I was listening to dear ole Richard Lewis talking about how the SL licence bids are confidential affairs.

And actually there is no unearthly reason why they should be.

If a club deserves to be in SL, then they should be proud of the fact and be open to showing the rest of us why....
their youth development, their stadium, their on-field performance and so on.
There may be an issue over financial performance, but publicly quoted companies have to show their accounts, so why not RL clubs?

Also, if there is some "secret" that makes a club stronger, then we should all benefit from it for the good of the game.

The RFL also gets money from central government (our money) so we have a right to know what they do with every penny.

Without transparency, we get cynicism, disillusionment and general all round p***ed-offness.

What have they got to hide that we can't handle??

We need transparency in the bid process to stop the farce that we have seen today.

I thought it was a fair and transparent process? How does that work then if results arnt accessable?

the whole franchise afair is very transparent!

we can now after todays events, and months of debate see straight through it!

as we all suspected, they make the rules, and they do what they want.

When Lewis was asked why Wakefield were in over Halifax his answer was "after viewing the bids it was agreed that Wakefields was better."

Erm... care to elaborate?

about as transperent as a septic tank...

look at the facts and not Wakey's ground

I'd love to look at the facts. Due to the fair and transparent bidding processed used by the RFL I can do so.... oh hang on....

I'm sure last time around I remember that there were summaries of all the successful applicants, with their strengths, weaknesses and things to get right over the 3 year period

Am I remembering that right?

And if I am, then why isn't the same openness being done this time?

IIRC these details were released about 2-3 days after the last licensing decision.

You must be imagining it because i think Halifax met the criteria they were asked to meet so im not sure the RFL will make that mistake again.

The full judgement wont be made public because its private information.

There was no criteria to meet to get a franchise, theres criteria to meet to be judged and best are judged.

They met the Championship criteria needed to be eligible to make a SL application.

They then had to write a business plan to show how they would be sustainable if elevted to SL.

Apparently, an unofficial commentary on that bid, described it as "appalling", ""vague, lacking detail", "very poor". The RFL are pretty ed that Fax messed up, despite being told exactly where there bid needed improvement. Word is "they had an open goal and hit the corner flag".

I'm sure "stuff" will come out to enlighten you in due course.

I knew I wasn't imagining it

There was definitely some sort of summary - two or three paragraphs from each applicant - last time around.

I'll be very interested to see if such a thing happens this time

It is, but like last time it will be published in a few days when the dust settles!

Because they're not publicly quoted companies.

Tell you what - approach the chairman/board of pretty much any of the SL clubs and ask them what their opinion is of being forced to expose details of their finances and business plans for the next three years to public scrutiny. Then stand well back.

Are Wood, Rimmer and Lewis fit and proper to be running the game, its not gonna take much for the SL house of cards to come crashing down at this rate.
They are and effing disgrace and its about time SL Clubs and Fans showed some backbone, one by one you will be pushed aside, you better believe it. For who's good?

Vote of no confidence required.

Yes indeed. SL is bound to fail now that Fax have been denied a place. Absolutely no chance that Fax might have submitted a weaker application that the clubs who were awarded licenses. No siree.

As Nigel Wood said on Boots n All tonight

"Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla."

Quote ="justthebasicfax"Are Wood, Rimmer and Lewis fit and proper to be running the game, its not gonna take much for the SL house of cards to come crashing down at this rate. They are and effing disgrace and its about time SL Clubs and Fans showed some backbone, one by one you will be pushed aside, you better believe it. For who's good? Vote of no confidence required.'" If the Libyans can get rid of Ghadafi, surely a few northerners can do summat about a failed tennis pen pusher. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -flop.html

Quote ="justthebasicfax"Are Wood, Rimmer and Lewis fit and proper to be running the game, its not gonna take much for the SL house of cards to come crashing down at this rate. They are and effing disgrace and its about time SL Clubs and Fans showed some backbone, one by one you will be pushed aside, you better believe it. For who's good? Vote of no confidence required.'" If the Libyans can get rid of Ghadafi, surely a few northerners can do summat about a failed tennis pen pusher. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -flop.html

I am hearing this is indeed the case. Halifax, to quote Clan, did have an open goal but only managed to hit the the corner flag with their bid, it was poor! Their application was significantly weaker than Wakefield's full stop! I think when the RFL issues their summaries that might hopefully become clearer.

Also, as for transparency, well I suspect when the regular season ends then things will become much clear when Crusaders will go into administration and the financial information becomes public record. It is alleged that the £700k (which is secured on the Racecourse) owed to the RFL has grown significantly as the RFL have again, allegedly, had to pay the wages of the players for at least the couple of months and of course look set to have to continue to do so till the end of the season.

I think everyone should let the dust settle before the 'judge' the RFL!

To achieve that, the clubs would have to vote! and guess what.. they dont want to

Not a hope in hell of that happening on here.