Good post. I would prefer P&R - Bottom club down, top of champ up. The promoted team should be given a seasons grace, and then they could still incorporate the Cat B structure as well. If a top championship team feels they're not quite a Cat B superleague club whilst playing in the championship, they have nothing to play for in the whole of the season. So it should be 1 up 1 down with a seasons grace to the promoted team.

Im thinking more of the side at the bottom of SL towards the back end of the season with little to play for. Didnt work last time and wont again. Also very vague on how you actually go down, it will further the gap in my opinion between teams who have a shiny stadium to those that dont.

Its not right that anything other then on the pitch performances is rewarded. Dont like it for me on the principal.

All the successful franchise systems in sport only add to the elite and not take away. To think you could finish 5th one season and be relegated because a club in the lower league have better bogs for example is just wrong. Its not a sport in my opinion.

Agree that there are downsides, and in my opinion Hull got lazy during the last franchise era, we finished 2nd bottom in 2009 but it all felt very apathetic at the club, if our SL place was on the line some mid season signings would have appeared.

There needs to be a big weighting towards on the field performances. Salford for example will score low on crowds, income and the stadium deal issue but they can argue they've been to 2 finals in 4 years and unearthed 2 man of steels.

You do know a brand new New stand is under construction now at Wakefield. One of the main criteria should be owning your own ground so you're not a soccer clubs bitch.

It's pointless when every year the team promoted is relagated.

That's the whole point. Until they, as a club are good enough to get promoted they shouldn't have the chance.

Then give the promoted club a seasons grace.

Until we see criteria its anyones guess but they should be trying to increase full time teams and this system will do anything but that. I dont think the likes of Cas or Wakefield have had outdated stadiums by choice, there is no money in the game.

This is destined to see teams spend what they dont have.

A brand new stand? What happened to the new stadium they promised last time franchises were on the table

Why have the RFL paid a small fortune (I imagine) for IMG to make a few suggestions. If the RFL don't know what the answer is, then there is no hope for the sport in this country. Maybe IMG should be asked to help County Championship cricket as well, good luck with that. Like RL over here, it is what it is, and nothing will ever change.

Promotion and Relegation based on on the field performance is better than your league being decided by an independent body. However if you happen to have the same or better franchising category* than the team that finished bottom, and win the Championship, then you should be promoted to the Super League. This IMG plan suggests you could have a great season on the pitch and still be relegated which is taking things too far.

Lets face it franchising was unfair last time because the only difference between the smaller super league clubs and the larger championship clubs is the Sky money.


*Assuming they don't hand the good scores to clubs that are about to go bust, but they get bonus points because they are in a new county/principality/country.

the worst thing that could have happen end was for IMGs first engagement with the RL Family was an opportunity to say "seen that" "didn't work" "Been there got the t-shirt an still feeling the pain"


But that's exactly what they have done... and they haven't even thought through the full application and deployment of the idea..

this is an awful piece of work and, if indicative of the quality of IMGs work, is a clear warning.

So we know that clubs in SL in danger of relegation have difficulty planning long-term and getting players to sign up when they aren't certain their team will be in the league the following year.

And this proposal creates an entire cohort of "Category B" clubs in SL who will be reassessed *every year* to see if they remain in the top flight.

That simply reinforces the uncertainty and instability around those clubs and makes it almost impossible for them to plan long-term on the field (which in turn make off-field investments much more difficult to finance).

It also absolutely bakes in the dominance of Category A clubs who can sign the best players to long term contracts without any of the worries of the B clubs.

In short, this is worse than licensing, which at least gave a bit of medium-term stability to all clubs, but caused decay and decline in the Championship.
But it's also worse than P&R, which only caused uncertainty at a relatively small number of clubs.

Madness.

A Clubs - St Helens, Wigan, Leeds, Catalans, Warrington, Hull
B Clubs - Hull KR, Huddersfield
Lower B Clubs - Wakefield, Castleford, Salford, Leigh, Toulouse, London, York

With everyone else being C. That's my prediction

St Helens should be graded an A+ for their contribution to rugby league at every level, just look at the Saints Academy and Ladies Team and they recently won an award to the rugby league community, also the amount of players they provide to all the England squads.