Quote: JonM "I thought I'd read that championship clubs who met the criteria could apply and one of them would be selected at the start of April. Then all of the SL clubs plus anyone else who fancies it (including the aforesaid championship clubs who didn't make it first time round) could then apply in April and the decisions of that round would be announced in July.
Can't find any links to back this up, though. And in any case, they make it up as they go along.
There's been newspaper interviews with Toulouse officials in the past few weeks stating that they expect to know what's happening in 2012 in July - so they are certainly intending to apply. And they are using it as leverage to get the city council to commit to ground improvements.'"
I do recall this actually.
So basically, you are always in with a shot, but for the best chance to get in you need to win the NRC or reach a GF to be able to apply in the "guaranteed" window? So could say Sheffield and Leigh theoretically apply in April?
If that's the case, then to be fair it isn't actually that bad a system. In fact it's a pretty good idea in that it rewards the clubs that have performed well by giving them a far greater chance of a license (which people argued for) whilst still giving hope to those clubs that have built a good business but didn't quite make it on the pitch and also expansion sides (which is something that people were arguing was a flaw of the "NRC/GFinalist" route to a license"icon_wink.gif. Licenses should prioritise those who have achieved targets on the field first, and then look for clubs with "potential" in addition to, not in replace of. Seems a good idea (which probably means I've got it totally wrong!).