in three years time maybe so, maybe sky will pay that £100k per season and the £100k currently coming from the RFL can go to the amateur game



Toulouse arent a mid/lower club, they may have finished there last year but they have a long and distinguished history in the LER and only 3 years ago a semi pro/LER Toulouse were in the semi final of the Challenge cup having beaten Widnes, and in 2005 and 2006 they were LER grand finalists and have been in 4 of the last 9 championships

In three years time Toulouse will get a SL franchise , so how will they help to get additional SKY support then [ that is if SKY are not already paying





All irrelivant , just history

maybe so, maybe another french club without SL ambition like Pia or Lezignan will take their place? maybe along with a Scottish/Irish side? maybe these things were discussed with sky prior to the last deal being signed?



how would you be looking to judge what Toulouse did in the French Elite other than what they did in the french elite?

Quite probably , the RFL's lack of being able to see what is in front of them has no limits

I have no wish to judge Toulouse on thier past present or future , they are a French club and should stay a French club until the organisation known as SLE wants them in thier competition

They should not be foistered on the clubs in our second tier and the money it will cost having them in our second tier could be better spent

I also have no wish to get involved with any more pointless arguments with people like yourself

how do you know this is the case? how do you know the RFL havent spoken to sponsors and the £100-£200k it will cost to trasport a team to france (or vice-versa) only came in to the game to do specifically that?

when the RFL is giving each club in the NLs £100k from their central fund (of which the vast vast majority will come from SL or the international game) they dont really have the right to complain when the RFL wants something back from it do they? especially when that something will cost the NL clubs nothing!

maybe the RFL is only putting Toulouse into the NLs to prepare them for SL, even if we discount any possible benefit to the NLs, for a £100k a team and their travel costs paying, i doubt we would see the NL clubs complaining

Very well put bowes

No sensible answer to your post

Actually I'd add further to keeping the leagues separate I'd look at getting a European Comp with maybe 5 from NL1 and 3 from French Elite, which would get far more publicity than just 1 token French team in NL1 and would be far less in travelling expenses

1- yes

2- TO, given the league to promote it, can raise decent money and sign the right players (like Catalans did in their last year in the LER). They are a bit like Wigan in SL, they used to be a top two side, but have slipped. Expect them to bring a top side into NL1 and be in the playoffs or thereabouts in their first year.

Something like the highly successful treize tournoi?

of having Toulouse in NL1 , which will cost the RFL close to a million pounds over the 3 years

If they are not successful I dont even think they will make the 3 years

There is one simple aim for this and that is to prepare them for SL , and if it becomes clear they are not going to make a GF it will all fall apart

Yeah roughly. Probably the best way to do it is have the winners of 5 groups like the NRC ones enter the quarterfinals with Toulouse and the top 2 French League teams, and have two legged quarters, then semis, 1 in each country and a final that alternates. Of course ideally it would work better with Toulouse playing in France as the coming together of two same tier leagues (with top 3 getting in) but there you go. Of course the alternative would be to just put the top 5 from NL1 in and have groups then semis and final, with the NRC for the other 15 NL teams plus the RLCN winner. Of course it could go to a 4:4 split if the Elite improves to be an equal standard with NL1

they get £100k they didnt earn, for a product they struggle to sell, thats more than enough recompense for allowing a french team in the league,

im sure the NL1 clubs would happily give that money back if they didnt want to abide by the RFLs decisions

are being recompensed for having the French club in NL 1

So you agree that there is no benifit other than the RFL s bribe

Glad you cleared that one up

About time you saw things as they are rather than the RFL 's bull claims

no im saying they are being paid to compete in the RFL competitions, if they dont want to abide the decisions of the RFL then they can find their own competition to play in

the benefit to the clubs in NL1 is the addition of a french side should raise its profile. as part of a long term strategy to bring the league up to a level it becomes a sustainable high profile pro league in its own right. We will see whether or not there is an immediate benefit to the clubs currently in NL1 but regardless, it isnt the clubs place to decide which decisions they will abide by and which they wont,

its about time you got your head out of your ass and understood that RL doesnt start and stop with a minority of heap clubs in the north of england, the vast majority of which have been given more than ample opportunity to compete and havent because of their own incompetance, not everything which is done is done specifically for these clubs, and neither should they be, the game is bigger than these northern backwaters,

So you do work for the RFL after all

no, i just care about the game a huge amount more than these clubs who have all mostly wasted their opportunity and are now trying to stop anyone else having a go

Go on then

Explain how these incompetant heap clubs from the northern backwaters are stopping ' somebody else ' from having a go

i didnt say they were stopping them, i said they were trying

a prime example would the epic leigh franchise dummy spit

When all else fails

Change the subject

Again

So I take it you're including Sheffield in there even though it's as big as Toulouse, or Gateshead who represent the large Tyneside area. Both of which are working their way up from being shafted and will be adversely affected by having to travel to France (it's not just money, the players have to take time off work). Yet if they'd kept Toulouse in France and created a European comp for the top teams of both leagues then both leagues would have gained something and been seen as equal, rather than moving French Elite down from being a feeder league to SL to being a feeder league to NL1 for the sake of one club. Toulouse in NL1 is just a short term fix, they should stay French Elite til they're ready for SL

in what way have i changed the subject? you asked me how they were stopping others having a go, i replied they werent, but they were trying and the epic Leigh dummy spit was a prime example of the kind of thing they were doing

fool

will get from the inclusion of Toulouse in NL 1 from next season

Because there are none you have tried to change the subject

have there been a lot of sponsors looking to pay for a european comp between two semi-pro leagues, under a much much bigger european competition we already have (super league)?

Could Toulouse put together that squad, invest in the youth as they have, go pro as they have and prepare for SL like they are by adding a couple a games on to the end of the year?

the french elite and the NLs are and will be a feeder league to SL, thats how it is, the best players from each of these two leagues will both move to the SL clubs, the reason Toulouse is in the NLs is to prepare for SL, its to get more money from sponsors, from TV, which they can then invest in to preparing themselves

you might want to look back and see who ignored the relevant part of my post,

i havent changed the subject at all, i have explained to you there may not be any 'tangible' benefit to the existing NL clubs, because the existing NL clubs arent the most important thing in rugby league, everything isnt done with them in mind, and everything isnt done for their benefit, it isnt all about a few clubs in the NLs the game is bigger than them!

and to answer the other part of your post (which somehow isnt changing the subject from the tangible benefits, but is still completely irrelevant to it, hypocrisy thy name is starbug) the Leigh complaints were pathetic, they went to press bad mouthing another club and questioning their right to be where they are

[i''We are thoroughly disgusted with the Celtic decision,'' Allan Rowley, their chief executive, said. ''The decision-makers should hang their heads in shame.

"We are going to ask the RFL how Celtic ticked more boxes. We owe that to the public of Leigh.''[/i

comments like these seem like a fairly blatant example of Leigh trying to use the media to pressure the RFL into re-examining their position

and therefore we are fighting for the best deal we can get or should we all meakly get shafted by all and sundry for the good of the game

You seem to be of the opinion that we should get nothing from ' central ' funds unless we are happy to oblige the RFL , well that is your opinion and you are entitled to it

We are the least important part of the sport in your opinion and would be the least missed if we were to leave the control of the RFL

That might one day happen and in my opinion it would not put us in any worse a position than we will be in the next few years

In the mean time if I think the RFL are making a mistake I will say so