From www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/sport/h ... -1-5640219 Quote Halifax could be playing Super League opposition again in 2015 under radical plans to restructure professional rugby league. Courier Sport understands the Rugby Football League has tabled plans that - if they are given the green light by the clubs - would initially herald two top divisions of 12 teams. See today’s Courier Sport for the full story'" Anyone lucky enough to live in Fax able to fill us in with what the paper says?

From www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/sport/h ... -1-5640219 Quote Halifax could be playing Super League opposition again in 2015 under radical plans to restructure professional rugby league. Courier Sport understands the Rugby Football League has tabled plans that - if they are given the green light by the clubs - would initially herald two top divisions of 12 teams. See today’s Courier Sport for the full story'" Anyone lucky enough to live in Fax able to fill us in with what the paper says?

Excuse me for digressing but this, right here, is why local media is dying....

From a prominent RL journalist on another forum......

The idea is that the two bottom teams will be relegated from Super League at the end of 2014, regardless of which teams they will be.

There will then be two divisions of 12 each, which will play each other once (eleven games) in the first half of the season.

In the second half of the season, those clubs will split into three divisions of eight teams, depending on finishing places in the first half of the season. The bottom four Super League clubs will be in with the top four Championship clubs (which may include the two SL clubs relegated the previous season). Those teams will play each other at home and away (14 games) in the second half of the season.

The top four clubs in the second tier, at the end of that season, will then return to Super League for 2016.

That's going to be interesting.

My head hurts! Don't think I quite follow the last bit.

This will make most games matter. I'm presuming there would be play offs and grand finals in the two lower tiers?

Seems quite over-complicated to me.

So because of a minority of lower league clubs moaning very loudly, we now have a proposal which will alter the entire structure of the pro game so that if these smaller clubs are lucky, with a fair wind, they could, possibly, hopefully, get a whole 5 home games against the big sides.

And because of complaints that the top 8 is too easy to qualify for and not competitive enough to stretch the big clubs, that because it so easy for them to qualify it becomes a procession, we are going to split the league using the er………….Top 8.

And because of complaints that teams at the bottom of SL aren’t good enough, we are going to take the 4 worst, put them with 4 sides from a lower league and try and sell an entire league of those games.

This proposal doesn’t even address the problems people are pretending are our issues. Its not even in the same universe as addressing the actual problems of the game.

It is a truly awful idea. Our game should be embarrassed it was even suggested.

Imagine trying to explain this to potential new fans!

So they saw the Scottish proposals and they're floating it now? Just like the old Swiss/Austrian football systems. I'm intrigued by it personally.

Nightmare.

They are likely to have this for a season and revert back to a 12 team closed shop.

And how would the Sky money be split under this complicated system.

so after 11 games we have a top league of 8 teams.........any mention of how many teams qualify for the Play offs for the grand final...leave it at 8 and no match whatsoever would mean anything as they are all qualified........what genius thought this idea up............

Surely the bottom 4 would have a higher salary cap than the division below??

Did a work experience kid come up with the idea?

Yee god no! Give yourself an uppercut whoever came up with this idea!

So the teams placed 9th in the top division and 5th in the 2nd division would have a far greater chance of winning silverware than the teams that finished 8th in the top division and 4th in the 2nd?

Even by RFL standards this is crazy.

I'm not so negative on the concept. Seams more of a return to an older system that we used to opperate under with a few tweeks.

The big question and one that is not resolved is money.

The top 12 will have more than the bottom 12.
So when the split comes, between the bottom 4 from 1 and the top 4 from 2; there will be a massive gulf in salary and quality of player.

The system would work if everyone got a fair share of the cash, but I can't see SL clubs voting for that. Although you could see non-SL clubs voting for it, to get some paydays. The question would be, will the crowds turn up????

In the end money is the issue and until it can be addressed pretty much any system will have issues and drawbacks.

No No No and No!! What a complete joke!! I hope the SL Chairmen don't vote for this nonsense.

Somehow I doubt that would be the case. Presumably playoffs would be top 2-3 max under such a system.

But yep, the problem with this is that we don't have 24 teams that can compete, or even survive with the money we can bring in at the moment.

The league structure itself is hardly complicated.

What a crackpot idea this is. Where is the extra money that will be needed to finance this going to come from? As things stand the second level teams would just be playing for the right to be flogged by the teams that drop down from the first level.

Would people be willing to buy season tickets for Cas, Wakey, Rovers or Salford if they think that there is a good chance that their clubs are suddenly going to be playing the top clubs at one half of the season to playing second tier clubs the next?

During the second stage of the season teams will more likely to be playing each other home and away to make up for the smaller divisions, so for the top eight clubs that would be three times in the league plus Challenge Cup and any playoff system. It would be like going back to the overkill of several years ago.

SL needs to come up with a plan to increase funding by 7 mill a year, then the club grants can be at an amount that actually keeps the league sustainable.

This has nothing to do with Championship Chairmen. The meeting to decide this loony scheme was attended and voted on democratically by SL chairmen. It's designed to stem the tide of SL clubs going bust.

Don't taint "the lower leagues" with the sticky brush of SL

It’s a proposal from the RFL which has been presented to the SL club chairmen. It hasn’t yet been voted on, ratified, or anything else yet. Hopefully the proposal was laughed out of the room with derision it deserves.

I would suggest it's highly unlikely that the RFL are changing the structure of the elite competition just to placate [i"a minority of lower league clubs moaning very loudly"[/i but your obsession with small clubs having the impudence to speak out is duly noted.



The real reasons are:

... and....

It's the SL clubs that are moaning - and now they are getting a 12 team superleague whilst everyone argues over the details. Throw in a few red herrings and they get what they want in the same way that the kerfuffle over proposed mergers allowed summer rugby to creep in the back door