aussie mag Rugby League Review reports :

"stade francaise .... are looking at the possibility of fielding a team in the SL competition. the famous club, formed in 1883, wants to utilise their ground all year round and officials have been closely watching the success of catalans dragons in the SL. while toulose have been planning to play in the SL for a number of years, there is no question the FRL and the english RFL would like to see a team based in paris".

this would be massive for the game if richard lewis pulls this off

They'd have to wait a few years to even have a say in my opinion. You can't just say 'we're stade francais' and we're coming into SL'

If Stade Francais, Toulouse or any other club for that matter, are given special dispensation even to apply for SL in 2012, then the Championship clubs will break away and form their own league with their own TV deal.

RL isn't really even played in Paris. They don't care, so why do it ? It seems that the RFL and Sky are more bothered about having a few weekends away rather than doing what's right.

Who exactly are they going to do a TV deal with? What evidence is there of big demand for semi-professional RL from broadcasters?



Can you offer any evidence for this statement? It's obvous that the RFL and Sky have an interest in building up RL into a major sport with international reach, it's also obvious that this clashes with parochial interests which see expansion as a threat, but beyond that this story seems like pure speculation.

This tells us absolutely feck all from what we already knew. In fact it's pretty much the same wording as what we heard before.
I know you think the aussie press are some mystical force who's ahead of anyone else in the RL world Dally but i'm afraid that's a rehash of what we knew 6 months ago, simply page filler.

great idea, the last Paris SL club linked to another sporting entity was such a huge success how can it fail?

the guy that writes this mag has great connections to RL in france.

clearly they are interested in having a SL team and clearly the RFL prefer them to toulose.

if hull kr can make a comeback from the dead why not paris?

let them win CC1 and get crowds of 3500 then we will give them a go in SL.

ps HKR had 100+ years of heritage to rely on!

I would agree completely.
But there's absolutely NOTHING there that wasn't said publicly 6 months ago.
If he had such information surely he could have written about the 10/11 plans of Stade to get a club up and running.

Why? Because licenses until 2015 are decided in under 12 months

I'm with JB on this, pul in good crowds in Paris in the championships and you may get a shot in 2015.

if they (kr) had 100 years of heritage why did they go into administration etc.

putting them (paris) in the championship is probably not a bad way to prepare but then again if they want to throw them in straight away id be willing to give it a go provided :

1. its not at the cost of widnes who have earned their spot
2. they dont get any of the sky tv money.

if it costs the RFL nothing, why not?

How do we know the RFL clearly prefers them? Have the RFL said "we prefer a speculative story reported in the press over the other bids for licenses that don't actually exist at this time but we presume will be made in the next round of applications"?

A rugby League trip to Paris just doesn’t appeal to me. First of all the locals speak French of which I’ll never get a grasp of in my lifetime. The taxi drivers are in the same league as the Italians and Indians when it comes to recklessness. The food is alien to me and overall the whole place is too expensive.

But Dally.
Catalans are struggling.
Why would you jeopordise them now?

this story says the RFL prefer paris to get a spot

it doesnt say over widnes or anything like that

but it does say ahead of toulose.

clearly the FRL and RFL are working behind the scenes on this

why would another french club hurt them, itll help them by raising the games profile?

and les catalans crowds are still quite good, their ground is improving

its just the coach whose the problem.

Catalans are struggling a bit because they're gradually in the process of releasing overseas players and introducing French players. As it stands Toulouse have a healthy semi pro squad with some Catalans offcasts.

Introducing SF will make it a financial competition between the two clubs for what limited French players are available, they cant magically produce another 15 or so SL quality players, the ones at Catalans are NOT good enough as it is. It will severely weaken both Catalans and Toulouse because they will raid Tou for players who simply aren't good enough anyway and instead of having one French club struggling, as we do; there will be two rooted to the bottom of SL.

There's another point that no ones ever brought up re: catalans.. no one's ever seen their accounts like we have the British SL clubs as they dont have to publish them.

As I said on the other thread, make one expansion franchise available for 2014/15 and have it decided in 2012 to give them 2 years preparation time. Its the best way to go and will promote very healthy competition among Toulouse, SF, SWS (who i think will be ready before SF imo) and whoever else is interested.

Not yet,there are not enough quality players in France to cope with one superleague team never mind two,maybe in a few years time but no,not yet.

Ah right – some Ocker journalist has sucked this out his thumb, therefore it's fact.

What we do have, though, is an actual RFL statement at the time the franchise system was introduced that the PSG/Gateshead model of simply plucking an SL club out of thin air and plonking it down in some random place was a clear failure, and that applications for new SL franchises would have to come from established clubs that have proved themselves in the Championship (or, in the original statement, equivalent competition)

yeah the aussie journo just made it up!

rather than talking about the nrl he just decided it would generate lots of interest.

and of course this ignores other comments about stade francaise wanting a team in SL.

the journo who wrote this story is very close with tas bateri.

if people dont know who he is, well it wont surprise me.

when will we learn you can't put a team in a city with no interest in the game and expect it to be a success. Look at where we have tried it: Paris failed, Quins failing, Sth Wales failed, Melbourne taken $100mill extra to keep them alive, Sheffield failed.

Even in my city there is no guarantee of success and it will be a long hard road for us in our early years despite being confident of drawing 15,000+ fans and having a jnr system that is already producing NRL players.

If Paris are serious let them go into the CC1 and prove they are worthy of a SL place.

ps What is wrong with Toulouses bid? History of RL, producing players, has the mayor behind them, provides a natural rivallry for Les Cats etc. I'd rather see a team that has worked for it and got the foundations let in than some rich RU club who just wants to see their ground used year round.

You speak complete boll0cks mate.

JB doesn't, he's hit the nail ont' head.