IF Catalan and London occupy the bottom 2 league positions, would they both actually get relegated ?

With SL having tried desperately to expand pro RL beyond the M62 corridor, what effect would the relegation of London and Catalan have on the game as a whole ?
Although many people will say that these 2 clubs already take the place of 2 traditional clubs at the top table, surely it would be catastrophic for the game IF these 2 clubs were to face the drop.
This scenario seemed extremely far fetched before the start of the season but, now that we are underway and with both teams having failed to gain a win, could this be a realistic possibility ?

Catalan won't be at the bottom.

Catalans won't be in the bottom two. London will.

But hypothetically there is no way Catalans would finish in the bottom two and not be relegated. The RFL wouldn't be able to get away that and/or justify it.

The Bottom 2 teams at the end of the season will go down regardless of who they are!

If they finish bottom two, I'm assuming the RFL will simply relegate the teams who finish 3rd and 4th from bottom.

Oh now come on...

They've said and reiterated numerous times, whoever comes in the bottom 2 will be relegated!

I'm certain if London or Cats are in the bottom two they'll be saved. In the case of London, they'd probably let London go down, and then start a second London club called Harlequins RL in SL next season.

London will be 9th, so hypothesise on someone else!

After the last two performances they are white hot favourites to go down which will/would be a shame.

Thing is though. Their is a French tv broadcast deal in place for Super League. Not sure what it's worth but does it guarantee a French team in the league?

Ok, so if we are all sure that IF the 2 "expansion clubs" occupy the bottom 2 spots and are therefore relegated what does this do to the concept of a "European Super League".
This would set the game back almost 20 years and would damage the games credibility and possibly cause irrevocable damage to any future plans of spreading the game outside the M62 corridor.
There really is a catch 22 situation here and if RL is serious about expanding the game, they may need a whole new idea and a move to a more formal franchising arrangement would probably be the right way to achieve this.
Even though we had a long consultation, prior to the announcement of the new structure, there doesn't seem to be too much thought given to how to spread the game.

Look.....IF we go down, not that I'm even contemplating it as we will be 9th, but IF.....


The new structure has been cleverly devised to keep the 2nd tier interested. Before the disasterous and indeed laughable "GIVING AWAY" of top flight RL, London were one of the top Tier 2 sides. we competed there for our last three seasons before the BRONCOS/Franchise crap came along.

Therefore we would fairly often be in the middle 8, and well...NO we 'prolly wouldn't finish in the top four, but every year our aim would be a top four finish and try for the Holy Grail of SL1.

If Cats can't handle it, that'd be their problem, I believe London will do ok in the new structure, I actually believe it was designed with us specifically in mind.

The quick answer is that in that scenario, yes they'll both go down. This is because there is no RFL conspiracy. They didn't kill Diana, they don't appoint refs to punish some and help others. They don't only cite people from clubs they hate. They don't do any of the absolute fantasy machiavellian things that paranoid fans blather on about to detract from the fact that their chosen club is actually utterly crap.

They DID fake the moon landings but it was a spare weekend.

Paris, Sheffield, Gateshead, Wales and now likely London. The game has an incredibly poor record of growth.

When are people going to realise that the RFL is being run by clueless twits. They wonder why they cannot get decent sponsors, and then they introduce a P & R system which puts a fragile London club at grave risk of relegation, and puts the whole competition at risk of becoming completely an M62 provincial competition. The problem with the current set up is that there are too many clubs, not that there is licensing. The rational reaction to the lack of competitiveness of the bottom segment of Super League was to drop two M62 clubs, not to drop licensing. But the RFL could not grasp the problem let alone the solution.

Nigel Wood is a village [delidiot[/del accountant with no clue on how to run a business, which is what professional sport is. His Chairman Brian Barwick has proven himself to be a total fraud, without any of the sponsor connections we had been promised by his appointment, and without a single idea on how to rejuvenate the game in the northern hemisphere. Compare Barwick with the former Chairman, Richard Lewis, who improved the game in many ways, including licensing, which provided stability and expansion into France.

More important, compare Wood with the Welsh businessman CEO of the NRL, David Smith. The NRL is rolling in money and Smith is now preparing to contemplate expansion -- within and perhaps even outside Australia.

The NRL has licensing, not P & R. The NRL exists in more than half of Australia and is likely to encompass all of Australia (esp. Perth and eventually Adelaide) in the near future. Its bold move into Melbourne has been a resounding success. It could not have happened without licensing.

We need a fans lobbying group which demand that the RFL maintains crucial expansion clubs in the top tier, and looks to creating more expansion clubs in the top tier.

Well I'd join but the problem you have is the 98% of fans who'd join the rival "Don't expand until every service station on the M62 has a team in superleague" lobbying group.

Bottom 2 between Wakefield, Salford and Bradford. You read it here first!

No chance. London will finish bottom 2 and they will be relegated.

London will be 9th

I wasn't looking for any conspiracy whatsoever, although I think some change would take place IF these 2 clubs filled the bottom 2 positions.
The scenario is 2 fold with the first point regarding the "no favourites" aspect but, more importantly, should these 2 clubs get relegated it would be bad news for the game in general and it would certainly damage the image that we try to portray of the professional game in England and France.
London are in a horrible state just at present and appear to be clinging on by the ends of their fingernails.
However, Catalan have always been held up as a success story and it would be a disaster for the game if both were to drop from Super League.
On the other issues, you are definitely wrong and they have some serious questions to answer

keeping saying it wont make it happen!

It's ok, he's not counting the top 5

We don't even have our full team in the country with 7 players still waiting for visas. We'll be 11th; or 10th if Bradfold fold.

How can you have 7 players waiting for visas? does the quota not apply to you?