I agree, no offence to them but having the likes of Gateshead and Skolars in the same league as Fev and Leigh would be a huuuuge soul destroying mistake. It would take the game back, not forward!

Agree. Well said and backed up with course work as well (the visit to Coventry)

can the sport sustain more clubs? ,we're all struggling as it is

But where would we be financially competing with any new clubs ?

Only through central funds , but that is another issue entirely

Apparently Coventry were sold a line & had started to geared up to join Champ 1 next year only to be told no in recent weeks. If Crusaders could be allowed into the Semi Pro game from basically nothing, surely Coventry should have been!

Lack of home games is killing Semi Pro assume clubs need around twenty in this recession. Is playing each other four times the only option left.

unless the season is drastically lengthened then 20 home games would be a non starter unless the trains cup went

and are you saying the RFL have been leading Coventry on? shock horror well that's you off the 'let's all hug an RFL director' christmas card list then

I support J Kears idea of 3 divisions of 10 teams. 1st div full time. 2nd div full time with a slightly lower slary cap and 3rd div part time. 2 up and 2 down subject to minimum standards. All games would be competetive to the end of the season. How you make the extra fixtures clubs need is the only problem and i'd let the clubs decide.

county cups? or another knock out trophy for each division? but even that - unless the Trains cup is still on - wouldn't give all the clubs the extra home games, difficult one is that/this.

For me each league under Sooper Dooper League should mirror it.
If SDL has 14 in it, then the leagues below it should.

Rename Champ1 the Championship and rename The Championship the Premier League, each league then sounds just as important to each other from an outsiders point of view.

The Championship would be strictly Part time.
The Premiers would then be a mixture of part and full time with every club having aspirations to play on SDL.
No change in the top league apart from a play off with the Premier winners v bottom finishing SDL team.
If the bottom SDL win the game they deserve to retain thier place. If the Premier league team win they have proved they deserve a place.

Well, the RFL stated an intention to re-vamp the NRC. But that was in the same missive, as the one that committed to a Championship increase to 12, or 14 teams, and an increase in TV money for Championship clubs........................

If the championship does stay at 10 teams then we should follow the scottish football model.

Everybody plays each other home and away after that the league splits into two. With top 5 playing each other home and away again and the bottom 5 playing each other home and away.

Teams placed 1-5 cant move below 5th place and teams place 6-10 cant move above 6th place after the league has been split.

This would ensure 13 home games - I imagine the aim should be to get each division upto 12 teams to increase the home games again.

Play offs could be simple with top four from the league playing each other (1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd - 1st and 2nd getting home advantage).

You could also have play off for relegation between bottom four teams (although it probably is a bit daft)

Just out of interest does anyone know how many home games the Champ league clubs need to make it viable is it 13, 20 or somewhere inbetween.

I think that someone posted that we need at least 15 home league games with a crowd of about 3000.

Depends on what 'market' the new clubs would be coming from. If it was a second Leigh club then of course they would be competing with ourselves for fans, but the likes of Coventry wouldn't be competing with existing clubs, while I believe Bramley already have an established fan base from their pro days.


I think we're an extreme situation Tony in comparison to other clubs - would dare say both figures would be slightly lower for other clubs.

With a ten team Championship everyone could play each other 3 times for 13/14 home league games, throw in Northern Rail Cup for another couple of home games, kick the season off in the second week of January.. sorted.

Think that's the way forward - the only issue as you have noticed would be some clubs would have 13 home games and others 14. Not sure of a way around that other than making sure it's the reverse for the following season.

Scottish Soccer League did that for about 20 years. You could never guarantee getting it right for alternate seasons - owing to promotion and relegation.

We're more likely to kick off in March than January.

just testing this is working tut.

Welcome back frank!

Have you had problems Frank?

Having listened to the fans forum again, no money, no new directors, with IM leaving and I guess lots of the work he did with sports village will not be the same (certainly not have the same draw). It all doom and gloom.

It always is at Leigh yet we survive year upon year

If Crusaders are accepted then we will have 20 clubs, 9 in Yorkshire plus Gateshead and 7 in Lancs and Cumbria plus 2 in Wales and one in London, again making 10.
We could have each group playing home and away =18 matches and based on this seasons final positions the top 5 from each group playing each other and the bottom 5 playing each other, another 8 matches (these fixtures would change annually depending on the previous seasons league placing). The NRL could become a straight knockout competition and the challenge cup a nuisance. The end of season play off could remain with the top 2 in each group after the first 18 matches plus the 2 highest placed teams from the remainder after 26 matches all qualifying.
This gives 26 matches plus the NRL cup(played mid week apart from the final).

We could negotiate a TV deal of our own, keeping the league and the NRL cup seperate.
More matches and more revenue but also higher wages

John Kerr had the reet idea on Puss n Boots on sky other week two Sl Divs of 8 teams and one other div below

They were not happy that they were not considered this time , Mr Moustache said so at Fax.