Well done to Blackpool Football Club

A fairly small club...with great history...who have now been given the chance to play in the PL through THEIR OWN ACHIEVEMENTS!!!!!

I don't care what people think, scrapping automatic promotion through how sport SHOULD be played is just WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I don't even feel i have to justify an argument, i still can't believe what the RFL have done scrapping what should be a fundamental right for automatic promotion

You won't have a feeling being promoted on paper as you will in Blackpool today.

Yeah, imagine how great it will be for them when they realise in a few days that they are going to get hammered every week in a stadium that holds roughly half as much as the second lowest average attendance in the league. Thankfully this won't cause too many problems in football due to the sheer magnitude of the Premier League.

P&R DID NOT work in RL, the sport isn't big enough and there aren't enough competitive teams to justify it, the euphoria of one day is not enough to justify the overwhelming amount of negatives, it was a system that made absolutely zero sense and scrapping it is one of the best things the RFL has ever done.

i actually agree..when the Giants got promoted to Super League after winning the NFP grand final it was a great feeling compared to 1997 when we were just 'put' in by the RFL.

A question Daz, after not losing a game all season, what would you have thought if we lost that game?


Headhunter is right, Blackpool will get flogged in the Premier league, their ground is a joke for the level they now find themselves, and they will exit at the end of the season in a financial mire.

codey - i would have been shocked for a start but if Leigh had have performed better on the day then fair play to them, thats how it goes.
Thats what made it more exciting because the best team on the day got the rewards

P & R still exists, it's just that it is now every three years and not based solely on on field performance. Any negatives that might have existed for the relegated team are still there for an existing SL team that does not have its license renewed, except now there is no chance of getting back in SL the following season so its actually much worse.

P & R as was, was never structured in a way that was fair to the promoted team. As far as I am concered that was the only problem with it.

Maybe they will come to their senses and go and compete in the North West Counties League with no ambition

Can't really argue with that, I meant P&R as in automatic promotion, the way the OP was describing it. Teams wont be relegated unless they deserve it though so no issues with them not being able to bounce straight back either, if a teams is relegated it will take a few years to get out of whatever mess it is in.

Blackpool (As i know) run their football club on a sound financial footing (unlike the 'bigger' Cardiff well in debt)

If a RL club runs on the same footing WHO CARES if they get promoted and become whipping boys and go straight back down...i mean REALLY who does...surely not the fans of that club who have has a shot at SL...and surely not the fans of other clubs who wont be relegated.

All this current system is doing is slowing any 'yo-yo' Cas in recent years (West Brom in football) down.

If people take the time to go back through the league tables over the last 50 years, sides were up and down all the time and RL was in just as good health as it is now.

My main point though is it losses all the ESSENCE that makes sport great.

Have to say I think Blackpool will be in anything but a financial mire. The Premiership will give them funds they could never of dreamed of before and with the 4 year parachute payments around now this can only be a good thing for them.

Exactly,a guaranteed 90 million and if they get relegated payments for a further 4 years.

It never was before licensing though was it, just ask Hunslet etc
There is nothing wrong with minimum requirements for promotion, I find the idea of closing the door for three years to be wrong in most circumstances, I agreed that Catalans should get it but fell it was used as a thin edge of a wedge



It would have been easy to change that disadvantage by changing the structure of the season, and it would have improved Rugby League as a whole, it is a shame those options were not considered

Scrapping P + R as we had it shows a lack of ambition for me, the aim should be two professional divisions of 12, and the current system seems to be giving up on that

No it doesn't, how could standards possibly improve with a few clubs bouncing between full-time and part-time leagues?

part time isnt professional

imo without religation huddersfield as a club would not be were they are now and
imo without the threat of religation wakefield as a club would not be were they are now.
in fact imo both of these teams would still be content taking SKYS money and propping up the rest of SLE along with salford just like they were before huddersfield got religated.

Our second tier simply isn't strong enough for promotion and relegation at the moment imo, we don't have enough players in RL still. Whoever gets relegated first will be stuck in limbo for years.

in which sport is the second tier strong enough for P&R ?
which sport has enough players comming through the rank for the top tier?
imo if a club is going to make a go of it in SLE it starts in the boardroom and having a very good coach if you get those right you have as much chance of doing well as any club outside the top six.

Rubbish, one of the teams will definately be promoted, it's not certain which it shall be and of those not "chosen" there are several that are worthy



correct, the top league expanding to 14 hasnt helped, how is licensing helping?



IF that is true then it will be the fault of the licensing system, under the previous system well managed teams have gone down and come back up stronger, teams also built from the lower divisions to the SL



if you dont understand that, it means the long term aim should be two divisions of full time teams

I was agreeing with you, read my post. There's no way that things could have ever hoped to improve under the old system, not in a million years would we have been able to have two full-time divisions with full-time teams constantly being relegated into and subsequently dominating a part-time league. No clubs could progress and it was just a stupid, stupid system that made no sense.

The difference in football is that firstly the game is so rich compared to RL that clubs financially can compete, and are not immeasurably damaged by being relegated for a season, secondly the nature of the game means that it's far easier for less strong sides on paper to compete, and most importantly it's promotion and relegation between two full time divisions. The system we had in RL was just utterly absurd.

Im not so sure

I cant see how the current system can lead to two full time divisions, Id be happy if it did

I've edited my post while you were typing. Once we have 20 or so teams capable of competing, I would be happy to see the league split into two divisions.

as we only have two teams that can compete with each other without SKY TV money you've got a hell of a long time to wait.

just watched an interview with ian holloway...you should to watch it...what a breath of fresh air that man is.he epitomises what sport should be all about fair play and level playing fields and all that stuff.

I really couldnt less what happened in the soccer