Every super league side should be mandated to have a quality academy set up and to invest a minimum % of revenue in youth development... those that don’t shouldn’t be allowed in the top division.

The game has been on life support for some time. There has been a lack of vision and leadership for years, and the game keeps making baffling and worrying decisions. Super league is terrible and has been for a number of seasons. This decision just speeds up the demise. We are falling further behind the southern hemlsphere on the international stage, and falling further behind rugby union in this country in terms of exposure, professionalism and attracting players.

Time to get behind BullBuilder.

Done.

Sounds like typical RFL logic doesnt it. We don't think your spending enough on your academy so you've got two years to spend more but we're removing the central funding during that period.

wonder if the withheld funding will be shared out amongst other academies or just go into RFLs coffers.

It's actually just a sneaky way of doing it, just like the perfect 'Yes, Prime Minister' script book.

It's rather like the episode about the ring road, where the council want to build a ring road but it would mean knocking down the memorial garden in the town centre, which would cause a serious rumpus. So instead, they actually publish a plan which includes knocking down the hospital adjacent to the memorial garden. This creates such an outcry that when the solution is 'found' that they only need to knock down the garden , everyone jumps up and cheers.

If we just assume that the RFL really only wanted to save money on the academy set up, it 's a perfect fit.