I think it will be positive if they can be as competitive and stable as Catalans have been. Agree though that having Catalans in SL doesn't seem to have made a big difference to the quality of the French team.

Brilliant idea. I can see the French TV companies falling over themselves to fund a Toulouse team and screen a semi-pro league filled with small northern towns.

Making a sports club earn its way to the top league on the playing field.... Disgusting

Determining things on the playing field?

Are you having a laugh?

Sooper Dooper League is all about rewarding mediocrity, dreaming about sexy French locations, protecting iconic failed franchises and rendering the vast majority of league fixtures as utterly meaningless.

Oh no, the potential to engage a market that has shown interest repeatedly, capture more TV money and provide better youth pathways to a weaker RL nation. Could things get any worse?

Well said.

How can you say Catalans have contibuted very little? Who exactly has contributed to the league then? It's odd that SL clubs struggle to fund one away trip to France a year, but Catalans can afford to travel to England every other week. Anyway London are going over twice this year, so it obviously isn't too expensive for us.

Good luck to them I say. I'd rather have a big city in a large country, with a booming economy, than another Northern hole that most people in the country couldn't locate on a map.

And those moaning about them being full of Australians, yeah because no 'traditional' clubs have signed any have they?

Catalans are one of the better supported sides in the competition, they've made the CC final, and they've played in the league finals several times. They also provide stiffer opposition for the top half clubs than anyone in the bottom half.

You've basically just become a troll. That's a shame, because you used to say sensible things. Now, though, you're just doing the "look at me, I'm really negative and call myself realistic just to wind people up" thing.

Give it a rest.

Great stuff. The introduction of a French SL side, with the intention of polarising the route to a professional career to a pretty decent amateur and semi-pro set up in the south of France has resulted in a pretty competitive side watched by the 7th biggest average gates in the competition.
I repeat, what have they brought to SL? Sponsors? More TV money?
What have they brought to French RL? A more competitive national side?

I wasn't belittling Catalans by the way, but I was questioning the possibility of fast tracking another French team into the comp purely because they have a guy/guys who are prepared to bankroll them. As has been said elsewhere, drop them into SL2 and they will get their on merit.....and they'll stay there on merit too if they stick to the cap and can be weaned off imports quickly.

The Question was regarding the benefits to French RL if they were put in SL. I say the benefit we should be looking at for now should be English RL. The French have been "at the table" negotiating TV deal and their own Pro league for ages now...let them sort themselves out!



No...what has actually happened is that I see very little in the way of positives to report across the game at the moment. The RLWC was well attended and far better than 2000's effort, but other than that, the game is a shambles with weak management from the top down. Dreams of 8/8/8 being to solution panders to the Championship clubs who believe getting 1.3 million so they can spend 1.6 million on players is the Holy Grail and talk of another French Club is insanity, especially when based on the crowds at 1 OTR game there.

It's become fashionable on here to brand someone a troll because they don't agree with the majority......that's a shame because you used to get reasoned debate on here

Why do Catalans have a responsibility to bring sponsors to SL ? No other club does. They bring their own sponsors. That's a daft point. Also, your original post posed the question what do they bring to SL, not what do they bring to the French national side. Two very different questions. Stop trying to shift the goalposts because someone's called you out on your troll act.

Most of us watch the sport to see entertaining games. Catalans are more entertaining than most of the clubs in the league simply by dint of being a better quality than most of the clubs in the league. They're competitive. They're also well supported by the standards of the competition. So they're contributing just fine, thanks very much. Certainly more than the clubs who consistently produce neither the crowds, nor the performances. Following your bizarre logic, then only two teams could ever contribute to SL in any given year - the champions, and the best supported side (only one if they were the same - woe is us). Just silly.

they have NO away fans....least some SL clubs have away fans at their home games.

If and it's an if, by having Toulouse fast tracked into SL it injects lots of cash into the game, money we can't afford to turn down then I'm all for it, if not then they need to do it the right way/long way.

Shame some SL clubs don't have home fans at their own home games.

I am fully aware who is responsible for finding sponsors and negotiating TV deals. My point was that adding Toulouse based on a single OTR game and too boost French RL is a flawed argument. You call it trolling, I call it disagreeing, but at least I don't resort to name calling or branding eh?



Catalans deliver a brand of RL that sees them sit prettily in the middle section of SL with average gates. Given, like London, they are the only pro game in town, their attendances and their lacklustre development of top tier talent in actually disappointing, but given the debate was about Toulouse and them being parachuted into SL, I fail to see why you continue to concentrate on Catalans and not Toulouse.


Point of order. I openly laid my stall out regarding the RLWC and immediately put my hands up and took my hat off to the RLWC team. I said 360k and was 100k out and freely admit to being wrong. This doesn't make me a Troll. I don't seek anyone's attention, least of all RL fans on a ing forum I call it as I see it and this, unfortunately, isn't always what some insecure fans want to hear......so the name calling happens.
The "success" of the RLWC is an entirely different topic though, but you'll add this to your post to give you more supposed credence in your views, when in fact the RLWC and my opinions at the start of it have nothing to do with the topic under discussion here......

Back on thread. Toulouse in SL by 2017 once they have won their place is fine, but the benefits to French RL are questionable at best, whilst the benefits to SL are non-existent.
Parachuting anyone into SL is fraught with danger.......so doing it to a club that struggled at Championship level is insanity.
In my opinion that is!....if that's allowed on here

isn't Toulouse a massive union strong hold if not more than london? is there genuine interest there from people or is it all speculative? i have no idea what rugby league is like there. generating there own money is a massive + for them, as long as its over a 5 year period and not just a year.