Been to Toulouse a couple of times and the reality is that they have under 1,0000 regular fans and shunt round rented grounds. I would only let them in on GUARANTEE of significant funding we do not want or need another Celtic because some people think it would be good to have a second French SL club.

I assume you mean 1,000, which is funny since their average is over 2,000. And in France, don't the state own all sports venues, rather than the clubs?

RL needs another Les Cats.

it also needs less whingers

Why the fook do we need another two blooming french teams!!!


Do the overated overaged aussies need another couple of retirement homes???

Radical thought lets have two more english teams ...who knows they may produce english players...flippn eck how radical

You got me on that stunning point - I suppose your right after all.

Often published gates in France are fanciful at best - the two times I went I would say there were about 1,000 home fans on each occasion.

Thats has to be the aim for 10-15 years down the track if we are serious about expanding the sport.

I actually agree with you dally, obviously this is long term but we should be aiming for a french fulltime league (with a semi pro tier for those that cant make the grade) that eventually will add teams from places like spain, italy, germany and belgium. At the same time sl could become a league dedicated to supporting teams from around the british isles. i would then have the playoffs merge, british teams could play the likes of les cats and toulouse etc to decide who was the best club in europe (winner of whcih can play the world club challenge).

In the long run i hope the aussies bring in more kiwi teams (and a team from png), so that they can set up there own league.

That's what I've said all along. It's alright babysitting a few French teams, when do they go back and fend for themselves?

An ideal situation would be for French clubs to negotiate their own tv contract in France. If this was possible and we got to a point where any French teams were not taking money from the Sky pot, you could in theory have several french teams. Obviously they would be phased in gradually over a period of time. The long term aim would be to form a professional French league along the lines of SL with the main sponsor been a French tv network.

I'd rather see the best 3 or 4 teams in a 'Euro Super League' two conference system. Any others that dont make the grade could hopefully make the elite a bit stronger and I personally think that's the way all this will go

Back to the original post, I think it would be a good idea to give clubs ramping-up time, so warning them two years ahead that they'll get promoted.

TO have been very bad at this, there are lots of top players that they could have signed that they havn't. Too conservative for mine.

I expect to see Toulouse and Widnes in next time around with Salford/Crusaders/Wakefield dropping out unless they improve.

Widnes would be like another Hull KR but in a better stadium and Toulouse would be another Catalans, maybe even better.