Sky with their finger firmly on the button. Only took them 8 days after Leigh’s bid to report on it.

Hi Bulls4. Regarding RL in Europe, the only button over which SkY's finger is presently hovering is the one marked "Eject".

That might not be such a bad thing for clubs outside SL.

Get yourself over to TRL. They have worked out that Bradford to Superleague followed by Newcastle to the Championship means there are two places to fill in league one.

Suggestions of course included Villeneuve, Carcassone, Avignon and Lezignan, before it was pointed out that Ottawa and New York were already lined up. But it remained a case of the more the merrier. Someone then pointed out there wasn't the adequate talent in France to stock these clubs, then someone pointed out that there isn't the talent in England as we import so many Aussies so what's good for English clubs should be good for North American and French clubs.

So you'd have a great time there re-inventing League one as a transatlantic French-Canadian League played out by Antipodeans.

Meanwhile in the real world................

The Premiership is a massive League here in England. Not even the might of Celtic and Rangers are given a thought. It seems to work best for them. Insular yes, highly successful erm yes

Also can we stop using crowds from 21 years ago to justify our place please? 24,020 was 1999. Hardly likely to hit those heights again. Potentially get a 20k against Leeds in the summer, if we are playing well, with cheap tickets but that's it.

And as much as I love debating with you Donnyman, The Silent H is right in what he says. Where's the proof of funds? Although his remark about 2 admins and a liquidation isn't relevant as they were different owners to be fair (even though I agree with him) but what's to say the current ones won't bring Admin 3?

This is just BS.
Some people, either through ignorance or due to their own agendas, try to underplay Rugby League's value to Sky - as with all other sports this remains at its heart a commercial transaction which works for both parties.

Sky like having the sport, know it drives its own viewership and subscription base and they get antsy when cup rounds or other things mean they can't have it on every week during the season (hence them picking up the third & fourth choice challenge cup games). It is a valuable commodity and they are willing to pay for it.

I see where you are coming from and it makes sense but RL isn’t massively important to Sky like it used to be. Since Sky took over RL they have bought the rights to F1, RU (only went professional in 1995), Darts, Boxing, Golf and more recently NFL. Some of them even have their own channel which we never have! All which bring in a hell of a lot more money than RL. They could quite easily cut us loose and it wouldn’t dent their income. RL fans will still pay their Sky because they offer a lot more than they used to in terms of sports.

I’ll flip your point. If RL is a valuable commodity that SKY are willing to pay for then why is the next SKY deal rumoured to be up to £10million less than the current deal? Surely it would stay the same or be more? Sky want it so they have the monopoly on sport.

Once again ignoring my questions posed and avoiding debate. Why?

I don't need a recount of a forum that you are no longer welcome on but thanks anyway.

Newcastle get the Championship spot.

What a surprise.

5 clubs applied. The other 4 being Barrow, Doncaster, Rochdale and Workington.

The RFL appointed a panel led by Dean Andrew OBE to carry out the review.

Thanks Wanderer. I did think I must have missed it surely

Can't believe Rochdale applied. When they went down they started recruiting NCL lads, not necessarily from the Premier Division either. No disrespect meant to the NCL, and I understand Rochdale will need to cut their cloth, but those are not the actions of a club determined to gain promotion and stay up.

Well I’m not convinced Bradford have recruited well for SL