They have the wrong priority.

The most important goal should be a second and maybe a third French club in Super League, with these French clubs playing at a SL standard.

You could then have a semi-professional national competition, with 8 clubs at most, including reserve teams from Catalans and Toulouse (if Toulouse is in SL) and the other teams being

Aude
Paris
Avignon
Lyon
Montpellier
Nantes

Later, if the competition was successful you could consider adding teams from Mille, Bordeaux and Lille.

Still even with 8 clubs the problem will be the number of quality French players available.

But the second French SL team should be the priority, and then the Bein Sport could be sure of one professional quality French home game for television each week.

I actually agree with this (sorry for cutting out most of your post in the quote but it took a lot of space.)

We have the TV deal already in place with Sky, that kind of money could develop another club in France within a couple of years. Maybe embracing this "European" Superleague as it gets referred to, could do us good in the long run.

I actually think the interest is there from the public, if they could negotiate a TV deal and sponsorships which could pay full-time wages.

Okay, the crowds hover around Championship level at present, but for the big games the French really turn out. Given that some of their big games are against Scotland and Ireland, that's a big feat.

The RFL should have had a second French club in SL by now. By failing to do so and without any clear plan to do so in the near future the only course of action is for the French to work on their own plans to grow the game there. Good on them. If that bears fruit and they manage to put together a summer pro league it will be better for the game in the long run anyway. I have doubts but the fact they are even in a position to consider this idea shows how far they have come and how aspirational they are.

Threads like these, built on "what if's" and "wouldn't it be great's" remind me of a group of 6 year old boys playing pretend war in a back garden...loads of enthusiasm, but it will all end in tears eventually.

no they couldn't - they are having enough trouble sustaining te present LER with Lezignan,Villeneuve,Limoux and Montpellier really struggling to find enough sponsorship to keep going - any talk of a Pro League is poppycock unless a major tv company comes in and funds it personally which ai't gonna happen - not in my lifetime anyway

Don't let Lox4Pres or the East Coast Tiger here you say that....they're Aussies, they know it all and they'll brand you a Union Troll

Maybe we need to promote rugby league to some French Billionaires that might be interested in funding a league, sort of like the Formula 1 rival A1 GP...but run much better...(please don't take this statement too seriously).

I'd hope to God that French clubs wouldn't be competing for our English players, there's hardly enough to create a competitive Super League at the moment.

www.rugbyforumxiii.com/forum/vie ... =8&t=52124

www.rugbyforumxiii.com/forum/vie ... =8&t=52124

Probably eventually

Basically French clubs are looking at a proper, stronger domestic league from 2014, with more clubs added to those in the south, some of them being new teams from existing football clubs. It looks like they want spread it across France and the guy pushing it, from RC Lens, is a big fan of RL