The Bulls fans seem very triggered by it.

I made a few points and apparently I have an agenda about them but I can't work out what I said that is going to be totally wrong.

They will have the biggest budget in the division. They have already put together a very good squad that should have a chance of topping the league. New coach will no doubt be allowed to bring in some of his own players. There is very little chance of them gaining SL status in the foreseable future. This could affect who they can get to come to them as coach as now natural progression isn't making SL but instead the position is a stepping stone for someone to get a head coaches position in SL. The majority of other teams in the division are lowering their budgets in line with having no chance of SL status after this year. What am I missing?

Just missing the bit where IMG /SL have stated their aims of having 14 teams in SL and the bulls suddenly appear in 14th place in the IMG standings.

Either way, they'll still have Nobby pulling the strings in the background. Having someone like that around any club is not to be underestimated,

Doubt if SL will be expanded to 14 clubs, only recently McManus moaned about reduced central funding. Bradford might have a chance if Salford slip up, or the ludicrous situation of having a French team in SL so Catalans going into a FRENCH league!!!!!! (wow who'd have thought!). And I reckon if Toulouse fail to get promoted this weekend, they'll withdraw from the Championship. Also imo London will call it a day, which might save Fax from relegation next season.

Out of the Championship clubs Bulls were scored as 3rd behind Wakefield and Toulouse are you suggesting that other clubs would score higher than the Bulls? If so name them.

No. I'm suggesting that the bulls score is rigged, with full approval from SL/RFL/IMG.

What i don't understand is how clubs like cas n wakey have had to improve their grounds in order to be safe in the superleague but Bradford can stick a scoreboard on top of an old caravan play on a subbutteo pitch surrounded by some old red brick dust from derelict council houses and start saying we're ready .

The bar is set ridiculously low when teams like Cas reckon they will be close to been an A grade. But the problem from Bradfords point of view is that after next season there is a very good chance there will be 12 A graded teams in SL and with it been near impossible for a Championship club to score 15 points the door to SL is slammed well and truly shut for them unless they to 14 teams which we know greedy SL chairman will not let happen.

There was talk that SL could be expanded because teams making these improvements to get the A grade should generate more income but as we have seen with the Cas situation its actually really easy to manipulate things and get more points and not increase income that much.

I said at the time that Bradford were the one team where I didn't expect their score to increase from their original mock score as it looked like they had over egged things so its going to be interesting to see the Bulls fans reaction if that actually turns out to be the case.

Well I'm under no illusions. The drawbridge has been pulled up. Barring utter implosion at a SL club I can't see them ever relegating anyone and expanding the division and sharing the money between 14 rather than 12 will go down like a cup of cold sick.

Unless they syphon off the remaining Champ/L1 funding....

The irony about the ludicrous IMG rating system is that 7 out of the 11 SL clubs (excluding Catalans whose accounts I cannot get hold of) are insolvent by over £2 million, far greater debt than the championship clubs. It doesn't matter who is owed the money ....... a bank, a sugar daddy or Larry the Loan Shark ......... debt is debt is debt. So if a dodgy "off field" system is concocted to manipulate the structure of SL, then solvency should be the biggest factor.

Please SKY, pull the rug and let SL implode. Then let's get back part time RL with 2 divisions where rewards are earned on the pitch.

There's a reason SL clubs pushed to allow ground values to be included in the 'solvency' criterion and why a couple had theirs revalued.....

Cas' 'improvements' have actually made it worse for the normal spectator but because the IMG stadium criteria are massively biased towards corporate/media facilities the club gains and their spectators lose out.

Aren't Fev knocking down the terracing behind the sticks replacing with hospitality boxes just to improve their own IMG rating?

Not really as it'll make no difference to Fev's IMG rating for stadium facilities. I suspect that it's because it's cheaper to do that than renovate the terracing for standing. Without said terracing I'm not sure what the capacity will be but it'll be getting close to the minimum requirement of 5k to be able to gain points.

At a fans forum not long after the provisional announcements the Club basically said that there was no way to ever get into SL under the (current) IMG scoring system so they wouldn't bother tying to.

Sky lost 224 million in 2023 so hopefully will happen sooner rather than later.

Quote: Listenup94 "Sky lost 224 million in 2023 so hopefully will happen sooner rather than later.'" I've no idea what the viewing figures are like for RL on SKY, but the BBC games were disappointing: https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/more-dis ... gue-97074/ Would of course be catastrophic for SL to lose TV coverage because sponsors would also pull their support if they're not having eyes on them. Did Channel 4 decline this season?

Quote: Listenup94 "Sky lost 224 million in 2023 so hopefully will happen sooner rather than later.'" I've no idea what the viewing figures are like for RL on SKY, but the BBC games were disappointing: https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/more-dis ... gue-97074/ Would of course be catastrophic for SL to lose TV coverage because sponsors would also pull their support if they're not having eyes on them. Did Channel 4 decline this season?

Lingard sacked by Cas so presuming he is available but also wondering if this changes the situation with Muzza.

Was thinking the same but probably going leftfield with an old janitor who watched a game of rugby once.

Would love lingard , knows the championship well gets a team playing for each other on a low budget, sell widdops boots n get him onboard.

Absolutely if at all possible get Lingard on board, it would also show that whoever is calling the shots at the club as some idea what they are doing.

Aye, Craig Lingard would be ideal.

You have to wonder what it would take to tempt him but with the compo from Cas you never know.

Well realistically he's not gonna get another superleague gigg right now so from his perspective there are three jobs that would be suitable , Bradford, fax and if Aston is finished Sheffield. With Bradford interested in Henderson Sheffields saga with Aston incomplete I would be doing the utmost to strike while the irons hot , lingard to me is the perfect fit for fax , he's a likeable character has proven championship pedigree and his known for squeezing performances out of lower budget players . Whoever sponsored widdop needs to pick up the phone now.

Quite ridiculous that Lingard was only given a year at Cas. He inherited a load of dross (Watts and Westerman in particular) and they actually did better than the season before, anyway!