Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.skyspo ... one-rovers

Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.skyspo ... one-rovers

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https The problem with the championship is it’s 2 leagues in 1 you have six clubs who spend money chasing the top 4 and the rest spend virtually nothing so the 2 that don’t make it end up in financial difficulties like this year but are so far ahead in the shield comp that the final was decided before the start

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https The problem with the championship is it’s 2 leagues in 1 you have six clubs who spend money chasing the top 4 and the rest spend virtually nothing so the 2 that don’t make it end up in financial difficulties like this year but are so far ahead in the shield comp that the final was decided before the start

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.skyspo ... one-rovers'" SL clubs funding does depend on their league position , IN SL

Quote ="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Leigh’s financial problems have been well documented and there’s a chance the Leigh club won’t exist in 2019. Featherstone are also in financial difficulty as their central funding is due to decrease by 55% after missing out on the top 4. Surely this funding disparity has to stop, its a recipe for disaster and is going to force clubs out of business. Super League clubs funding doesn’t depend on their league position and neither should the Championship. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.skyspo ... one-rovers'" SL clubs funding does depend on their league position , IN SL

It’s £1.8 million for all Super League clubs

That is one of the great problems with professional RL in this country. We have too many clubs, who have just enough to think about a place at the top table, to have a single sustainable league but not enough clubs to form two self sustaining professional leagues with promotion and relegation. The super eights were an attempt to bridge that gap but have not proved popular. If you want two leagues where teams can move freely between the two you really need two smaller leagues of fully professional teams or two conferences. Neither idea will get much support and both have obvious problems.
Everyone has their own opinion and most of them are like bumholes ( everyone has one and most of them stink, and I include my own (ideas) in that). Personally I would not mind teams who have the money and some kind of plan being invited into an expanded league for a fixed number of seasons even if it means going upto sixteen teams for a short time and reducing the end of season to a four team knockout for a while. You could make relegation based on a system of cumulative finishing positions to reduce the number of dead rubbers in the lower half whilst allowing new clubs to pick two from three.

Anyone know what is going to happen with Fev, heard on proper sport there's an announcement in September. Probably becoming the Rhino's reserve side, or to get around any naming issues 'Gary Hetherington Rovers'

I personally believe the Championship should go it alone and develop itself perhaps even as a rival to Super League rather than feed into it.
If SL will be looking after it's own affairs, even a possible breakaway ala Premier League, then if the RFL can work well with the clubs, they could deliver their own TV and sponsorship deals.

Really it is not rocket science. At the start of a season you work out your minimum income and don't spend more than it. If you have a good year you make a profit, if you have a bad year you break even.

You've hit the nail on the head , Leigh were committed to spending the parachute payment and central funding on players this year , unfortunately that involved more than one year contracts , it is our reduction in funding for next year that is now causing us a problem

There's a Fans Forum later this week and an AGM in October, maybe they mean one of those?

Bad business,,,,,pure and simple, If relegation doesn't void contracts then the owner of that contract has bet it all on red and lost!
Leigh and Delboy are architects of their own demise.....same way bradford were.......but they'll happily blame everyone else.....

The same problem remains for any serious top 4 contender.
They cant compete with a 200k salary cap spend so, they either play with the big boys and risk serious difficulties if the dont finish in the top 4 (Leigh) or do the best they can on a shoe string but dont qualify (Batley).

However, the real issue comes with the cliff edge in funding, coupled with the need to try and offer longer contracts.
It's fair to assume that Toronto, Toulouse, London and Fev are spending significantly more than 200k on player wages and whilst Toronto and London may have wealthy backers that can afford to take a "hit", for clubs like Fev (and Leigh) ,it's imperative that they make the top 4.

Ironically, the massive imbalance in funding came in to allow clubs like Legh to compete with the bottom of SL but, nobody seemed to give any though about what happened when the top 4 sides in the Championship didn't make it.

Income is the concern of the club involved......more fans, sponsors or benefactors money will get you the 4 mill you need.....the method of getting that cash is down to each club and in this case, Leigh bet on the wrong horse......

We weren't relegated therefore couldn't put a clause in the contract that removed players for the second year

Relegation FROM SL does void contracts - how do you think Huddersfield, Salford, Halifax, Leigh, Castleford, Widnes, Bradford, London and HKR, got rid of players and survived from going bust after suffering relegation? The RFL introduced that (compulsory) clause after Workington and Oldham ran into financial trouble on being relegated in the early days of SL. However, only RFL approved caveats/clauses are allowed to be included in players' contracts and, especially given the current funding structure, even though a clause that 'if we don't make top 4' would clearly be of benefit for Championship clubs, it is not allowed - Delboy actually makes reference to it in one of the few coherent passages in his statement of last week.

With the one shot parachute payment we spun the wheel not expecting it to come up green , we are now where we are and will live with the consequences

You don't need a relegation clause - you have a clause stating that the contract would be void if you fail to reach the required league position. That is no more difficult to draft and enforce than a relegation clause.

You have a list of clauses set by the RFL that you can include in playing contracts , I don't think that's on the list

Can you provide the list for us all to see?

I spent many years in Sales. I had targets and if I hit these or overachieved, I was paid well and received bonus payments.....if I missed them, I would have received less pay and eventually would have been fired. The Leigh squad under performed in 2018 and not by just the 1 win either....they should have comfortably been 2nd and challenging for a spot in the MPG, but weren't and as a result, their contracts should be able to include "penalty" clauses for missing their target, because as much we love the sport, the sport is a business.

Over the years, via my job, I have been privvy to hundreds of sporting contracts. Not just in rugby league, but also union and football and I have never seen that clause. Know why? Good luck getting someone to sign a contract that could be torn up if they dont hit a certain position in the league. Its the same with the relegation clause. These are extremely rare and are usually in the form of a cut in wages, not the contract torn up.

Regards

King james

A couple of years ago, Fax players were subject to a 10% cut in their pay across the board whether regardless of their contract position. They were given the option of leaving if they didn't want to accept the cut. IIRC no-one left. The "carrot" was to reinstate the 10% based on making top 4, which Fax did, and all the players got their 10% back, albeit as an end of season bonus.

I'm sure that there must be ways and means of adding clauses into contracts that protect the club depending on outcomes.

No , can you ?

As I put earlier as I understand it the parachute payment was only available if it was spent , I assume that would be in the form of Leigh committing to a certain level of salary cap , so if you don't reach that level on your contracts , you don't get the money

Catch 22