Andy Burnham wants to see promotion & relegation brought back

A prominent politician is leading a campaign to bring back promotion and relegation to rugby league's Super League.

Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham wants the Rugby Football League to scrap the licensing system, saying it's damaging the game.

The Leigh MP has written an open letter highlighting the issue and inviting fans to add their support.

Badda bing badda boom www.andyburnham.net/

Badda bing badda boom www.andyburnham.net/

Quote ="DARE"Badda bing badda boom www.andyburnham.net/'" Cool. My name added to the letter.

Quote ="DARE"Badda bing badda boom www.andyburnham.net/'" Cool. My name added to the letter.

This is just going to be seen as yet another moaning Leyther.

I don't think its the first time he's said something about the licensing issue

well, I kind of thought that my constant wailing and bleating about the unfairness of the licence system was restricted to me and my contempories down here in the sludge.

But, (and you won't find to many posts from me reflecting Cas fans in a positive light), some cas fans on their forum were advocating a return to P&R knowing that they would be in a scrap and at least their season would have some meaning. The odd Wakey fan has suggested something similar.

I am begining to feel a growing resentment of this bloody system and that changes are afoot. Just hope it's not P&R lite - as the RFL are capable of.

Im sure the email system at Red Hall has already sent an automated response stating :-
Investment
Development
Sponsorship
Stability
Blah Blah Blah.....
With an introductory line of we welcome any thoughts, views, comments or questions and thank you for your letter...

The letter or email will then be filed in Trash or Junk.

Maybe Nigel conveniently spilled his extra mayo, ketchup or chicken gravy on this one and it was unfortunately spoiled.

I mean who do we, and these people think we are to question our overlords

Andy Burnham is a good bloke. He has close connections to Supporters Direct.

I think the damage is allready done, the problem is the gap is now so wide between SL and the Championship any team promoted without substantial finacial backing is likely to come straight back down again.
Even with the dosh it would still be hard to compete straight away.
I just can't ever see it happening, too many of the SL clubs are just not wanting it, in fact they want to reduce the number of clubs there so as to have even more money to share between the survivers of the cull which will make the gap even bigger.
I don't even know if I even care anymore,sad I know but I have no faith in the powers that be whatsoever, gradualy the game has been ruined by those running the game.
I am just concetrating on the Championship which at the moment is a dam good comp considering how we have been hung out to dry.

This.

Having read the wakey,salford,cas.london and widnes MBs then i'm not really sure i want sl .Infact i'd go as far as to say i wish they would just reduce sl to 10 clubs and then they should go there own way and leave the rest of us to just get on with it

12 clubs and P&R. Possibly 2 up & down.

Good luck to the fella, he has my backing. Can't help thinking this ship has sailed and he'd have more success standing on a cliff pi$$ing into a force ten gale.

Many previous threads have covered this but like the previous posts its hard to see things ever changing for the greater good.

On the exact same page of the league paper on Monday where this article was, was a story about the wigan boss pushing for toulose to get the next franchise as this is what the big four clubs want.

Call me paranoid but little things like this plus throw away comments by the likes of hetherington a few weeks ago regarding his desire to play a union club as a trial match using a hybrid set of rules certainly alarm me more than a decade ago when wigan did something similar.

Get ready for super league 2 where the bottom of super league are packed in with us and the less fortunate championship one clubs are left scrapping for no hope of promotion from a soon to be barely semi pro league.

If the smaller clubs get a chance to gain promotion into any future new fob off league then bring it on. Let the lesser super league teams join us, have an even better league than we currently have, which is already a great and close contest, and leave the so called big boys to it. Let's face it, franchising was supposed to balance out all the teams yet its still the same teams winning the thing and more than before are going belly up.

Good luck Mr. Burnham, you clearly see what's right, shame you're not in the red hall ivory tower!

It doesnt help the cause when you have Cullen lying on national tv about Fax and their "financial crisis" in competing with Widnes [urlhttp://www.skysports.com/tv_show/story/0,,12387_7774173,00.html[/url

Which financial crisis was this? The one where we lost against Cas in the GF and went bust....oh no....that was Widnes.

Makes sense Cullen.

He is a complete prat, and shows why hes a sportsman and not a Barrister.
Clubs and business from top to bottom have had financial crisis since money was first printed and institutions formed. What he doesn't comprehend is the higher you are and the more you borrow, the further you fall, Leeds Utd, Glasgow Rangers, Bradford Bulls, Eurozone etc RL is deluded if it thinks closing ranks generates innovation and competition.
Whats more disappointing is how many clubs could have been helped without this SL folly and cradling of clubs like the Bulls.
Rant over..

p.s let them close shop even further and have Euro SL of 10, i'm all for it, go knock yourselves out Red Hall.

Cullen and many others in SL are missing the point. Widnes would be where we are without O'Connor and so too would half of SL (without their benefactors). Those that regularly pull in 10,000+ have a chance - the rest of them cannot sustain a FT squad without philanthropic support. Halifax are testament to that - so too more recently are the giant club Bradford Bulls. The game has tried to sustain full time status when in reality it should be playing semi-pro until such time as a better TV deal comes along or crowds increase. However it could be argued that they'd only spend it further on salaries and would be no better off. It is important to stress that this isn't just prevalent in Rugby League.

Love it or hate it - franchising is here to stay and there's no place for Halifax without better attendances and a backer. IMO the alternative we have now (Championship RL) still whets my appetite for the game and if all else above us crumbles in administration, little old Halifax will still be around in a competitive league. Leave them to it i say .....................