Possibly, but he isn't bleating in public about the running of the game.

Why do you assume those assessments weren’t rigorous? The fact those clubs had those problems doesn’t mean that either A) the assessment didn’t highlight these possible risks, or B) those bids weren’t the best 14.

Remember the clubs voted to move to 14, they voted to keep it at 14 the RFL just picked the best 14. Even with their failure there is little reason to suppose Halifax’s bid was better than Bradfords.

Clubs had financial troubles before Lewis, during Lewis and will do after Lewis. Who was blamed in 1964 for Bradford Northern?

As the executive keep council in the dark and do not seek their advice the attendance of meetings would be pointless. RFL council nor SLE clubs were asked for permission to pump hundreds of thousands of pounds into Crusaders and the Bulls. Nige and Dicky just did it.

so Hudgell sent a letter that went SL clubs and it was published. maybe in his judgement this was a way of shaking the executive out of its torpor. it has.

Give over with that context stuff!

it is not that clubs have had difficulty. It is that Wood and lewis have unilaterally chosen to secretly support some clubs with hundreds of thousands of pounds while leaving others.

I would say that the RFL is the most intrusive body in team sport, by that I mean they have to save the clubs from themselves. For as long as I've been watching the game clubs have had to be helped from destroying themselves by spending what they don't have. Richard Lewis seemed to do this, and he did many other positive things for the game.

This will not be recieved well in the national media, in light of the Bradford situation, and my only hope is that we can get someone who is as equally forward thinking, not only for SL, but the international game. Remember we could get a Chief Exec who kills our game and leaves us with a part-time Northern Hemisphere sport, a very real possibility when he took over and a possibility if we chose the wrong candidate the next time round.

You think Lewis’ leaving for the all-england club has anything to do with Hudgell’s letter? Really?

And the investment of RFL funds isn’t a matter for the SL executive, nor for the RFL council (You still haven’t addressed why championship clubs should have 6 times the decision making power on RFL funds as the amateur clubs in our game btw) it is a matter for the RFL BoD who spent it as the RFL BoD are entitled.

The fact that the LTA (with their record of improving sponsorship and their enormous budget) have chosen to take him on board says more about the man than any of the posters on here. Like him or loathe him he is obviously a well regarded professional and I think his departure is bad news for rugby league. Lets see who we can replace him with.

even more worried about the running of the world cup next year now

You can add to that Lewis allegedly going out on a limb to ensure that London Broncos were allowed to re-form without penalty in 2005 (?) when the other clubs were minded to apply a points deduction.

As for financial prudence it wasn't exactly difficult to improve on the performance of the previous administration, one which thought it a good idea to kick off a World Cup with a bunch of Englishmen pretending to be Irish taking on the Easter Islands on a ploughed field in County Fermanagh.

There's good and bad in this.

It's time for a change, but let's hope we get someone appointed with some real savvy and business acumen.

Let's not have any of this 'he's not a RL man' to cloud the next appointment.

Overall I'd put Lewis's tenure at 6.5 / 10

In reality, this is probably about the right time; jobs like this have a shelf life and it's important to know when you've reached yours.

His decision presents an excellent opportunity to appoint someone who can build on the successes of Lewis' regime, of which there have been many, whilst learning from and eliminating the things that have gone wrong; the appointment will send a strong message about the RFL's intentions for the future - if Big Nige gets the job, I'd suggest that the opportunity is being squandered.

I expect at least 2 dozen applications for the vacant post from the armchair experts who post on RLfans.

So go on, then – how do you know about this 'secret support' if it's secret?

because the likes of crusaders and bulls go 'tits up' and then the finances eventually become public and the RFLs involvement becomes apparent.

When the RFL bought the odsal lease the fat controller said it was to save an historic ground. That is all he said to RFL council clubs. Only when the bulls are on the bring and the reasons why are discolsed does it become apparent that the Bulls had a huge unpaid loan and this was part of the lease arrangement.

HTH.

This.

I think he's done a pretty decent job but we need some fresh blood in.

No.

Feel free to post or link to documents proving this 'secret financial support' here, though.

The number of flat earthers on here, who simultaneously actually believe they know anything, is bizarre.

Lewis isn't perfect nor claims to be, but overall he has spent a decade quietly doing a staggeringly good job. The game is now unrecognisable from when he took over, and all for the better. This is not to say mistakes haven't been made, but imho those have been made in the main by the chairmen of the SL clubs as a whole rather than any you could lay the blame for at Lewis's door.

As for finances, short of taking over every club and operating as some sort of collective - WTF more could he have done? SL is 14 multi-million pound turnover independent businesses. And some want to blame LEWIS for the financial management of these businesses? Did anyone blame David Bernstein for Portsmouth's troubles? Stewart Regan for Rangers' meltdown? I'm sorry, but that is barking.

The whinge and sarcasm about clubs being assessed on a financial basis, getting a licence then going into financial crisis is hardly a criticism of Lewis, is it? The RFL has negotiated a certain level of access into clubs' books and they are obliged to reveal a certain amount of salary cap related information but if any given club is in fact teetering on insolvency and do not declare the full picture to the RFL, then
a) how is that Lewis's fault and
b) what difference would it make?


This rather obvious point says it all really. Lewis has always been in demand because he has the particular skill sets, and contacts, that mean he can be effective. We will do incredibly well if we can find a replacement as good as him.

I'm concerned that Lewis has left before the World Cup, I don't trust Nigel Wood to run that tournament whatsoever.

Fantastic news that Richard Lewis is out.......but is this a sign of a rat leaving a sinking ship??

Oh.......and does this mean that the Challenge cup draw can return to the traditional 'hot ball cold ball' way of making the draw, rather than just repeating the draw until they get the fixtures that they really wanted, and then televising that version. If so will someone let Martin Offiah know this time please??

I'd say he's done a reasonable job, Crusaders fiasco apart, during his tenure. The game still has a long way to go until it fulfills its potential and hopefully the new person can take it there.

Bigger question now is who is going to take it on...

Nigel Wood

What's the salary? I might be tempted back!

Some of the posts on here are a bit embarrassing. They remind me of a colleague who HATES Gary Hetherington. "He's robbing the club, cant wait til he goes" etc. Totally blinkered, and some up RL fans really - everything is doom and gloom!

Maybe some of us just don't know what we've got until it's gone.