if they (kr) had 100 years of heritage why did they go into administration etc.

putting them (paris) in the championship is probably not a bad way to prepare but then again if they want to throw them in straight away id be willing to give it a go provided :

1. its not at the cost of widnes who have earned their spot
2. they dont get any of the sky tv money.

if it costs the RFL nothing, why not?

How do we know the RFL clearly prefers them? Have the RFL said "we prefer a speculative story reported in the press over the other bids for licenses that don't actually exist at this time but we presume will be made in the next round of applications"?

A rugby League trip to Paris just doesn’t appeal to me. First of all the locals speak French of which I’ll never get a grasp of in my lifetime. The taxi drivers are in the same league as the Italians and Indians when it comes to recklessness. The food is alien to me and overall the whole place is too expensive.

But Dally.
Catalans are struggling.
Why would you jeopordise them now?

this story says the RFL prefer paris to get a spot

it doesnt say over widnes or anything like that

but it does say ahead of toulose.

clearly the FRL and RFL are working behind the scenes on this

why would another french club hurt them, itll help them by raising the games profile?

and les catalans crowds are still quite good, their ground is improving

its just the coach whose the problem.

Catalans are struggling a bit because they're gradually in the process of releasing overseas players and introducing French players. As it stands Toulouse have a healthy semi pro squad with some Catalans offcasts.

Introducing SF will make it a financial competition between the two clubs for what limited French players are available, they cant magically produce another 15 or so SL quality players, the ones at Catalans are NOT good enough as it is. It will severely weaken both Catalans and Toulouse because they will raid Tou for players who simply aren't good enough anyway and instead of having one French club struggling, as we do; there will be two rooted to the bottom of SL.

There's another point that no ones ever brought up re: catalans.. no one's ever seen their accounts like we have the British SL clubs as they dont have to publish them.

As I said on the other thread, make one expansion franchise available for 2014/15 and have it decided in 2012 to give them 2 years preparation time. Its the best way to go and will promote very healthy competition among Toulouse, SF, SWS (who i think will be ready before SF imo) and whoever else is interested.

Not yet,there are not enough quality players in France to cope with one superleague team never mind two,maybe in a few years time but no,not yet.

Ah right – some Ocker journalist has sucked this out his thumb, therefore it's fact.

What we do have, though, is an actual RFL statement at the time the franchise system was introduced that the PSG/Gateshead model of simply plucking an SL club out of thin air and plonking it down in some random place was a clear failure, and that applications for new SL franchises would have to come from established clubs that have proved themselves in the Championship (or, in the original statement, equivalent competition)

yeah the aussie journo just made it up!

rather than talking about the nrl he just decided it would generate lots of interest.

and of course this ignores other comments about stade francaise wanting a team in SL.

the journo who wrote this story is very close with tas bateri.

if people dont know who he is, well it wont surprise me.

when will we learn you can't put a team in a city with no interest in the game and expect it to be a success. Look at where we have tried it: Paris failed, Quins failing, Sth Wales failed, Melbourne taken $100mill extra to keep them alive, Sheffield failed.

Even in my city there is no guarantee of success and it will be a long hard road for us in our early years despite being confident of drawing 15,000+ fans and having a jnr system that is already producing NRL players.

If Paris are serious let them go into the CC1 and prove they are worthy of a SL place.

ps What is wrong with Toulouses bid? History of RL, producing players, has the mayor behind them, provides a natural rivallry for Les Cats etc. I'd rather see a team that has worked for it and got the foundations let in than some rich RU club who just wants to see their ground used year round.

You speak complete boll0cks mate.

JB doesn't, he's hit the nail ont' head.

personally im a little upset that its not toulose.

if it were up to me id put toulose in ahead of paris any time of the day

it looks like both the FRL and RFL prefer paris over them

the article doesnt go into depth on whether the team has to play in the championship or not.

ive quoted the article verbatim and thrown in my own opinion

wrexham are in SL now.

how did they go in the championship?

lets see how they go in Wrexham!

so we need to see wrexham longer in SL to judge huh?

bit like paris then.

putting paris in the championship would be the biggest waste of time ever.

put em in SL, give em 3 - 5 years if it works well done, if it doesnt oh well.

whats toulose being in the championship shown?

There no such team. Crusaders, iirc, were grand finalists.

next …

any reason we need two "dally picks a town to expand into" threads?

so wrexham were never in the championship, and are now in SL.

indeed good crowds and good results on the field.

les cats were never in the championship either.

OK.

sorry the places ive mentioned are both cities.

one of them the most famous city in the world.

hardly towns.

think bigger.

No they weren't. And no they're not. However, Crusaders, the team that play in SL at Wrexham, were in the championship and appeared in the Grand Final. It's really not difficult.

Google doesn't even know who he is.Go on,put us out of our misery.For those who don't live and breathe RL 24/7 and have other things going on in life,who is Tas Bateri?

Try googling for Tas Baiteri instead. A man who has done a great deal to spread RL internationally.

There's been no further news in France on Stade Francais XIII since the original story months ago at the time they put in plans for the stadium upgrade. No reported progress on them entering a team in next year's LER championship, or anything.