So the RL have now openly come out and stated their intention to kill off professional rugby outside of SL. By telling everyone except Widnes they can't qualify for SL (except foreign teams of course, we can't have too many of them) and by telling everyone outside SL except Widnes they can't have a scholarship team, they have made their stance pretty clear. The rest of us are left with nothing and no hope. One day when SKY finally pull out of RL future generations will bitterly regret these decisions. We will be left with Professional Rugby Union and only amateur Rugby League. God bless you Red Hall..

As I said on the other thread this is catastrophic decision.


If this is true (and I struggle to accept it because it seems such a nonsense) I would rather my club do one of three things:-

• Pack it all in.
• Switch to Rugby Union.
• Try to form a breakaway league with the other Championship and C1 clubs and negotiate a small TV deal with ITV or similar.

It’s like being held prisoner at gunpoint by a psycho who’s starving you to death. Better to try and escape and risk going down fighting than staying put to suffer a slow lingering death.

Agree totally with what you say ,i wish i was a millionaire then i would take the lot of them to court ,it shouldn't be allowed .There needs to be someone who says "hang on a minute ,you cant do that "like they have the house of lords to pass things ,the RFL should have to put forward any changes .

RUGBY LEAGUE, IS NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE - OFFICIALLY F***ED !

Could Championship/Championship 1 sides continue with their scholarship schemes and just ignore the RFL? (who don't seem to realise what's going on most of the time, anyway!) Maybe they could hold 'friendly' fixtures (just like the first teams, really!) against each other?

You all seem to be giving the RFL credit for double standards. (i.e. To get into SL you must have a youth policy - you can't have a youth policy) It could just be a case of the right hand and left hand not being connected to the same 'brain'!

Whats going to happen to the relegated SL club, will it be the end of their aspirations of returning to the "top flight"or will they be allowed to have a scholarship

Breakaway or die it appears.

Sad but true Demon

What is the point then in Widnes being in the championship next year. It will give a false league and could deprive a team from making the criteria from the next round. I say Widnes feck off now!!!!!!!!

I also won't be visiting the bigger champ clubs next season and beyond as I do not want to help with their crowd averages or turnover either.

....as predicted by many. Always said a breakaway is the only real genuine option, but comes down to all clubs supporting it and probably throwing some funding into a pot.

It won't make the slightest difference, the criteria had to fulfilled last year or this year and there is no way we will get in next time either, it will be Barcelona Barracudas or Stockholm Seagulls etc

What is the point of the Championship next season? Nothing tp play for. Crowds will be even lower now there is NO chance of promotion. No ambitious players will want to come to Championship teams and no youth to bring through. This is the worst position RL has ever been in. It is so short sighted to base a whole sport on 14 teams and one satellite TV channel. Someone needs to do something, we can't let this happen, can we?

The RFL, shortsighted? Never

They've been short sighted for years, but this is blind

The RFL would be stuffed bout the teams below SL, if the Champs and Barla got together too form there own Comp, the RFL would be screwed.

Yet another kick in the nads for anyone outside the golden arches of S/L.



Well done to the RFL for ruining the game we all knew and loved

Uncle Mo started this almost 20 years ago

Dickie as followed in his footsteps !

God I really wish Sky would pull the plug on it NOW !!

It ( Championship etc) needs a total split from the RFL

........but it won't happen.

Clubs cannot survive on a thin diet of glorified friendlies like we have at present , there's more chance of Atherton Laburnham Rovers getting into the Premier League than Leigh, Featherstone etc getting into Super League.



This league is in effect now on a par with the Co-op Summer Conference and the like's of Warrington Wizards .........no matter what happens on or off the pitch ....your going nowhere !!



Results like Sunday's are still

but in the big picture it's as important as the PSF's in January....

All clubs now outside SL need to break away or die, Red Hall continue to make the rules up as they go along ,Darts did it in 80's why cant Rugby league ,not done them any harm has it.
It was always going to be for ever more a closed shop only Widnes to make the grade and that is it. With out promotion and relegation that is the biggest clearest message yet, be a good idea for all fans outside SL run up a petition to number 10 and get this sorted once and for all.
Or protest outside major SL games now that would get noticed cant fine the fans can they,we are being starved until we all die we need to wake up big time before its to late then again it may already be the case.

I have been following rugby for 25 of my 32 years of being around. For the last ten years I have been a season ticket holder at Leigh. And upto the last two years myself and my partener used to go to the away matches as well. I have been to grand finals even when my club isnt playing. We have been to Challenge cup finals. We have been to internationals/four nations matches. We have both bought Leigh merchandise each buying a top every season and now we have two little lads we kit them out as well.

Next season I wont be doing any of this. This isnt a knee jerk reaction to last Sundays result, no it is a gradual erosion of interest in the pro game and a growing hatred of the RFL. I have spent all day thinking about how short sighted the rfl are being and how they are destroying our game at every level.

I have spoke to fans of super league clubs and they are in agreement with me. I have spoken to people who have no real interest in rugby and they just shake their heads in disbelief. I honestly have never felt so down about the sport in general. I think back to the eighties when international matches used to be played in front of decent crowds at Wembley/Old Trafford. I remember back in the eighties when cup semis used to be played in front of decent crowds at places like Maine road. Now we struggle to get anywhere near filling stadia like the jjb for internationals and the rfl have decided that the semi on Saturday at Huddersfield will only have three sides open due to the low ticket sales.

I am totally sick at what the rfl have done to our game. So much that until drastic changes are made I will not be spending anymore of my brass on anything rugby related whatsoever. I have just bought myself a caravan and the money I would have spent on rugby is going on family holidays away with the kids. I know that this affects my club but unfortunatley on a value for money basis playing glorified friendlies in a near empty stadium just doesnt compare.

I am sorry if this goes against the grain and I am gutted that it has come to this but I see no future in RFL. The scary thing is I that I think that there a lot more like me feeling exactly the same way.

Phil

Then by doing this the Boffers at Red Hall win only the club you have supported all your life suffer,do you honestly think by doing what you say your going to do will effect those at the top ''NOT A CHANCE''

Its the RFL that need punishing not Leigh. Give up the GFs/CC final/Internationals before you give up on your club

Who gives a f*** about SL. We are not ready for SL. Fluking a place in SL now would just give us 2005 all over again but for 3 years. We aren't even successful at the level we are at now at the moment. We are in a great comp that is unpredictable and all some people can post are SL this and SL that, with the usual suspects starting it off with their opinions.
I really want us to make the GF, but there is a small part of me kind of hoping we don't so we can't apply.

If you want to destroy the club instead of just plain getting used to it and getting on with it then keep talking and posting such negativity to ensure more don't watch us.

now we know that even if we do win the GF we still cannot apply

Now if you were the person who had been tipping 100's of 1,000's of pounds in those 2/3 years tp allow you to apply , how would you feel about it ?

If it was your job to go out and try to entice somebody to come in and support your club financially , you had done this by pointing out that if you made a GF you could apply , and then with 6 months of the qualifying period left the criteria was changed , what would your answer be to that person ?

I like you dont want us in SL till we are ready , but this is simply becoming a farce

I wonder, Steve, if the person you are talking about, (and his Board) and those like him at other Championship clubs, will get together and consider taking our excellent Competition away from the suffocating dictatorship of Red Hall and the so-called 'Super' League?

This is a serious question - I'm not knocking anything you say, as I agree 100%. Not knocking Widnes either - in all truth I believe they are probably the best equipped Championship club, (currently) to be offered a 'franchise'. Yet I still have a nagging doubt about whether they will be the 'chosen one'.