https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/51067524

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/51067524

Absolutely fantastic news.

Jedva Cekam!

Good news for RSB ,as they`re a team who have actually got roots within Serbia. Hope they do well and are admitted.Not looking forward to the usual suspects derailling every thread to reinforce their stance.

I dont think that Belgrade are but, Toronto on the other hand will have to rely on the UK and "Aus" for as long as I'm left breathing.
If we are to expand into new areas, it cannot be at the expense of existing clubs that are fulfilling their obligations to develop young players atc, it's just wrong and in the long term will kill the game.
As I said, Belgrade dont come into this category and aren't 3500 miles away so, good luck to them.

Good. Finally someone hard enough to sort out Warrington's Ultras.

They certainly do. This is the best news I have heard since the announcements of New York and Ottawa. Combine Red Star Belgrade with Toronto, New York, Ottawa, Toulouse, and Catalans, and you will have six non-English teams --- a truly international transatlantic Super League. What a future for rugby league!

3 clubs in the top flight incapable of producing their own players sounds like a great way to secure the games future plus, Catalan and Toulouse fighting over just a handful of French players.
It all seems a far cry form clubs having to have a particular number of "club trained" players in their squad - a rule brought in to try ensure that SL clubs were "doing their bit" for the future of the game. Suddenly, a player trained in Wigan or Leeds is equal to being from Canada

Of course, the new sides could be the first seeds of the game expanding beyond the heartlands of the North of England, which should be applauded but, is their any kind of long term strategy or, is this more finger crossing and desperation form our sport.

Think you're doing a massive disservice to the French amateur game there. They have country's worth of players to themselves between them. Cas and Wakey have a far smaller catchment, and even then will have competition from more successful sides further afield (e.g Wigan's best young prospect is from Halifax, but we couldn't realistically poach a youngster from South France).

You are one of the only anti Toronto brigade who actually comes up with reasonable counter arguments, rather than "I don't want foreign teams"
I see you as more a sceptic rather than totally anti expansion anyway.

I am an expansionist but in favour of controlled planned expansion and I am not really a massively fan of Toronto I have always been in favour of at least 1 if not 2 French teams rather than North America, but I do love how it winds up the flat capper types.

I agree, there are in theory plenty of French players.
However, how many are capable of making the grade in SL ??

If there were many more players that were good enough then, surely, some more would have either made it at Catalan or, elsewhere in the sport.
I wonder how many Frenchman have ever made it in Australia ?

If they can achieve promotion, Toulouse would be a great addition to SL and a French derby game, where both sides were of equal standing would be great - I'd actually want to go as a neutral.

They're all made of the same meat and bones as English lads, and some of the French amateur sides are at least on a par with ours (one just came over a few months ago and beat Judes, Mayfield etc u18s). Just a matter of developing them from amateurs to SL players.

Fantastic idea. If only someone had thought of it before?

Elite 1 & 2 are very average from the streams I have seen, with many of the "stars' of those competitions being from the Southern Hemisphere. The reality is there isn't the money nor the pathway for youngsters to play the game, with may decent players, gong to the cash-rich Union competitions. Rugby league in Southern France cannot be compared to Rugby League in England. Sale is the only top union side in the north of England and they struggle to attract 7k to games whilst in France, 12 of their top sides are plying their trade in the Southern region with all of them attracting the same or more than Catalans. Toulouse RFC average 20k+ whilst their RL neigbours attracted 10% of that number.

It's all well and good saying "turing the amateurs pro", but a whole different matter actually doing it.


As for Serbia. Whilst it would be great for them to step up, I seem to recall them being "prepared for L1 entry in 2020 back in 2018, when they entered the Challenge cup in 2019, only to bale this year because of lack of funds and players being unable to commit.
rlhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/7377097/red-star-belgrade-given-place-in-next-years-rugby-league-challenge-cup/rl
Like Ottawa and NY, talk is cheap, but stepping up costs money as Argyle has claimed.
If RSB/Ottawa/NYC all join L1 in 2021. then the part-timers of West Wales will be looking at multiple "long weekends" off work, whilst the owners of those clubs will face the possibility of having additional costs heaped upon them. If NYC sign a couple of the fantastic players mentioned in dispatches, then the "competition" will be a race for 2nd spot, with another team of overpaid (for that level) journeymen waltzing through the season being hailed as the silver bullet that RL needs.
As for Red Star. They were comprehensively defeated in 2019 by a team from the 7th tier of the sport, so why they would be considered for entry at the 3rd tier is another question that needs answering, but it won't even be asked by the insane brigade who believe that League needs teams in the far flung corners of the world to attract more attention and therefore money. To those people I ask this:

"With the newspaper columns around the world and TV/Media coverage that they have attracted, how much revenue have Toronto Wolfpack delivered to the game?
I am aware they cost the UK game nothing, but that is not the question.

If you can't find yourself willing or able to give a straight answer to this question, then maybe try and answer this one:

"With the newspaper columns around the world and TV/Media coverage that they have attracted, how have Toronto Wolfpack benefited the game in a non-fiscal OR indirect sense?

Have TV companies tripped over themselves to get involved? Have major Blue Chip (non-betting ones) companies aligned themselves with the game? Have thousands of young Canadian Youths boarded planes to the M62 to learn the game? Have stars of Rugby Union flocked to follow the show pony SBW? Have Amateur sides sprung up all over Ontario with age group sides as well as open age teams? Has the Canadian Media flocked to buy TV rights for games? Have ticket Touts already bought all the season tickets in the hope of fetching $200 a seat for the visit of Huddersfield Giants

I am all for expansion. If Red Star wat to play a better standard of RL, let them firstly join Elite 2 in France, work their way up and then apply once they are proven, but don't drop them into a comp that they are evidently not good enough for!

No future at all given that none of these clubs will get a TV deal that pays anything. SKY will stop paying if the League isn't predominantly English. So it's a non-starter that if attempted would destroy RL in the Northern Hemisphere. If you don't understand these simple realities your better off not posting.

UNLESS you or Steph can tell us where the TV deal will come from? come on - give me facts and actual quotes, gimme the evidence......

No, and are highly unlikely to do so.