The question for the clever people that run our sport is, just how do we expand/ grow the game, especially at International level.
France is the best option for having a fourth "competitive" nation and there does need to be some help for them as a nation and without going back 15 years and getting rid of Catalan and telling The French to "get on with it", we have to try and build on where we are.

The inclusion of an additional French team is a good one and if done properly, there is no reason why this should be at the expense of an existing SL club, it could of course be an additional club in the top flight or second tier.

As we have seen in recent years, our top flight works with any number of clubs (we've had 12, 14 and 16 in recent years).
Ok, we've got the all new "every second counts" stuff to look forward to next season but, this could just as easily work with different numbers, if it in fact stays for any length of time.

The French need to keep improving their domestic talent pool but, without going full time, this will be a very long haul indeed. Therefore, adding 1 or maybe 2 more clubs and building slowly would appear to be the most sensible option.

A second French team is a must in my opinion, a French derby would create interest amongst casual fans in France I would think and maybe get more people through the gates. Somewhere that never seems to get mentioned for a team is Avignon, last 3 France games there got 14,500, 17,000 and 17,500 fans in so even if only half of those went to the local team it would still be a decent average at Super League level.

Hey how about a league of 12 French teams based in France, now there's an idea, then we can lose this Europe rubbish, French teams bring nothing to the British game. Only my opinion

The same could be argued for British teams in the British game

Have to agree. Now go put your tin hat on!

Would you like to name these 12 teams and tell us where the money is coming from?

Why don't we just refer back to Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues whilst we're at it?

European Super League?!

Not if super Nigel (saviour of this country to the hard of joined thinking) and the rest of his UKIPers get their way

Its always funny to see the fans of some non-descript small northern club decrying les Catalans and the French as 'bringing nothing to the game' as if their tiny club which is barely even heard of in the small pit-town it inhabits brings in all the money and the visibility and the players.

There are probably 6 clubs (including Les Catalans) who bring something meaningful to SL, the rest are only there because they either have a rich owner or have been the best at signing the cast offs from the big clubs and journeyman overseas players.

In fact that's one of the problems the game has

Why is it then that clubs like the one you claim to support are forever in areas where "small northern clubs play" hoovering up the better youngsters on scholarships? . If they didn't do this maybe the clubs you continue to mock wouldn't have to relay on signing your clubs "cast offs" to fill their squads?.

You will never admit it but all the current clubs in this country need each other in some capacity. As for this thread i don't have a problem with Toulouse if they made it to the top table providing they achieved it on the playing field and put strong foundations for R.L in the city for the future...and not like P.S.G did.

Because we play in a competition, teams compete with each other. A pro club doesn't lay claim to a player just because they may have lived near them at some point.

Toulouse will never make on the playing field because the playing field is entirely set up to protect these small northern clubs, who if you believed them have somehow never been given a fair crack of the whip. Even though the ENTIRE GAME is set up for their benefit and the rules we have, from the Salary Cap to quota's to the league structure are there to protect small northern clubs.

Have we been drinking again



The new structure does not benefit the smaller clubs in SL, it ensures that they will be playing in a relegation league every season.
What it does ensure, is that the top six, plus 2 others will dominate the league more than they currently do, probably leading to an even smaller
top flight in the next few years.

It does allow a possible promotion for Leigh, Bradford, London or Featherstone but, of course they too will still have to get lucky when the relegation league comes around each season.

Although there is some merit in the comment you make regarding the salary cap, this was only brought about to prevent other clubs trying to
follow the lead of the leagues biggest club, Wigan, who bought success and almost bankrupted the game.

Maybe, you haven't travelled outside the big city of Leeds very often but, you really should take note of the numbers and quality of junior set up's
in the areas around the clubs that you are talking about. Without which, there would be somewhat fewer youngsters taking up the game, which would
make the player pool very small indeed.

Perhaps the big 4 should just play with each other and leave the rest "behind" ???

Makes me laugh when I read about how Leeds rhinos have this amazing scholarship system when the truth is that it's full of young lads from Wakefield Castleford and Featherstone.

Then there's the Academy which is packed full of players who have spent 2 to 3 years in scholarship systems of so-called smaller clubs only for Leeds to come in for them when they are 16 years old and offer them more money to go to Headingley.

I accept that that is the way of the world and it's the nature of sport but for fans of the bigger clubs to then come on the forum and start criticising the smaller clubs for not producing players is downright pathetic.

Largely what you are saying is true... However lets look at the alternatives, are Wakefield or Castleford for instance under any more threat from being relegated under this structure than they were under franchising? Im just using them as an example, im not saying they are the only ones in that position, but Wakefield and Castleford made huge promises in terms of facilities that they just haven't delivered on, both have had serious financial difficulties etc etc and struggled with all the things demanded under licensing. Even as a Wakefield fan you cannot really tell me that you would have been confident coming up to a franchise decision time that Wakefield were in can you ?

If you think of it another way clubs who will likely be under threat from franchising are also the same ones likely to be most at threat under this P+R, however the 'fall' as it were is much less.

As a short term move, clubs at the lower end of SL don't really have much more of a threat of SL, but should they actually be relegated the downsides aren't as great (they get more funding, they can almost immediately come back up (in theory), they may still get a few 'bigger' attendances against the SL sides) In the short term the lower SL sides have somewhat insulated themselves from some of the more extreme damage relegation does.

However as you also state, long term it gives up pretty much any chance of a club growing in to a challenger, sure a Dr Koukash might come along every so often, but the best a lower end SL club can now hope for is a season in the sun before their squad is picked off ala Cas this year.

what right pathetic is a pro club expecting some kind of acknowledgement for that fact that another club scouted and trained and developed a player who at some stage lived quite near them .

The lads playing for the Leeds Rhinos academy have the square root of F all to do with the pro clubs in Wakefield, Cas and Featherstone. That these places are a hotbed of amateur players playing for the big clubs is not source of pride for those pro clubs, it should be a source of shame.

It makes me laugh that we see fans of these smaller clubs arguing that because a lad in the leeds academy once went to nostell priory it is somehow necessary that we have 3 pro clubs in Wakefield.

Could you say its a source of shame then for amateur clubs in a large city like Leeds if the Rhinos look in other districts constantly for junior players?.

Lol at that, all of it!

So a kid from Castleford, who attends Castleford Academy school which has strong links with Castleford Tigers, who's spent 7 years playing for Castleford Lock Lane and 3 years being trained by Castlefords Tigers youth system, who when turning 16 is tempted to Leeds by a few extra grand has the square root of F all to do with Castleford?

Don't talk daft. There are a ton of players from Leeds playing SL for Leeds and for other clubs.

Cas tigers? Yes. An RL professional isn't made at 14. It's a pretty pathetic claim to fame that the club is near where a player lived for a time.

In that one statement you betray the fact that you know F All about player development

at 14 a kid is naturally talented, at 16 a kid is naturally talented, they aren't pro's.

I have seen players look world beaters at 16, absolute quality ready to be pro, I've seen those same kids.be semi pro by 20 and go on to do nothing in the the game.

The biggest effect clubs have on youth development is taking naturally talented kids and make them pros. That is the difficult part and our game is littered with players who were brilliant at 13/14/15/16/17/18 and went on to do nothing because the important part of their development failed.

Looking at 14 year old and seeing he is talented is the easiest part of youth development. It's the bare minimum a club can do and still claim to be doing youth development. Taking them and making them pro's is the tough part.

Claiming good youth development on the basis a kid has contact at 14 is pathetic, in fact it's embarrassing. Players are nowhere near pro at that age. The best evidence is I'm fact Wakefield, how many of their grand final youth team 2009 made an SL career?

As I stated, your knowledge of what happens within modern youth sport development programmes is worse than poor!

Keep digging though eh!

Oh go on then name them then.... you know you want to

16 x NRL U20's sides......say 400 players. Tell me purdie, how many do you think step up to the NRL?

What's that got to do with what's being discussed Nutterfax