The main point about Nigel Wood is that he has no method or apparent interest in guaranteeing expansion of the game. Licencing is the only method of guaranteeing expansion and growth.

If Toulouse is restricted to a tiny salary cap such as now exists in League 1, it will have less chance of promotion to Super League than the M62 teams that don't have to travel every other week.

We know which is better (off the field), nobody has disputed that. But you could transplant the entire RFU/IRB marketing team into the RFL and it would make very little difference.

It doesn't matter how much noise you make or how much you try to woo sponsors, RBS aren't going to sponsor RL in its current form because it only gets them limited exposure to people they don't give a sh|t about.

RU gets them exposure to people with money and who live in the right areas.

Like er.....Londoners?
Damn.......if onlynwe had a side to build the game aroundndown there.

This thread just about sums up our sport, Fans who think £250K is a big wage (in todays big companys mid level managers expect that) People asking for a new leader from out side the sport will have to realise to get that type of person start bidding at a million + pension deal.
As for wanting Hetherington? I was under the impresion he did run the RFL already. I have no gripe with Nigel Wood as I dont know much about him or what his brief is, But for a breath of fresh air try someone with the right contacts in the media one name shouts out at the moment & that is Clare Balding, flavour of the month at the moment.

I don't know what they put in the water in Beverley, but it's clearly created an altered state of consciousness; one in which mid level managers expect to earn quarter of a million quid a year, and Clare Balding would be a suitable or viable candidate to run the RFL.

Can you send me a bottle?

Jeremy Clarkson's still on the dole, I believe. Worth sounding him out?

Clare Balding is not a CEO. She is a presenter and a damned good one too!

If we could get someone like Richard Lewis to be Executive Chairman of the RFL, on £350K -- have Clare Balding as President (the public face and voice of rugby league) and confine Nigel Wood to the Championship, and League One -- which is precisely his level of competence -- all would be well. In fact it would be brilliant.

Other than Blatter I can't think of any other head of a sport that's universally disliked. I wonder if he's ever read any feedback on here

Oh, I don't know: that old Brazilian crook who used to run the Olympics, Seb Coe, widely disliked (although maybe mostly for being a Tory), few union fans seem to have a good word for Rob Andrew, Bernie Ecclestone...

Sepp Blatter but fatter ?

I work in the aviation industry £250K is about average for senior engineering managers & managing pilots, our CEO is well over a million with share options & we are not the top payers a national sport looking to be a big player should be paying market rates.