I think you hit the nail on the head 'expansion of Superleague'. But why not give it its full title of 'Super League (Europe) Limited'? After the demise of Paris the 'Europe' bit was a bit superfluous. So, despite what any of us think, SLE felt compelled to 'expand' the game somewhere outside England and, preferably, outside GB. A success, well, maybe, but what sort of a hand-up did they have?...

[list
three years to prepare
the right to field a team in the French national tournaments
an exemption from relegation for three years
the right to buy any French player without paying a transfer fee
[/list

Having said that I can't begrudge the French this 'success' as at least RL in this country wasn't officially banned! (Which is what happened in France under the Vichy Gov't : the players were 'invited' to play Union and RL assets were seized. As far as I can find out, the assets have never been returned. Oh, and it is still impossible for anyone studying to become a state registered sports instructor to take rugby league as their main option).

Well rlSouth Walesrl did not work. We now have another SL club within commuting distance of Warrington & Widnes.

What a disgrace this is.

We might as well kick the franchise system into touch if this deemed acceptable.

Feckin rubbish.

tbh, I could not agree more.

And they must be gutted down in South Wales. What a kick in the nuts for the game down there.

Completely.

If I were them I might be tempted think " to this, I'm off"

Just as a reminder...

"A five-man RFL panel assessed the 19 applications based on four key criteria: stadium facilities, finance and business performance, commercial and marketing, and playing strength, including junior player production development."

So much for their 'qualification process', at my count they've actually produced on maybe (generously) two of them...

I wonder how many of the criteria were a case of 'talk the talk' ? I don't know about you guys but I've seen plenty of 'strong' business plans based on superficial statements like 'we will get x% of the market' without ever actually stating how! Yes, bloated, impressively pompous sounding, waffle does it for some people every time

Yeah the whole Crusaders thing is a bit of a joke, given the fact they are in SL for expansion and all.....

what I will say though is that we must keep on trying to expand, we can't be a regional game and not expect RU to keep on poaching players....people are on here stating a hybrid game would be accpetable, well it would be anything but a hybrid, we would simply be absorbed by the game that is truly national, has an international game and a stack of money. Can you imagine them being told they must change their rules, break off from the IRB etc....it would never happen.

I would prefer a two-tier Super League, we could probably support 18/20 full time (or at least largely full time) teams...the likes of Leigh, Widnes, Halifax, a cumbrian team, Toulouse should be able to sustain themselves and with promotion and relegation the fans would have something to immediately look forward to...not the hope of a SL place in three years time. All this would cater for the traditionally large teams and hotbeds of rugby league, whilst allowing the scope for all the expansion teams.....I'm sure a succesful Crusaders team in SL2 would make it more appealing than a bottom of the ladder SL1 team year after year? Ah well, who knows, I'm no expert but the RFL doesn't seem to be too clued in either otherwise we wouldn't have this thread!

Oh fekk

At the start I was fully behind what was the 'Bridgend' Crusaders, spreading the game and generally giving them a chance. However now were going to end up with another 'northern' club with even less support! New licences: IN: Halifax and Widnes, OUT: Crusaders and Wakefield.

I think most of this is covered on the 'Expansion' thread mate. It's a good point though, I think a lot of people are a bit annoyed with the whole Crusaders move.

Fair Enough.

It is looking very now that there will be a National League side based in Neath, and coached by Harris. This will take care of the expanding youth development in S Wales, and keep the game expanding. I hope now for no overseas imports, and in two or three years we will have a steady stream of players good enough for SL. This will also solve the problem of not being able to attract northern players to S Wales, which has ben another major problem. Certainly an all Welsh side will attract the locals, and give the young players a target to aim for.

Good post, but seeing as a few posters seem to see Gateshead as little short of disastrous, I'll throw in my opinion on this. To my mind, Gateshead was the biggest missed opportunity. The club was working; if you lived in the area you could see that. They were regularly featured in local press and on news, they had a growing fanbase, people were wearing the shirt, you could start an rl conversation with strangers and there was interest from neutrals. School kids were playing the game. If they'd received a fraction of the support that quins have received, I'm pretty sure they'd be in SL now.

Gateshead was sacrificed to save Hull (Sharks) FC. The thought of losing a heartland of RL from SL was just too much for the powers that be to stomach so, after failing to get the Hull/KR merger, the RFL sanctioned the Gateshead/Hull (Sharks) FC merger.