According to Brian Carney, the "parachute payment" to Widnes will be halved if a second SL club is relegated.

This gives Widnes as a club a £250k incentive to lose to Hull KR on Sunday. If they win, they gain nothing, but risk Hull KR's relegation, and a huge financial loss.

If players stood to gain financially from their team losing, we'd ban them (Long and Gleeson). This is a whole club who have a very large vested interest in losing.

Have you seen Widnes this season? I'm sure there would be far more of a conspiracy theory if they actually won!

This is a straw a few of our fans have been clutching at.

And there is a potential conflict of interest.

However, I just can’t imagine the players that take the field doing so with the intention of losing by 14 or more. The club hierarchy might have mixed feelings, but they’ll have to keep them to themselves.

Also, Widnes have done nothing to create this situation, and there’s no evidence they’re seeking to ‘benefit’ from it, so the Long-Gleason comparison isn’t all that valid imo. I appreciate, it may have been tongue in cheek.

It'll be a conspiracy theory if Hull KR can't beat Widnes by 14 points!

Rod Studd raised the same point on RL Backchat. With Toronto beating Leeds unless Widnes now do no worse than a 13 point defeat on Sunday and consign Hull KR to the MPG then many will take the view that they willingly threw the game to secure the full parachute payment. Despite the fact that Widnes have been poor for the whole season anyway.


There are only 2 ways to avoid the conspiracy theories now, either 1) the RFL announces tomorrow that every club that is relegated will receive £500k as a parachute payment whether 1 or 2 clubs are relegated or 2) the RFL announces tomorrow that due to the scrapping of the qualifiers that no relegated clubs will receive a parachute payment. Doing either of those removes the perceived incentive that seemingly exists for Widnes to lose by 14 or more on Sunday.

Not content with spreading crucial games over 4 days, we now have this.

The game should NEVER put itself in a position where such things can happen, it's just appalling.
Whether other results can prevent the potential for "fixing" a scoreline is irrelevant, it should never be possible.

Who the hell is running the sport and why risk such a scenario.

Yet again something that really isnt difficult to avoid, has been allowed to happen.

We know who's running the RFL and why he has a lot to prove. My guess is that no-one had the foresight to work this out when Sky were asking for the fixture changes.

The parachute payment has been approved, and coming from, the SL clubs, or effectively SLE. So let's direct our anger at who is really responsible for this prospective farce and not, as often the case, make out that it's always The RFL's fault.

Who’s cares whether it’s bent or not?

Super duper league is run by a bunch of greedy short sighted ten bob shysters who have now bullied control from the rfl.

It’s why the sport is dying on its and aside from 3 or 4 elite clubs the top division is full of dross.

And dont forget that they wanted to take control cos it wasn't being done well enough for them. I give it a naximum if a couple of years until we see an re-enactment of Lord of the Flies and Julius Caesar and they're stabbing each other in the front nevermind the back!

Yet surely the big issue is the fact that the 12 richest clubs in RL do not have spare change of £250 K. That is how desperate things are in the game

Years ago I remember that to win the title in the last game if more then 2 teams were involved they made sure the games were played on the same day but now the game is dictated by sky and who pays the piper calls the tune

To the tune from the old Cadbury’s Roses advert...

Thank you very much for your quarter million,
Thank you very much,
Thank you very, very, very much.

The clubs may have to approve the idea but, who draws up the contracts with sky and doesnt put a clause in them to prevent the situation we have now, where the final week of the qualifiers are so critical.
How do you think other sports, especially football cope with the same type of scenario.

Any organisation has to be seen to be "fair" and beyond influence, RL is a bloody laughing stock or, at least it would be if the outside world even knew our game existed.
As said in my previous post, it reallly isn't difficult, it's just very, very, poor planning.
How difficult would it have been to move the Widnes, KR fixture forward a few days.

The op quite rightly points out that Widnes as a club need to make sure that KR dont join them in The Championship and although 250k may not be a huge figure in some sports, its pretty significant in RL.

It's not up to the individual clubs to plan fixtures, this is done between our broadcaster and those "running" the game.
Remember, it's not splitting the parachute payment that is the main issue, its that the last game of The Qualifiers may well see one club protecting a 500k payment, which will also have direct ramifications for other competing sides.

It's just wrong

The Scaffold, there's a blast from the past.