What is it with the idiots at the rfl we should have relegation and promotion

5 minutes before the announcement is certainly the time to voice those views.

Behave, this is the situation we are in and lets hope the best club is chosen and lets hope they are a success.

Widnes it is then!

Congratulations Widnes.

Loving those Widnes fans



Sky can sure pick 'em

Ha, i was thinking, 'oh dear God' when they were speaking to them.

As for the license, I don't think it's a joke, I just think they should look at maybe 2 years instead of 3, or bringing back promotion/relegation pretty soon.

Back to the days of overspending on players in order to survive, instead of being able to bring along local youngsters and spend on the facilities instead?...no thanks.

Well we all knew widnes was going to come up funny how they only had cameras there but not at halifax or barrow

I'm glad they have come up cause what happened 3 years ago was harsh but for me bring fax up and leave it at 16 teams

Not sure about that Geoff. Plenty of teams in Super League who have spent nowt on their facilities and plenty outside of Super League who have. Likewise with youth development.

and two teams in the SL have gone bust, the exact thing that this was supposed to help stop against.
not too sure that it is really working.

I just think 3 years is along time maybe 2 yrs but I think relegation and promotion keeps a good crop of English players getting a chance to play super league out of the league. If a team is bottom of the league e.g catalans or wakey then they should go down it adds excitement in the championship and makes team play better so they don't get the drop

I think this way is better. I think Tomkins wouldnt have played until Madge if Noble didnt have that security of no relegation and I think theres other teams taking chances on youngsters that they just wouldnt if they didnt have that security.

I was quite intrigued by the point from Lewis that Halifax may still come in. Does anyone think who the second team could be? Because I know Crusaders went under but I just cannot see them giving up on the Welsh franchise tbh.

In theory those sides are going to be kicked out. Hopefully Wakefield are the ones making way for Widnes, which would show that the franchise system is working.

Lets hope the RFL have the bottle to go through with getting rid of a team, i not too sure i have much confidence in them to follow up with this franchise system

Bradford have spent nowt on their ground. Leeds is still very poor for away fans. Cas and Wakefield still play in 19th century grounds while Saints and Salford are only just finally pulling their fingers out after years of empty promises.

Can't kick them all out, surely?!

He's not going to turn round and say no they wont come up this time is he

Wakey down widnes up we all knew

If you read the BBC web site on this news it says Widnes previous applications were turned down as much for their lack of youth development as any previous financial problems. They were told to addressed that issue, did so, and got a franchise. So that says to me without being forced into it they would most likely not have done it. At the very least it shows teams that don't have youth development won't get into SL. With simple P&R that stick does not exist.

One of which, quite rightly IMO, looks like dropping out because of it.

I doubt we'd have seen the new grounds, either already built or under way, at Salford, Leigh, Cas and maybe even Saints without the franchising system.

Terry Matterson made the point on SKY a few weeks ago, that he was happy to be able to promote his youngsters without the fear of relegation.

Playing strength can vary on a week-to-week basis, let alone year on year, so to make decisions based solely on that is short-sighted.

To take last year's Championship GF as an example, does anyone really think it's fair to make such an important decision on the basis of whether a drop goal in Golden Point time goes over or not?

But its not all about the grounds is it, it is about the whole package they offer.

After the first round of franchising it is to soon to judge the success of franchising either way, but there are signs it is working. Look at the young players now being brought through at clubs like Castleford as they can now plan for the 3 years rather than having to look for quick fixes to stop them being relegated that season.

At the end of the new round of franchises I would hope we would be very much seeing the benefits at all levels, if not then perhaps it will need to be reconsidered.

Makes me laugh as one team has been brought in and yet they havent even looked at the other applicants. What if Wakey have a better application than Widnes? Will they still be kicked out? What if every club has a better application than Widnes?

Great news. Another local derby to look foward to, in addition I'm sure they will bring more fans to the DW than the team leaving SL ever did...(prob Wakey) - this can only be good for Wigan.

Welcome back Widnes.

Its not not practical to have P&R every season. Whoever goes down loses all their players (they become free agents) and this has to occur because of the much smaller salary cap in NL1. So if that is the case what 's the point of spending years developing your own players just for other clubs to pick up your team for free if you get relegated? Given the disparity between SL and NL1 in terms of money its just not like the old days where a side might lose a few star players it could keep its team and try to get back up the season after. The relegated team is literally gutted of its players.

Even in the old days it was certainly true if the relegated team came back up the next season they were favourites for the drop again so what was the point in that?

Then they would have eventually been found out if playing at the top level and relying on buying in talent - it would have been their loss if they hadn't brought through talent and I don't think it's necessarily up to the RFL to decide that.


The plans for the LSV were first announced in 2002 Geoff so that would have happened without franchising, although I do agree on the others.


Young players will always be brought through regardless of promotion and relegation - even we managed it on our last two excursions to the top flight.

Moreover it makes no sense to boot them out for poor facilities given their support.