It wouldn't be Hetherington by any chance?

Would it?

from what certain chairmen seem to be coming out with, you would expect that to be the same for almost any subject.

I understand why and that some chairmen aren’t happy with Nigel Wood, but they aren’t going to oust him with this strategy which seems to be ‘we don’t know whats going on, we cant make a decision, even we don’t trust ourselves to make the right decision, We have no alternative plans’.

Lenegan seems to have painted himself in to a corner of just criticising anything and everything even himself, and being generally negative. At least Koukash is throwing up alternatives, even if a few are a little out there

So Ian Lenagan didn't actually look at the deal before voting yes to it?

Given his stout criticism of it, the one who was in the know must of been lenaghan no?

If you say so

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ts-6670912 Hard to tell if that is taken from the parody Twitter account of the Dr, or not.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ts-6670912 Hard to tell if that is taken from the parody Twitter account of the Dr, or not.

If he's going to be that excited I'm glad they' re not playing Hull

The polite word for him is 'character'

BOy that Koukash fella knows how to spin a yarn. Better than sex.

I'm sure IL would have been perfectly happy if the RFL, having received the offer, had told Sky to get lost and not presented it to the clubs. There would have been no criticism. Not a peep would have been heard.

Exactly. I sign off on contracts all the time.usually takes me around an hour to read and digest it and around 5mins to decide if it is a good deal or not. 24hrs isn't enough for them, wtf?

IL is making himself look a right fool by constantly whinging about the rfl in a ploy to undermine them. If he wants SL clubs to break away from the rfl he should have the balls to just say so instead of damaging the game in the media.

He's lucky he isn't an NRL chairman, if he brought the game into disrepute like he is doing here they would have hung him out by now.

Bless, he's not happy....who cares.

Now, without wishing to sound condescending, could you tell us how many multi-million pound deals you've read and digested, and then spent 5 minutes (or 300 seconds if you like) deciding are good for your company over a 5 year period, starting in 3 years time? Hey, I agree that IL should have said "nope" there and then, but I'd be very concerned about signing off on a deal that is supposedly this big with that short amount of notice.
SKY pulled a fast one on the RFL and got a good deal.....but who cares? It's still shed loads more than we get now and give the game a stable platform and timescale to build on the RLWC legacy.


The media really care little for RL in the UK, so the damage (if any) will be small. IL and Dr Marwan and their sort are good for the game. Compare them to Hughes in London or even Davy in Hudds who just throw money about with little in the way of proper investment, only spending for the now and I'd take a moaning owner any day.


Doubtful. There are plenty of "colourful" guys to the fore at NRL clubs who generate interest in the game. They polarise opinion and get the media going....more the merrier in my book!

The RFL have been in negotiation with SKY over this for months.
They gave clubs 24 hours notice of the meeting with no details I'm led to believe, once there they were then told accept it or lose it.
This was a stitch up or scam to get a deal through in an hour or so that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
The RFL should have given the clubs the usual notice prior to meetings as per normal. They obviously didn't want them to see and scrutinise the detail.

According to rfl the clubs were given a comprehensive presentation and then voted on if to put it to the vote. They agreed to vote on it and voted in favour of the offer. Again this is SL clubs making the decisions not the rfl. At any point they could have agreed to wait, turn it down, ask for more or what ever they chose. But they voted yes please, IL and coldcash need to be blaming their fellow club chairmen if they don't like the outcome.

Given the complete lack of (publically disclosed) detail about how the competition will operate from 2015, and with no knowledge of exactly which teams might be playing in which league (or even who might even still be in existence) I think its a win for the RFL that they got Sky to sign up to anything. Albeit - I did see this on the Mirror website - don't know if its been confirmed elsewhere: 2014: Bottom two clubs relegated from current 14-team Super League at end of season and four from Championship. 2015: Top 12 in new elite division, relegated clubs join 10 from Championship for a 12-team second tier. After 23 rounds, divisions split to form three leagues of eight. Top eight carry points forward and play seven more times, making 30 matches. Top four play-off in semi-finals followed by Grand Final. Middle eight teams start new mini-league of seven games. Top three go up automatically with fourth and fifth play-off deciding remaining place. 2016: Elite division is top eight from 2015 plus four promoted clubs. In theory, those 12 could be the same as started 2015 www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... z2sSZ4p39H

Given the complete lack of (publically disclosed) detail about how the competition will operate from 2015, and with no knowledge of exactly which teams might be playing in which league (or even who might even still be in existence) I think its a win for the RFL that they got Sky to sign up to anything. Albeit - I did see this on the Mirror website - don't know if its been confirmed elsewhere: 2014: Bottom two clubs relegated from current 14-team Super League at end of season and four from Championship. 2015: Top 12 in new elite division, relegated clubs join 10 from Championship for a 12-team second tier. After 23 rounds, divisions split to form three leagues of eight. Top eight carry points forward and play seven more times, making 30 matches. Top four play-off in semi-finals followed by Grand Final. Middle eight teams start new mini-league of seven games. Top three go up automatically with fourth and fifth play-off deciding remaining place. 2016: Elite division is top eight from 2015 plus four promoted clubs. In theory, those 12 could be the same as started 2015 www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-lea ... z2sSZ4p39H

What's Neil Hudgell's opinion on all this?

www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-league/26049215? Another from koukash. But now I'm confused. If the contract length is too long, how is it a short term fix? It can't be both :s

www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-league/26049215? Another from koukash. But now I'm confused. If the contract length is too long, how is it a short term fix? It can't be both :s

Is your confusion deliberate?

The short term fix is the immediate £300K sweetener (bribe) to sign up to the long term deal.

Anyone else noticed the Brian Barwick press release that's just been appended to the [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/26049215BBC Koukash link?[/url

Things are hotting up.

One thing that seems to have been overlooked in all of this is audience reach.

Sky has five times the number of television subscribers as BT. On that basis, BT would have to offer five times the value that Sky is offering to generate a good deal from that perspective.

As a sport, rugby league craves more platforms to reach bigger audiences. We still haven't got the SLS on national BBC television, so we need all of the viewers that we can get. The idea that we should run off with BT for the sake of a few extra quid seems a touch misguided.

Which is better? There's only one way to find out: FIGHT!

the Lenagan - Koukash Tag team seems an unlikely partnership.

the public -school ' disappointed ' slant from the RFL , is tantamount to a how dare you! they'd have best let it lie , I don't know about the Wigan owner but I suspect that tone of response isn't going to shut up the Salford one.

They've both realised they've been done over on a number of levels by one of the other smarter SL CEO's who just happened to know a lot more about the new Sky deal and who was also instrumental in pushing for the new 3x8 restructure.

Apologises if it's been mentioned previously on this thread as I've not read through all of it but......

Upon reading an article about a new Andy Gray & Richard Keys sexism clip scandal last week, Sky defended themselves against claims they were behind it (as Gray had just started with BT the week before) as "they wouldn't launch a dirty tricks campaign on the same day they were GIVING A FINANCIAL REPORT TO THE CITY".

I can't believe how short sighted some people are on this.

Content and rights are king.

The distribution of content is going through a huge change. more players involved, new entrants, just look at Netflix.

The broadband explosion has resulted in much lower barriers to distribution.

All this points to more bidders for quality content.

We know football and union rights are in huge demand. It's obvious this is a rising market.

It's like selling your house in a property boom, even the bloke who hasn't painted it in years will get a big increase from what he paid.

So, this rushed decision, when we are still years from the end of the current contract, before we have tested the market by seriously going to other potential bidders looks crazy at best, and either incompetent or corrupt at worst.

Sky knew some clubs were in a hole, the rfl knew the same. The 300k sticking plaster was too tempting to turn down.

It strikes me this is the same sort of deal as where a property developer sees an old pensioners run down house with a leaky roof in prime development area, offers to move them to a brand new bungalow, with lower heating bill, maintenance free in return for a property that he can develop and make a huge return. Pensioner gratefully accepts as be can't afford the repairs.
The smarter option would have been to say, thanks for the offer, just before I sign, I'm going to speak to a couple of estate agents first.

Anyone who puts a gun to your head in a negation that is clearly not time critical needs to be viewed with caution.