Looked like a 10 minute advert for Castleford indoor Market to me followed by a few shots of the M62. What a L.O.B.

I'll offer a counter argument to the financial prudence approach that seems to get trotted out every time we get stories like this.

The only way for RL to prosper is for someone to come in with a sack full of cash and a great idea for promotion of the sport. Effectively putting all the clubs in more 'debt'
Unless this happens the sport will always be what it is now and probably get worse, there will be no fairy with a magic wand that makes people think wow this is a great sport I'll start going.
The international game is awful, its not going to get any better with initiatives and good will, the world cup will be a relative flop because there are only 2 good teams, one ok one and the rest are gash.
It may make a profit but it wont make a difference and we all know Australia will more than likely win it unless NZ can pull off a shock.

Even if the SL clubs worked within profit margins it is still based on 'shifting sands' as that level is fully reliant on sky not pulling the plug and lets be honest who wants to watch financially prudent clubs getting what they pay for, bang average players.

RL needs a 'big bang' moment to propel itself forward and unfortunately that will only come with a big bundle of cash, clubs running in debt backed by cash rich investors and the best players in the world coming over with a fanfare that the press gets behind. In essence we almost need and Indian Premier League type event to be launched. Anyone know a group of oligarch's that need a hobby....

I'd have thought George Riley had more integrity than to front this, 10 minutes of soundbites with no actual fact to back up their header claim.
He could have driven across country from Gloucester to Oxford and spent 10 minutes talking about how professional rugby league was expanding into new territory ? , maybe that would be far too positive .

to follow this , BBC follow this up with the usual quote 'Tony Smith diatribe' on their header page . about culling the SL to 10 teams , lets avoid facts , they get in the way.

There can be a benefit yes, and I've said elsewhere this is a complicated area, with accounts often reflecting tax and legal decisions.

This is a simple illustration (reality will be mote complicated, buy it makes a point). Let's say an owner wants to give a club £1m, and has no intention of every getting it back. He could subscribe to more shares, so the club would have the cash to spend; end of story.

Or he could lend the money to the club. This would show up as debt of course, but the interest would be tax deductible. This would also have the affect of making the club look like it makes less money-but it would save cash actually paid out by the business. The club need pay the interest on the loan to the owner-it coul be added to the loan itself (increasing the debt further).

So, in certain situations, it's advantageous of clubs to run with more debt -this will depend on the owners tax position, and a lot of other things. However, as I've also said elsewhere, to conclude on whether there is an issue you need to properly understand the legal structure at clubs. This is why this report is bolllocks, as it does nothing of the sort.

The first thing I heard when I woke up this morning was Tony Smith on the radio talking about 14 teams being unsustainable. The RL cannot control what a national broadcaster chooses to do with it's regional programmes, but the Superleague clubs could at least attempt to give out a positive message from their own season launch event. Regardless of the merits of his points, the timing was wrong. Will Smith be subject to the same criticism leveled at the Beeb and George Riley?

What prompted Smith to say this yesterday? These aren't exactly new views from Smith, and he's entitled to them, but I doubt he was asked about the strength of his squad and threw it in there.

I wonder if Georgeyboy will still be hosting SLTV on the website this season? Nothing like biting the hand that feeds.

To be fair to Tony Smith, they could have been playing an old clip of him having his favourite whine rather than it being his specific reaction to the programme.

Riley is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! TGG is not open to scrutiny or criticism from anyone... inside or outside... not now, not ever. The role of the media is to act as "positive news only" PR agents for the sport and if they don't follow those rules then get the hell away and follow other sports instead. The same applies to fans or anyone else - if they don't like it, if they continually question things or address issues about the current state of the game, criticise the RFL, criticise the TGG, promote negative opinion, etc, then leave... GO NOW... and leave us all in peace to enjoy our brilliantly-run sport which is on the up-an-up and simply gets better and better. Anyone who doesn't follow these rules shall not be tolerated, be subject to an inquisition, heretics fork, judas cradle, stoned, hung drawn and quartered, burned at the stake and then thrown to the lions.

It was Phil Kinsella (BBC Radio Mcr) interviewing Smith at the Launch yesterday. I get the feeling if you asked Smith what the time was he's likely to launch into his favourite monologue about his 10 team gentlemens club .
there is a time when this discussion is relevant:- ( league structure- P&R is on the agenda for meetings in March I believe ) . but at the launch day the SL comp shouldn't more positive aspects be promoted ? He probably didn't anything else to say , " well I've signed nobody & my older players are even older...next "

No one is saying that. The game should be scrutinised, but, this report is based on the findings of one "expert" and never explains what this debt actually is. That's poor journalism and scaremongering based on nothing we didn't already know. Sports clubs are not sustainable businesses, and that's not a problem exclusive to rugby league.

Why release this report now, on the day of the season launch? Why splash it as the main story on the BBC website RL section when it's not news?

Why should the BBC care whats going on on sky sports

Yep. If it had been an in-depth investigation into the clubs financial positions then fine, I think most RL fans would be interested. But this was a pathetic bit of "journalism" that told us, explained and did nothing other than chuck out a guessed headline figure and a nice, meaningless quote of RL clubs "heading into a financial abyss".
Effectively all the bloke at Sheffield Uni did was look at the Companies House accounts and add up the debts. There's been more in-depth investigative work done by posters on RLFans than in that useless programme.

link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 5809999001 ian lenagan rips into the debate... i like the cut of his jib

link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 5809999001 ian lenagan rips into the debate... i like the cut of his jib

I hate to agree with a Wiganer but Mr Lenighan is spot on...

Good interview...

Interesting that he thinks that RFL are now much more commercially adept and links the Stobart deal to increased attendances and awareness.

I wish our chairman was that positive about the game!

Well said that man!

Thanks for posting the link Roughyedspud.

Never heard him speak before. Good guy. I hope someone who can do something about it is listening.

How dare anyone wash Rugby League's dirty linen in public. I hate all this bad publicity. Let's return to all the good publicity we made for ourselves last year, when all this nonsense about financial struggles didn't exist.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19110189[/url

Isn’t it odd that the majority of criticism aimed at SL, is from people who don’t support clubs in SL.

Most SL fans have pretty much dismissed the negativity, and the people who are overly negative about the game as described by Ian Lenegan, are people aiming criticism at a league they aren’t involved in.

I think we are all well aware of why certain vested interests would like to do that.

Lets have a bit more of Ian Lenegans defiance and positivity and drown out those claiming the sky is falling in, only because they hope it does so the game drops to a level their club can compete

It is to be hoped that TGG does not suffer from a significant decrease in attendances and awareness in 2013 now that the ground-breaking and highly successful Stobart deal has been terminated.

Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper.





That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best!

Bring on the World Cup!!!

Quote ="littlerich"Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper. That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best! Bring on the World Cup!!! '" You can repeat that the sky is falling in as much as you like, it wont make it happen. I find it quite telling that your media reflection on the Bradford case was simply that it wads the article you quoted, why not this article from an actual, respected, investigative journalist who specialises in sports finance? www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-c ... per-league

Quote ="littlerich"Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper. That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best! Bring on the World Cup!!! '" You can repeat that the sky is falling in as much as you like, it wont make it happen. I find it quite telling that your media reflection on the Bradford case was simply that it wads the article you quoted, why not this article from an actual, respected, investigative journalist who specialises in sports finance? www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-c ... per-league

I'm with you now Smokey. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the game. George Riley and that student should be shot. Can i go and shoot them? Shall we do it together?

I don't think anyone is saying that there is nothing wrong in the game - the grievance, I think, is that the things that George and his friend from Sheffield Hallam said are wrong with the game, simply aren't.

The numbers he quoted were without context and meaningless - that was either inept journalism or a deliberately egregious attempt to create a headline - I'm not sure which, but I suspect the latter.

I can't believe a SL chairman just spent so much time in such a short interview talking about football and union.
Did he really compare SLE attendances to Accrington,Morecombe and fleetwood.Oh and wheres Gelling from again?.