Catalans has been a great addition to SL and I hope to see another couple of French teams join in over the next decade or so. It is the only way they can improve to Int standards imo. I can't ever see a time again when there is enough interest to have French TV paying the money needed to run a FT league in France.

Why not?

They didn't cover other sports until recently and rugby league has a lot longer history in France than many other sports.

Frankly, you know nothing about the game in France.

And little more about it in Australia.

because in the "good old days" it didnt cost anything like 3million euros to run a prof team! Only 2 countries in the world can afford to run a FT prof RL comp and that is beacuse they are the only ones where TV is willing to fork out huge sums to cover it.

Show me any inkling at all that a French TV company is willing to spend 30million+ Euros a year to show RL. Live in your pipedream world all you like but France is never getting a SL equivalent league in my lifetime, neither is NZ nor PNG. Only way to develop these countries at an elite level is to bring them into leagues that can generate that sort of media cash.

In case you missed it...

Frankly, you know nothing about the game in France.

And little more about it in Australia.

To be fair he raises a good point about them needing a TV deal to be able to run a professional league. I reckon they'd need at least 4 professional teams before anyone would consider throwing huge money at French RL.

Where did I mention they wouldn't?

Of course they would need a TV deal.

It would be as a result of rebooting the internal game in France via an updated Elite.

Im sure you would hark for a TV deal like the French had in those halcyon days of the 50's Gijou................

Not bad.





In fact, the press coverage we were afforded in France during the 1950s was very impressive.

We would be looking to get back to similar coverage. Albeit in the newer mediums now available...

I know the game had a lot more coverage in those days, in places the game has little presence now, if your dream is to become reality again then how do we change that passion for sport back to Rugby League?

They have a TV deal now for the internationals later in the year with an option of extending it with Direct8 (TNT), it's not the biggest at the moment, but being FTA and digital, over the next few years with the uptake of digital set top boxes and Digital TV's, it will def grow.

If these manage to get reasonable ratings for the games with some decent crowds at the smaller stadiums so it looks good, we could see this station or another one come to the party in regards to Les Catalans and Toulouse.

If that happens, none of us can say what the outcome will be for French RL, it could stay at that with those two/three teams, or they could end up getting some decent sponsors on board and that TV station or another going out on a limb to promote the sport.

The GF will also be shown on France 3 FTA and a semi or 2 (not sure on the semis) and I think the Lord Derby Cup final.

The FFR 13 have also done a deal with the same mob (direct8 TNT) where the channel will promote the games and the print media has done a deal to also promote the games.

www.rugbyforumxiii.com/forum/vie ... 11&start=0 Quote The chain of the DIRECT TNT 8 will diffuse all the matches of the XIII of France, on line and In double diffusion with Orange Sport, for the season 2010. England France on June 12, in England France Scotland France Ireland and France Wales which will be played in France as from the 9 0ctobre 2010. DIRECT 8 will place at the disposal its supports media for the communication of the product (Direct Information Direct Sport, etc,) as well as the written press (free) present in largest town of France. an option is taken for 2011 according to the rate d' goes down for hearing, with a negotiation with payment of rights TV DIRECT 8 AND FR XIII will officialize very soon and will médiatiseront l' agreement, as soon as Board gives the precise timetable of the Cut d' Europe." A new stage is in the train d' to be crossed, lorsqu' it is known that this chain manages to make the million televiewers on direct d' another sports less ludic than ours. .on finally will see us, and without paying And can be DRAGONS_LEEDS on direct 8, orange is d' agreement for the double diffusion '"

www.rugbyforumxiii.com/forum/vie ... 11&start=0 Quote The chain of the DIRECT TNT 8 will diffuse all the matches of the XIII of France, on line and In double diffusion with Orange Sport, for the season 2010. England France on June 12, in England France Scotland France Ireland and France Wales which will be played in France as from the 9 0ctobre 2010. DIRECT 8 will place at the disposal its supports media for the communication of the product (Direct Information Direct Sport, etc,) as well as the written press (free) present in largest town of France. an option is taken for 2011 according to the rate d' goes down for hearing, with a negotiation with payment of rights TV DIRECT 8 AND FR XIII will officialize very soon and will médiatiseront l' agreement, as soon as Board gives the precise timetable of the Cut d' Europe." A new stage is in the train d' to be crossed, lorsqu' it is known that this chain manages to make the million televiewers on direct d' another sports less ludic than ours. .on finally will see us, and without paying And can be DRAGONS_LEEDS on direct 8, orange is d' agreement for the double diffusion '"

That's just pineapple

Doubt it. Reckon you'd be in the league below in your scenario...

So what teams would be playing in this French 'top flight'?

Do you eat a lot of cheese at bedtimes?






Could the French find 12 or so clubs that could play RL to a high enough standard to even come close to providing clubs like Wigan with anything other than a training exercise?


It would be like that expanded 'World Club Challenge' from 1997 all over again

Being a dumb aussie, are you saying it's good or bad?

Fair dinkum, talk about confusing a bloke.

All of our ills come back to two things:-

1. exposure (or a lack thereof); and
2. misinformation.

(And that applies to the game worldwide...)

The impetus for France needs to come from an organised International body.

Unfortunately, I don't see the former happening until the latter is addressed...

i said a pipe dream and wasn't talking about anything in the next few years was i

because it would be a backwards step.

What TV company is going to pay millions of euros to pull french clubs away from european competition? it would be like Sky pulling the premier league teams from the champions league.

The ideal structure would surely be:

Top of the tree, SLE. The best European clubs playing in the elite division, be they English, French, Welsh or whatever.
SLE constructed as it is now with the top 14, 15 or 16 clubs playing across Europe, home and away.

The next division is national leagues in each country. The highest club in each division (or similar) play each other for one promotion place, the bottom SLE team returning to it's relevant national league. Obviously this will create an imbalance in those leagues affected, so the ultimate aim - should there ever be sufficient support in the game - would be to create second, third and fourth SLE divisions which would then be run as a straight professional league with one up, one down rules.

OK, it needs tweaking - but thats where we should be going. Forget national boundries and go truely European.

Barry McKenzie once had a similar idea whilst smoking a pipe. I assume you must have been in De Dampkring in Amsterdam too to think that one up

I support this project and I think it'd be good for the development of the game. Though I don't think the politics of RL will make it possible in the near future.

A crucial question is what would be the governing body? The problem is that the RFL is the only credible candidate at the moment and it is not in their interest really to build a truly European competition. As a British organisation with representatives from British clubs, the RFL interest is more to organise a British competition enhanced with some continental flavour.

To organise a truly European competition, you'd need a European organisation. I don't see the RFL spontaneously proposing to create a joint body with the FFR13 to create and supervise a fully European league. The difference in size and organisation is too large and the RFL is better off (at least in the short term) not sharing any decision power with a weak French federation for the sake of a European project.

I think you can expect the (partially European) Super League to stay as it is for a while.

And then you woke up

It's not pie in the sky stuff to get France back up to the professional level, they have everything they need there right now in regards to infrastructure, all they need is exposure.

They have 60 teams at least with Promotion/relegation, they have played the game for 70+ years and they have support from the locals where the teams are.

What is missing is the TV/print media and money.

You look at soccer in Australia, it was as bad if not worse than French RL, now it's starting to get its act together because of a TV contract.

It can be done.

If any other country is to get to pro level, I'd put my money on the French to get there first, they have every bar exposure.

We're going to France twice in three weeks in April. They should be giving [ius[/i respect

I wouldn't waste your time with half these guys, Eels.

They spend their time downplaying all things rugby league.

The French are no different.