Quote ="OFFTHECUFF"What has football clubs in debt got to do with expansion of rugby league?So it is ok to leave blackpool and whitehaven into administration, but it is fine for celtic to go in debt twice during 12 months.Footballers always get paid too much, but that means nothing at what i am stating.London has been in Superleague for yrs and their fan base should be at least near 6000 or 7000 on average.As i said i was based in London and they are not interested in league, compared to football and rugby union.I would not go and watch Widnes rugby union, so my point is you will never get rid of the interest in football and rugby union.Clubs like Widnes,Fax,Leigh,and barrow should have a chance in the top tier.The sport is run by cowboys, and i suppose if your team HKR was replaced by an expansion team, then would you be happy?'"
It's been pretty much unequivocally stated by the RFL's chief operating officer that 'without London I don't think we'd have Sky'. The original blueprint for Superleague was that there would be teams in the North East, in Cumbria, London and France, Sky never funded Superleague on the basis of it being a competition for Yorkshire and Lancashire. I can understand peoples frustration when they think their club could do a better job than London, but it's not as simple as that, if the presence of London prevents the professional game from collapsing, then they are vital for the long term future of the game.
