yes.

It is the RFL who would have the power to make that decision , the reason they don't is exactly the same one as licensing to SL , the clubs most at risk are the expansion clubs

The top amateur clubs haven't as for as I know asked to be admitted to the Championships , if you know differently , then please tell us which ones they are

Which was just the same prior to licensing , unless you were Cas , then the RFL change the criteria for you

But location is not a criteria for admittance to the premiership

Will Widnes replace an expansion club ?, despite an expansion club being the weakest in SL

The only reason for licensing is the need for expansion

Football is in a far better position for promotion and relegation than RL. How many clubs in the Football League are Full Time? All of them. How many in the RL Championship? It's a completely different situation.

Although, if somehow Shorpe United managed to get a promotion spot, do you think the Premier League would let them in at Glanford Park?


And what's your point?
Hunslet won the Championship 1 this year and will play in the Championship. Thatto Heath won the BARLA First Division and played their first game in the BARLA Premier Division this weekend. Which league are the BARLA Champions playing in next year? Not the league above, that's for sure. But I don't hear any campaigning about that...

Maybe because they have no wish to move up

Because football is a world sport. It doesn't need an expansion policy.

Why does it matter if they replace an expansion club? If the PURE reason was expansion, then the only reason they'd change licenses would be to expand surely? Unless there was perhaps another reason for licensing that would require two NON-EXPANSION clubs to change? What would that be?

Just because a club wishes to move up doesn't mean it is ready to.

So you admit that RL has an expansion policy that affects it's running of the game

that would be like admitting we had a player policy, or a spectator policy or a sponsorship policy. Scandalous!

This time is the only time a heartland club will go into SL , unless a club financially collapses

This time is all about righting a wrong done last time

So you are suggesting that Leigh East want to move up to Championship 1 ?

Even so, you get the likes of Man U making a big push to attract interest from the far east, and repeated talk of the EPL including Scottish teams.

Yes. When did I suggest they didn't?

To say this is the only time it will happen is a poor effort. You can't argue on an assumption. You have no idea if that is the case and I don't believe it will be for one second.

So they have an expansion policy that requires then to introduce licensing

How did you get that from what I said?

Although that wasn't the point I was trying to make at all, there were rumours last year that they wanted to move up.

How do you work that out? Just because they have an expansion policy doesn't mean they require the licensing system. They had an expansion policy well before the licensing system.

You can fool some of the people all the time , you obviously are one of those






it was all a Pishtake

I follow AFC Fylde at football.
We aim to be in the football league in 2022 (thats the clubs and fans goal - its carried on our shirts), so long as we update our ground accordingly (to keep in line with ground regulations) with each step up and win the games that gain us promotion (promotion and relegation exists in our league , you could say we are in Division 8 of the football pyramid) then we will be in the Football league.
Because we have a vision (and nothing that really blocks that vision becoming reality - except ourselves) we are able to secure some good backers at our level and are progressing well in our aims.

Returning to the thorny issue of Mr Lewis and those of similar standing in the RFL..............
RL has always been a great game but always struggled to sell the quality product and experience of watching a live game to a wider audience in the UK, plenty have always felt let down by the games governing body to properley expand the game, I do feel today though many also feel isolated or left out from what once was a RL family (and marketed as such).

Richard Lewis's time at the helm has been eventful and I suppose it depends on which side of the fence your club is on whether you agree with his visions and thoughts or not.
Personally he lost a lot of credibility with myself after the last franchise when being interviewed live on BBC Local tv when he stated Celtic Crusaders (as was) had a better youth , ground and support than Leigh Centurions , whether you are a fan of his (and his policys) or not it showed he was either easily lead or badly informed - neither are good things for a person who is the public figure restructuring our game.

One area I do feel that fallen somewhat during his time at the helm has been the International game.
I used to look forward to watching Internationals at Wembley , Old Trafford and Elland Road (or grounds of similar size), not always packed out by any stretch of the imagination but at least a bold step to sell the game (ironically I remember feeling annoyed at how few big posters we had on the Underground to promote the Wembley fixtures - I suspect we now don't tell the people of our biggest City we play league Internationally anymore let alone where its at).

One other thing under Lewis's stewardship to drop (but not totally his fault) is the RL player profile - the games known personalities.
I don't know much about American Football or Basketball but can name you a few players, in RL we used to have Hanley , Edwards, Schoefield , Offiah and Davies etc known for being great RL players to the non RL audience (in Davies case a truelly great rugby player), we've had Farrell and to a lessor degree Sculthorpe and Robbie Paul but where are the current bunch ?
Does AN Other of Gravesend know who our big players are, more worrying does AN Other of Whitehaven know as the change in the game has seen old RL towns lose some interest ?

And that leads me on to my final point, expansion.
I am a total RL expansion fan , but IMO what I'm seeing (and have seen) isn't expansion in the true form.
Gaining a 1,000 fans in Wrexham but losing a 1,000 in Halifax doesn't properley expand our game to other people.
Under R Lewis's stewardship we have some bold moves to break into new areas but we have also lost some old fans dissilousioned by policys that are often unchallenged or explained.
To give a good example of the above - many expected Celtic to go to SL ,wasn't ideal but it seemed to be Lewis's vision so it was natural he would choose that path for RL / SL to move forward, but rather than saying Celtic would go up along with 1 establised club we had the situation wherby we are expected to believe that Celtic had a better franchise bid than Widnes (with established gates - and a equally rich backer) or any other of the clubs fighting for (what turned into) a non existant Franchise spot.
History (regretfully) showed this to be untrue with Celtic having a multitude of problems on & off the park , fortunatly for us all Wrexham FC needed a club to help get some finance in and the club survived - ironically though we managed to isolate a set of new RL supporters with our quick departure from South Wales !

Currently I'm typing on a forum that has had nearly 3 years of discussion with plenty of for and against the way the game is currently being run.
Franchising IMO has been the most emotive and controversial (or groundbreaking depending on your take of it) thing to come out of RL in my time watching the game (even SL being formed didn't generate as much passion or comment for so long).
Whenever Lewis does leave this will be what he probably gets remembered for most, lets hope for all the current fans of all RL clubs that history shows these decisions to be the right ones.

Good for Fylde. How dramatically does that differ to e.g. Hemel? You're not going to go through promotion/relegation between each league based solely on on-field results. Neither would an RL team.
Or would you prefer to have a system like rugby league, where instead of being dependant on the vagaries of results, you could earn your promotions on the strength of the club, rather than simply the strength of the team?

possibly quite different , Fylde despite being in close proximity to Blackpool would not have to satisfy a location criteria , you use Hemel as an example , why , they are a long way away from being at the top of the amateur game , what if it is Bramley who want to move up to the semi pro ranks ?

Fylde with have a number of criteria at each stage, some they'll meet and some they won't. Just the same.

I only used Hemel rather than Bramley because I'm a little bit more familiar with them.

Yes they will , to be promoted they will have to finish in a promotion place ON the pitch , unlike RL