So watching Warrington and Wigan, I was again left thinking that the top clubs in SL and the NRL are separated only by form.

I really want to see a real Champions League with the top 4 clubs from each league and NZ Warriors and Catalan included. I've chucked my idea in full here [size=150=#FF0000I need to read the AUP before I post again.[/size

Most of you English are eternally pessimistic about your SL and national side, but I see no reason why the top SL clubs couldn't win a proper Champions League. What do you reckon?

I'd take this every other year in place of Test Matches which are dying a slow death I think with the constant repetition of tri/four nations since 2004.

Would be great to see. BUT once it got took seriously, surely we'd start losing, much like the WCC.

But it's league, big ideas aren't ever going to be given the go ahead or sponsored or backed.

the ESL grand finalists v the NRL grand finalists, 2 semi finals split into SL v NRL then a final.......held down under in feb...simples

What? Held down under in Feb, when neither side will be ready?

Balls. Hold it in July instead of the Challenge Cup.

Why not in October, when those finalists still have roughly the same squads?

If you recall in about the third year of Super League we had a mid-season competition between all the Super League clubs and the Aussie Clubs.

Apart from the odd exception the Aussies won hands down but it was still good to watch.
The format wasn't quite right but instead of allowing it to evolve it to a regular feature it was scrapped after the first year.

If we'd persevered with it we may now have had a top class international comp.

So Catalan or New Zealand Warriors don't have to be good to play in it. Hardly a Champions League.

They are the best teams in NZ and France so it would make perfect sense.

And I've read your proposal. You call it a Champions League but then say it should be a closed shop, based upon attendances and squad depth. How is that a Champions League? So how do Wire beat Hull? Because they've had two good years? Hull have a bigger fanbase than both Wire and Saints. Go back five years and the Bulls would have been in there.

Also, who would benefit financially? The participating clubs? Why should they get richer on the back of a closed shop? Equally, why would they take part if the shares are spoiled, so they can put out burned out players.

Ill-thought out nonsense.

They are the only top flight clubs in those countries. On that basis, we should get a trophy, because we are the best side in Wakefield (although we would probably lose in the final).

I know most people in Wakefield no nothing of the world outside it, but its not a country.

I must admit, I enjoyed the daliance with ELS vs NRL, but it would just show us up. WOuld like to see it again though.

I think you'd accept that we are a breed of homo sapiens unlike anything found anywhere else. That makes us a race.

The problem with the proposal is that two of the teams play in the same league as the actual champions. You could have the situation where neither of the finalists of the "Champions League" even made the play-offs.

So make it a pure champions league, and have the best from each league. But if it is to have any interest, SL has to play NRL in each game, and so you could end up with two NRL sides playing each other to prove themselves champions when they had done that shortly before in the Grand Final.

The World Club Challenge does the job well enough. It only works in football because of the number of leagues, and I kinda think that the players play enough games as it is. What benefit is there for any of the clubs? To say that they are the best team across the world? As there are only two leagues, hardly a boast.

Aren't Castleford the best team in Wakefield?

Only if you will admit you are the best team in the city of Manchester.

Right back at ya!

Why not have it every four years, and have the league winners from the previous four years, and if there's a overlap where if one team won it twice, the minor premier or second place would take the place, plus Catalans Dragons and NZ Warriors. It could be held in November the year after the World Cup, and could be held alternatively between Britain and Australia, get a sponsorship deal, we've got an event there.

This is evidently a numpty's a idea. More games? after 27 rounds of SL, 5 CC matches, IO match(es), the play offs, grand final, the four nations?

But Salford isn't in the City of Manchester though. Castleford is in the City of Wakefield. So why should he have to admit something that isn't true?

Cas is not in the city, its on the outskirts of the district - there's a difference

I thought I'd made it clear that I see it like licensing. If another club was to raise the standard, say a Hull or South Sydney, then sure; bring them in. If we go off league position only, we could end up with a poorly performing club with a low fan base. The NRL teams in particular often crash from top 4 to last in a season.

Obviously the best way to do it is on the sporting field... but does it not defeat the purpose of a theoretically glamourous league to have a Manly or Cronulla or Huddersfield playing when they might, in each clubs case, have a diabolical "stadium" or low potential support base?

Willzay: Again, I thought I'd made it clear I intended for a reduction in the number of league games - something which should undoubtably happen anyway. The actual issue would be accommodating the clubs missing out on a few weekends of footy.

Re: Catalan and NZ. Both clubs are almost certain to be there or thereabouts longterm due to junior bases or finances. They're also the sort of clubs with the attacking culture to win one off games.

Cas is in the City of Wakefield.

I personally think that we NEED something like this in the calendar if we're ever going to get over this feeling that the Aussies are by far superior. We need to be showing more regularly that we can beat them, and if we can't then we need to at least display to our boys the level they need to reach more often than they are. We go into the internationals pretty cold every year off the back of a less intense competition so this would definitely help, as well as a much bigger media interest.

The problem is there is nowhere in the calendar to fit it. Replacing internationals is just a massive no-no. There's too few as it is.
You'd have to cut the SL down to accommodate it, and then you'd have to have fixtures for the remaining SL clubs as they'd lose revenue.

Could always have a World Club Cup for the top 4, World Club Trophy for 5th-8th, World Club Vase for 9th-12th and World Club Plate for 13th-16th (invite two other teams to make up the 8 teams), but I'd imagine that that would be quite expensive to run (although they had all teams in the expanded WCC in 1997). Would get a lot more interest than your typical SL game that's for sure.

The district has city status. Therefore, Cas is in the City of Wakefield. Wakefield itself is just a small area within the 'City of Wakefield'.

I like it other than the bit about NZ Warriors and Catalans. They should both have to earn the right to play in it.

I would say the finalists from each nation along with the next ranked team.

Wigan, Warrington, Saints facing Melbourne, Manly and Brisbane would be awesome.