Of course British RL needs annual promotion and relegation. This is not Australia. Super League is a minority sport, in danger of being perceived as a limited group of homogenised clubs owned by SKY and dominated by Australians. It simply isn't big enough to miss out on the opportunities to develop its profile, improve credibility, and heighten awareness which would be brought by the excitement of annual promotion and relegation.

There are difficulties to promotion and relegation, in the way franchising and expansion have difficulties, but if the will was there, it could be done well, and with noticeable benefit to the sport.

Unfortunately, there are teams who were in the right place at the right time, found themselves in an elite club, and have no intention of allowing a threat to their position merely for the sake of the sport in general. These are the real flatcappers, whose call is "It's fine as it is. Don't change it now."

eh? oh ok so team in twelth place needs to finish 4th next year to get its average 13th 3rd etc

well ok in theory............

You stupid idiot.

Promotion and relegation does not work well in any sporting competition it is used in. It has never worked.


You fool!

id so love to see you try and shout that from newcastle city hall steps!

Why, because Newcastle is the perfect example of why it doesnt work?

Clearly a top grade team, huge support and yet they have a bad season, they have to wipe millions of dollars off their playing roster, give players away and start all over again at a lower level.


Geez, what a great example.

By your preferred system Forest would never have won back to back European Cups, Wigan would not be doing ok in the premiership and if you go back far enough the likes of Bramley, Broughton and the like would be in SL.

Considering what happened to Widnes, I can’t believe that some Championship clubs would be so stupid as to risk everything on winning the NRC or appearing in the GF. The assessment is about the whole of the club, not just on field performances. Success comes from building a strong club overtime and not from just a quick fix of making a few big signings in the hope of making it to the finals. That can only lead to financial disaster and SL rejection.

“Look at us, we’ve won a cup, but our finances are well into the red, we are prime clubs for SL application, honest.”

It may be human nature to better yourself at all cost but that is hardly a good thing. Overstretching ourselves has got this country into the mess that it is in. The mind set of people who have been set in their ways for so long needs to be changed. It may take some time.

This is the first year of the new system. It far too early to analyse the pros and cons and much of what people will say will happen is based on theory rather then fact. Let’s see in six years time what the standard is of the applicants for a SL license. Only then will we have the facts in which to reason whether the new system will be/is a success or failure, even then it may be too early.

Promotion and relegation is possible in football due to the popularity of the game and the large amount of parachute payments available to the related clubs, particularly when demoted form the Premier League.

When the relegated clubs received parachute payments after relegation from SL the National League/NFP supporters whined and complained about how unfair the system all is, seems to me no matter what the governing body does there will always be narrow minded people who will find a way in which the system affects their club adversely then continue to bleat about it Ad infinitum.

The league is not strong enough to sustain promotion and relegation. OF the English based clubs, Widnes and possibly Halifax could realistically complete in the top flight. After that, then any club promoted would go straight back down with large debts attained from firstly achieving SL status and then subsequently fighting tooth and nail trying to stay their.

1 st point , the RFL are the ones who decided that an overall criteria should be used , they then made the ' a NL club is guaranteed to move up ' statement even if none are of a good enough standard and then they decide to have an on field ' qualification ' , they are the ones who cannot seem to make their minds up how it should work and it is their fault that clubs are risking all to qualify

2 nd point Absolutely correct , so the answer is ?

I agree the salary cap is important and should be enforced for this reason.

However, in the last couple of years with a salary cap in place Widnes (2007), Doncaster (2009), Rochdale (2009) have all gone into administration. The game in the UK is never going to have the financial clout that it does in Oz due to it being at least 5th or 6th in popularity over here. Quite a few fans from down under come on here regularly to tell us how well the sport is doing down there and how prom/reg doesn't work and thats fair enough. Good on them. But it's hardly a fair comparison is it?

As a Widnes fan I want to see promotion and relegation but without clubs pushing themselves to the brink of bankruptcy as we did to achieve it. Yes we have to expand the game to new areas but it's hard to do that when the heartlands themselves are struggling to compete with other sports. In Oz it's easier to expand your profile when you are number one in the market. We hear how clubs should merge for the greater good but that's easy to say when it's not your club that's in the firing line.