themselves as a club (not players, but club). If the club had the ambition they could have signed all the top non-Catalan French players and been in the playoffs this year, but they play it safe, which will see them rise to SL level, but very slowly and probably miss the boat for 2012.

If you put 3 French teams in SL in 2012 you would just have 3 average teams with lots of foreigners keeping them ticking. Even a second side would risk diluting the top talent from the Dragons. It has to be phased in and they have to get French players at the right standard, which means TO taking the plunge and making a dareing bid for a GF place and Paris actually having a league team in a competition.

Looking at the Nosey Parker column in the League Weekly, it seems that the Stade Francais consortium are willing to be self financing and are not looking for any SL TV monies. If they can guarantee that, the RFL will be stupid to ignore it (given their love of expansion).

The RFL could justify the inclusion of Stade Francais by expanding the league to 15, which would cost them nothing to do. All the other clubs in SL wouldn’t lose a penny as a result, and no-ones SL place will have been lost as a result. The RFL get another French club with no cost – and a prestigious one at that. They could, potentially, be one of the wealthiest clubs in SL if their backers are as good as they seem to be. Poor old Carlos Zalduendo, and his club cannot match that.

So they would be less risky than Toulouse, who would require TV money and would need to hit the ground running, otherwise they could end up struggling financially like the Celtic Crusaders last season.

If this situation is as good as it appears – and that’s a very big [size=200if [/size– then it looks likely there’ll be a club based in Paris after 2011 in Super League. If Stade Francais get the go-ahead, they will have 2 years to prepare. This seems to be a very different situation from the usual ramshackle expansion clubs that lunge from one financial disaster to another. This offer looks like an RFL wet dream. This could be the real deal.

As long as they dump the Magic weekend

i argue les cats are an expansion club.

but if idiots like you want to call them a heartland club then ill put it back on you and ask why people like you arent fans of the inclusion of toulose since they also must be a heartland club on the same dumb logic.

just put them both in SL if their bids are strong enough.

especially if 3 french SL teams means a paying TV contract from a French TV station to cover the costs of these extra teams

good logic but why have a bye each week and have a club lose home gates? taking it to 16 by having the RFL fund one more team shouldnt be too hard, especially as toulose look like having a very good bid as well.

of course salford and wakeys SL spots are certainly up for grabs as well.

Byes probably wouldn't affect SL clubs the same way it has many Championship clubs. The RFL have already stated that they'd be prepared to go to 15 clubs, if there is no club worthy of demoting, in order to accomidate the promised Championship club. So I would assume they've thought it through.




Obviously, as Starbug Mentioned, they’d have to lose the Magic Weekend, or work round it somehow.



I'm not too sure that there'll be enough quality French players to have 3 French clubs in SL....yet. They probably don't have enough for two yet either. All that would do is lead to more Antipodean imports cramming all these teams, which sort of defeats the object. Slowly, Slowly catchy monkey. If this Paris deal is as good as it looks, it would be worth the risk, but adding two more French clubs at once wouldn’t help either of them imo.


That was always the case.

even if the french clubs are full of imports initially, its worth the risk

clearly paris has to be taken if the people behind it are interested but toulose deserve a SL spot too and shouldnt be knocked back again.

for example im a fan of celtic crusaders but toulose would be stronger club than them. im not saying crusaders should be booted out for toulose, more so that the RFL has to find a place for toulose as well.

it does makes things a whole lot easier for the RFL if salford fail on their ground cause thats 2 spots there with wakey. though salford with a new ground behind them would offer lots to RL too ...