they wont have SL players because of three years in the championship

Toulouse wont have SL players because of being in the championship either, they will have some youngsters, with potential, better prepared to try to make the step up

neither Paris nor Leicester would have that,

by all means ask them to start their youth development now, get them to start to put structures in place, maybe even ask them to put an academy side in the academy leagues now,

but putting a first team in the championship wont produce SL players

and forcing clubs to jump through pointless hoops to placate the idiots tells business and investors plenty about our sport

It certainly does doesn't it , how can any club hope to interest investment when it will be judged on it's location

Quite! Let's ask them to start a youth development programme for a club that does not even play RL in any form.



Because no club in the championship has ever produced players good enough for SL have they?



Throwing a SL license at any business/man whose current fad is RL and happens to have a bit of money and live in a nice city says plenty more Smokey.

why was richard lewis meeting with laporte if not to fast track paris into SL?

richard lewis is the best RL administrator youve had. if given the chance for Stade France to have a SL team next time round, he will bend over backwards to do it.

i also maintain that if toulose have a strong financial bid next time they will be exempted from the requirements of making a GF.

we are talking about expansion with very good potential to grow RL a lot and also a great chance of success

you dont look a gift horse in the mouth, especially not when you are a sport which is as marginal as RL is in england

10 years down the track, whose going to do more for the game - Paris / Toulose or Leigh / Barrow?

If there is to be a second French team in SL which I think has to happen, it has to be Toulouse, they are an established club with decent support and in a strong established RL area. Paris would have to start in Championship 1 and work their way up. But then you could have the problem of possibly 3 French clubs all wanting to be in SL?

So if a large city has a stadium and the location is good they should get a place in the top tier , even if that means dumping a club in the heartlands ?

Europe

I've got an idea, why not have this Paris club playing in the French league before we plonk them in to what is supposed to represent the European elite? I think RL is hugely devalued when it doesn't have the confidence to make clubs earn their place at the top table when in reality it should be the top 14 teams/clubs in Europe in that league. If that means having 12 northern clubs, Quins and Catalans (the latter two included because I think they're well worthy of their place) then so be it, but over time that would change, with the right assistance and guidance being given to all clubs outside of the top flight.

And again:-

Typically the answer for French rugby league already exists in their glorious past.

The model for the game in about the period 1945-55 should be given detailed and careful consideration by the French rugby league hierarchy.

Basically, this involves a structure along the lines of the following:

1. A Championship Top Division of about 12-14 clubs (played for the Max Rousie Shield).

2. A French Club Competition involving the broader rugby league club community in France, thus allowing the growth and encouragement of newer clubs (played for the Lord Derby Cup).

This is what French rugby league needs to get back to, first and foremost.

The ability to use the ESL as a further platform to publicise the game is all a bit of a modern bonus for French rugby league, which should be ADDED to the strength of the original base.

As for teams in the Championship, I don't know how I can be clearer about how unequivocal it is that it again be based around what I describe as the HAND of French rugby league's traditional strength, the five big cities over which rugby league has previously had influence: namely, and in no particular order - Paris, Mille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse.

This was the case in the period 1945-55. And should be now as well.

Added to this would be the passionate rugby de villages of Carcassonne, Perpignan, Albi, Avignon, Villeneuve and probably Lezignan, Cavaillon and Carpentras.

A return to the Cote Basque would also be in order, possibly through Pau or a Cote Basque XIII.

At this time (circa 1945-55), the French rugby league was also benefiting from regular matches in other major centres such as Nantes (as referred to in an earlier post), Grenoble and Limoges - as examples only.

The passionate underlying strength of the amateur game must be similarly invigorated. At its strongest this allowed clubs like Arcachon and especially Cahors and Lavardac to compete with the professional outfits.

All of this combined to the betterment of French rugby league to produce one of the great international sides in history in the same period (1945-55)...

Was more directly relevant to the other threads in which it appeared, but is relevant to the overall structure of rugby league in France.

Thanks for the input.

I don't know what you are trying to suggest though? France does have a Championship and the Lord Derby Cup is still contested?

depends on which city and which heartland club

paris (stade francaise) / toulose offer more for SL than leigh / barrow etc.

it depends on the actual bids. Stade francaise Paris bid which has strong financial backing is clearly much better than a PSG. im not a fan of places like barcelona etc

widnes for example are a much stronger heartland club than barrow or leigh as well

its not as simple as your statement indicates

So Paris is good , but Barcelona is bad , just because you are not a ' fan ' of one of them , and you expect us to take you seriously

I was reffering to existing SL clubs not Championship clubs

So You suggest a large european city as long as they have a stadium and financial backing should replace who ?