According to Brian Carney, the "parachute payment" to Widnes will be halved if a second SL club is relegated.

This gives Widnes as a club a £250k incentive to lose to Hull KR on Sunday. If they win, they gain nothing, but risk Hull KR's relegation, and a huge financial loss.

If players stood to gain financially from their team losing, we'd ban them (Long and Gleeson). This is a whole club who have a very large vested interest in losing.

Have you seen Widnes this season? I'm sure there would be far more of a conspiracy theory if they actually won!

This is a straw a few of our fans have been clutching at.

And there is a potential conflict of interest.

However, I just can’t imagine the players that take the field doing so with the intention of losing by 14 or more. The club hierarchy might have mixed feelings, but they’ll have to keep them to themselves.

Also, Widnes have done nothing to create this situation, and there’s no evidence they’re seeking to ‘benefit’ from it, so the Long-Gleason comparison isn’t all that valid imo. I appreciate, it may have been tongue in cheek.

It'll be a conspiracy theory if Hull KR can't beat Widnes by 14 points!

Rod Studd raised the same point on RL Backchat. With Toronto beating Leeds unless Widnes now do no worse than a 13 point defeat on Sunday and consign Hull KR to the MPG then many will take the view that they willingly threw the game to secure the full parachute payment. Despite the fact that Widnes have been poor for the whole season anyway.


There are only 2 ways to avoid the conspiracy theories now, either 1) the RFL announces tomorrow that every club that is relegated will receive £500k as a parachute payment whether 1 or 2 clubs are relegated or 2) the RFL announces tomorrow that due to the scrapping of the qualifiers that no relegated clubs will receive a parachute payment. Doing either of those removes the perceived incentive that seemingly exists for Widnes to lose by 14 or more on Sunday.

Not content with spreading crucial games over 4 days, we now have this.

The game should NEVER put itself in a position where such things can happen, it's just appalling.
Whether other results can prevent the potential for "fixing" a scoreline is irrelevant, it should never be possible.

Who the hell is running the sport and why risk such a scenario.

Yet again something that really isnt difficult to avoid, has been allowed to happen.

We know who's running the RFL and why he has a lot to prove. My guess is that no-one had the foresight to work this out when Sky were asking for the fixture changes.

The parachute payment has been approved, and coming from, the SL clubs, or effectively SLE. So let's direct our anger at who is really responsible for this prospective farce and not, as often the case, make out that it's always The RFL's fault.

Who’s cares whether it’s bent or not?

Super duper league is run by a bunch of greedy short sighted ten bob shysters who have now bullied control from the rfl.

It’s why the sport is dying on its and aside from 3 or 4 elite clubs the top division is full of dross.

And dont forget that they wanted to take control cos it wasn't being done well enough for them. I give it a naximum if a couple of years until we see an re-enactment of Lord of the Flies and Julius Caesar and they're stabbing each other in the front nevermind the back!

Yet surely the big issue is the fact that the 12 richest clubs in RL do not have spare change of £250 K. That is how desperate things are in the game

Years ago I remember that to win the title in the last game if more then 2 teams were involved they made sure the games were played on the same day but now the game is dictated by sky and who pays the piper calls the tune

To the tune from the old Cadbury’s Roses advert...

Thank you very much for your quarter million,
Thank you very much,
Thank you very, very, very much.

The clubs may have to approve the idea but, who draws up the contracts with sky and doesnt put a clause in them to prevent the situation we have now, where the final week of the qualifiers are so critical.
How do you think other sports, especially football cope with the same type of scenario.

Any organisation has to be seen to be "fair" and beyond influence, RL is a bloody laughing stock or, at least it would be if the outside world even knew our game existed.
As said in my previous post, it reallly isn't difficult, it's just very, very, poor planning.
How difficult would it have been to move the Widnes, KR fixture forward a few days.

The op quite rightly points out that Widnes as a club need to make sure that KR dont join them in The Championship and although 250k may not be a huge figure in some sports, its pretty significant in RL.

It's not up to the individual clubs to plan fixtures, this is done between our broadcaster and those "running" the game.
Remember, it's not splitting the parachute payment that is the main issue, its that the last game of The Qualifiers may well see one club protecting a 500k payment, which will also have direct ramifications for other competing sides.

It's just wrong

The Scaffold, there's a blast from the past.

And who ran 'Super Duper League' when it allowed the old Bradford Bulls to bust the bank in the quest for trophies and then fell into a mire of repeated financial crises? The men who run many of our SL clubs are ultra-successful in their own businesses, are young by that standard ( 40s-50s) and dynamic. They have a vision and drive to kick SL and RL into the 21st Century. They've recruited Robert Elstone, one of the UK's most experienced and successful sports administrators/business execs to run SL and are funding him ( he will not be cheap, though he's taken a pay cut to come from Everton football) and the team he is building out of their funds. This is long-term investment. Do you not think these guys are hugely more capable of driving the success of the sport than Nigel Wood and Ralph Rimmer, neither of whom has a proven track record in anything, including RL?

Like I said 3 to 4 elite clubs the rest are total dross and far from “ultra successful”. Hence why the best they can come up with is to bully the community game and foundation clubs into handingnback the few quid they chuck their way as opposed to addressing the real issues with the sport.

Falling viewing figures and spectator numbers are the reason why the sport is dying and that’s because essentially super duper league isn’t worth watching.

That’s the reason why England ru sell out twickers and get sponsors like Land Rover and verve cliquet. Ie people want to watch it. People don’t want to watch The vast majority of super league matches hence the superleague clubs set themselves up to get less from sky next time round and it attracts sponsors like Dacia and franks pies.

Looks like Widnes put no effort into competing with Hull kr. When £250k was on the line for them, who can blame them, they should never have been put in that situation. However it looks highly likely match fixing has taken place in our sport.

Believe me, Widnes were poor but they never gave in. They tried everything to get on the scoreboard and with a couple of decision going their way, they would have scored a couple of tries. I find your post offensive not only to my club but to the players who played out there. If Widnes were taking it easy why would one of Hull KR's halfbacks have to come off due to a broken rib because of a massive hit?

Why pay when you can get something for free? No-one in their right mind would pay widnes to lose.

I would worry more about your club next season. Losing to us and Toronto plus a dubious win over Salford, and they were all at Headingly.

Thanks for missing all the points I made. Union's big sponsors are in for the internationals and their premiership. Do you see big sponsors in lower-tier Union? If not , can't you see the logic that SL directors funding a talented and experienced new commercial team under Robert Elstone is imaginative, long-term investment?

4

I think you are possible right.
I mean, who would have thought the mighty winos would roll over and have their bellies tickled by a bunch of no hopes from Canada.
Unless the RFL whispered in someone's ear.

So you agree then?!? People want to watch ru premiership and internationals that’s what I said and you’ve just agreed with me. People don’t want to watch superleague or rl internationals. Hence the fact the stadiums are half empty and the sponsors and tv money are rubbish.

I have absolutely no idea what sponsors they get in lower tier rugby union but what exactly does that prove? Our lower tiers get naff all too and zero tv viewers. Because it’s not on tv.

Well done for stating the obvious


Now, any ideas on how to change that situation?

First up, The Hearn's have no history of dealing with a team sport successfully and they would want total control, so that's a non starter.

If it were me (and thank god it's not), I'd start with the next TV deal. Regardless of if it's just SKY or there's others interested, we need to have a game on FTA each week, so a major part of the contract needs to be this......if we remain behind a paywall, we will be dead as a sport inside a decade no matter who we employ. Our audience is aging and we aren't replacing them....if that Wire win at Saints had been on the BBC tonight it would have had 1,500,000 viewers tuning in......it'll be lucky to get 10% of that on SKY........