Whatever the pros and cons, this was just what we DIDN'T need in the build-up to the WC.

Well if the RFL want to press ahead with something several clubs disagree with the clubs didn't have much choice about acting now. If the RFL were hoping they 'd keep quiet until after the WC and thus implicitly accept whatever proposal the RFL want to implement in the meantime it looks like they misjudged that one.

Breakaway my arriss, the sport ain't big enough. It's also not big enough to be divided by policy ie franchising
I don't love the three eights but its better than we have, two tens is logical until we are capable of two twelves etc
I am glad everyone now feels franchising is dead forever

It's no surprise, a number of clubs believe a ten team SL with all the sky money being split between the lucky ten is the way it should be.

Whilst it is hard to argue the rfl are doing a good job running SL it is equally hard to have any faith in clubs who can't run themselves successfully having much more success!

A split in the game is the last thing we need, a new set up at rfl with some fresh ideas and new blood is the better way to go.

My tens would be £1.2m and 700k 27 games

Interesting.

Will sit back to see how it unfolds. What I find intriguing is the clubs that are allegedly unhappy. Nearly all the top clubs, in fact it is all the bg guns.

...Except for leeds.

What is Hetherington's agenda?

Aparrently Ian Lenegan has announced that the prize money for winning the Grand Final was £30k. Wire got £15k.

I'm not sure I get the point about prize money though. If IL wants more money for winning the GF, I can't see him getting 50% of RL chairmen to agree with that, so does he want a league of 4???

If the issue is the way the RL is being run by the RFL, well again what do they disagree with and are they prepared to see more SKY money go from the clubs into marketing??

I don't think there will be a split, although I can see them stopping reforms.

But if there was a split how would it market the game any better???

I'll wait to hear more, but if it's anything beyond clubs (my own included) serving more than their own self interest I would be very surprised.

£30k for winning super league ! It won't even pay the players wages for 1 week !

That document should be a resignation letter. Regardless of the pro’s and con’s of franchising, regardless of whether it is good or not or which side of the fence you are on with it the RFL’s competency to administer it should not be a consideration. That document is an admittance that the game may need to choose what to do not on what is the best format, but on what the RFL is competent to administer.

I was under the impression that the licensing system was meant to go toward ensuring clubs didn’t get themselves into difficulties in the first place. One could be forgiven for thinking that if that was the purpose it’s been a failure as far as number of clubs (including my own) have been concerned. The return of P&R would probably still see clubs go to the wall but it would I think leave that pathway open for clubs from lower divisions in a more transparent way. The arguments for P&R have been done to death and it’s not perfect but nor is the current fudged system where we seem to have the worst of all worlds with clubs still going out of business but with the top tier divorced from the rest of the game.

As for the possibility of a breakaway by SL clubs I’d hope that was just a scare tactic. The last thing the game needs is more fragmentation and self interest. The game needs to work together to ensure that commercial interests are maximised. That means clubs working with the governing body and international set up to agree a proper international calendar that is complemented by a well thought out, logical club fixture list and a cup competition that is the right time of the year to maximise supporter numbers and commercial opportunities. Self interest by clubs buggered up the international game and the cup and has left the game with its lowest profile ever. I’d say the clubs have rather a bad record on this front.

Then again, as somebody once said..."no such thing as bad publicity". Seriously, in our case, I don't see how this row will do much harm. Even if the press coverage is all about delighting in the 'turmoil' in RL, at least the fact that a World Cup is about to happen gets itself in the paper somehow. Not ideal, but not a major issue as far as the RLWC is concerned IMO.

Like it or not, the 21st century media is about image and not substance. Unfortunately this lot have neither.