https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/46544684 Thoughts? Here's mine; I believed that Andy Burnham would do a good job; a genuine fan if I remember correctly, born in Leigh. Spoke up about the Hillsborough debacle when few others would dare. Not sure he did such a great job as RFL president though, a bit too quiet on Rugby League matters for me. The role is largely as a figurehead with no responsibility or duties. Is Adams a good fit? I dunno; he has a high profile, some of his PR is not good but as a soccer player he was a solid and hard player and probably still commands respect despite his off-field problems. He can certainly get himself into the media if he wants to (as could Burnham), but he seems to have no connection whatsoever to RL; unless, perhaps, he is a silent London fan! I never saw this one coming; let's see!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/46544684 Thoughts? Here's mine; I believed that Andy Burnham would do a good job; a genuine fan if I remember correctly, born in Leigh. Spoke up about the Hillsborough debacle when few others would dare. Not sure he did such a great job as RFL president though, a bit too quiet on Rugby League matters for me. The role is largely as a figurehead with no responsibility or duties. Is Adams a good fit? I dunno; he has a high profile, some of his PR is not good but as a soccer player he was a solid and hard player and probably still commands respect despite his off-field problems. He can certainly get himself into the media if he wants to (as could Burnham), but he seems to have no connection whatsoever to RL; unless, perhaps, he is a silent London fan! I never saw this one coming; let's see!

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/to ... president/ Footballing legend Tony Adams MBE has been nominated to become the 29th president of the Rugby Football League in 2019. Tony Adams is known and respected throughout sport and beyond, not only for his outstanding playing career with Arsenal, but more recently for his pioneering work with Sporting Chance.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/to ... president/ Footballing legend Tony Adams MBE has been nominated to become the 29th president of the Rugby Football League in 2019. Tony Adams is known and respected throughout sport and beyond, not only for his outstanding playing career with Arsenal, but more recently for his pioneering work with Sporting Chance.

Given the amount of ale cans who play in SL he will be a good fit

he's been teetotal for 22 years but don't let that put you off a soundbite or two

adams is a one club man, part of an exclusive group of players with over 500 top flight appearances. for younger posters, he was an outstanding central defender part of a rock solid defence at nal. if i was picking an all time premier league team he would be my first name on the team sheet and would be captain, even though his career spanned 10 years or so on either side of the league's creation

its his work at sporting chance which has been prominent in the last few years. frankly given the mess which some RL players both here and in Aus get themselves into with various substances, they could do worse than knock on his office door for a word or two.

having said that, its a bit left field even for the RFL. does he have a track record with liking league?

good luck to him, as others have said the role seems to be fairly low profile, we'll see how he adapts to it

Already been all over the news and even was discussed for 10 minutes on the champions league debate show where Stuart Pearce and Craig Bellamy were waxing lyrical about how great our game is and how amazing our athletes are so already raising our profile.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... ue-2324157 Former England football star Stuart Pearce has launched a strong defence of rugby league after the sport hit the headlines following the announcement that Tony Adams will become the RFL’s next President. But the former Nottingham Forest defender also took his opportunity on Sky Sports’ The Debate to heavily criticise the media in the south. A fan of Warrington Wolves, Pearce insists rugby league deserves a bigger profile due to the athleticism on show each week in the Super League. “I get sick to death with the media in the south of England giving absolutely no profile at all to fantastic sports people and matches. It’s only in that M62 corridor where it gets profile in the main.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... ue-2324157 Former England football star Stuart Pearce has launched a strong defence of rugby league after the sport hit the headlines following the announcement that Tony Adams will become the RFL’s next President. But the former Nottingham Forest defender also took his opportunity on Sky Sports’ The Debate to heavily criticise the media in the south. A fan of Warrington Wolves, Pearce insists rugby league deserves a bigger profile due to the athleticism on show each week in the Super League. “I get sick to death with the media in the south of England giving absolutely no profile at all to fantastic sports people and matches. It’s only in that M62 corridor where it gets profile in the main.

Maybe Stuart Pearce should support his local team rather than one over 200 mies away.

at least he can't be accused of being a glory hunter

Ha ha , buthis for us London that's what he is, along with Bradley wiggins and rio Ferdinand all born and bred in London but choose to support teams in the top four at the other end of the country , funny how they didn't choose Leigh or Salford.

a Wakefield fan mocking a team about lack of success....it’s like the Elephant man taking the mick out of someone for being ugly.

hook so early

Maybe he should support who he wants?

Of course he can but didn't everyone slate people who supported Liverpool in the 80s , man utd in the 90s when they had never been to those cities in there lives , now where seeing city shirts down here now , as you say everyone's got a choice but wouldnt life be boring if we all just picked a successful side to support.

Pearce became a Warrington fan after being impressed by a talk given by Tony Smith, they met and became friends.

Mate, i'm a Bolton supporting Salford fan.....

And that makes sense as it's in that area , just wondering your thoughts if say Gary nevill a proud Manchester lad got interested in Rugby league and decided to support leeds ? Maybe im just old fashioned and was brought up to be proud of where from.

Wow you're a glutton for punishment....



Salford RLFC
MUFC
Salford City FC
Lancashire CCC

All about local identity for me with supporting a team but that's my personal preference. Have no idea why someone would feel an affiliation to a club hundreds of miles away (unless played for them or lived there for a while etc).

Seems strange that someone would be given a role with a title of "President" yet it's considered a "low-profile" role. I'd hope Adams would be heavily involved in promoting the sport as he's an extremely well-known and respected figure in Football.

Plenty of organisations have a President as a purely ceremonial or honourary role. For instance Leeds had Harry Jepson for decades. So I’m not surprised it’s low profile, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely absent of influence though.

St Helens - Kel Coslett
Warrington - Lord Hoyle
Castleford - Brian Ashworth

Just a few that I found quickly.

Hull Kingston Rovers - Mike Smith .

Former President - Colin Hutton .

And?
The reality is that 8,000,000 or so Northerners live in Yorkshire/Lancashire/Merseyside, which to a certain extent is the greater part of the "corridor", yet on a given weekend, 51,000 fans will watch the 6 top flight games (in the area) and another 8,000 or so will watch the 7 x 2nd tier games, so let's call it 60,000 fans. The following week and with no allowance for away fans, the figures would be 43,000 (Catalans at home) and 4,000 (Bradford & London away), so it could be argued that 106,000 people attend one of the 24 RL games in Yorkshire/Lancashire/Merseyside/(and Cumbria) every fortnight......outside of this corridor, 8,500 in France and 7,000 in Toronto attend games once a fortnightly in the top 2 European divisions of the sport.......

......RL punches well above its weight in terms of exposure in the Media, but in South of the Watford Gap, 1,000 at The Broncos in tier 2, or 2,000 in tier 1 and 300 at the skolars in tier 3 is what the sport attracts in the way of paying spectators......and it's not like the Southern Population doesn't know RL exists.....45k for a stand alone game at the Olympic and 68,000 for a double header at Wembley......but the RFL decided not to take NZ there this year.

People need to stop blaming the "media" for the lack of interest in the sport and start looking long and Hard at their clubs and the RFL. I have been a broncos fan since 2002 and in that time they have made little effort to attract fans to games, or anything other than "mates' as sponsors.....it's not because they aren't in the evening standard every night that they get crap crowds and no attention.....it's because they don't know/ to market themselves......

The lack of interest from the media is because the game is so boring. It’s like a game of British bulldog. Who wants to watch that??

You do realise that Bradley Wiggins lives near Chorley and has for some time, don't you? Wigan IS his local team and is supported by his children who have never lived anywhere near London! If you're being that pedantic maybe he should support Belgium?

Yes I knew he lived up there , it didn't suddenly stop him supporting nal though did it , yes where all different but as I said before for me it's about where you born and bred.

No its not, i support leeds utd and leeds rhinos, i am Castleford born and bred, my family are cas fans, but my sister used to support west ham. i have friends born n bred who are hull fans and Spurs fans, i have friends that chastise me for watching Leeds and not Cas and not supporting the local team, who themselves then support Man United. locality and where you are born and bred is a huge factor but not not exclusive.

ps Bradley Wiggins was born in Ghent Belgium and his father is Australian.

I said for me it is , I didn't say that it had to be that way , it's an opinion and im entitled to one.