Because in most cases it is. Most players will make their debut at 18/19/20, Its ridiculous to expect that we would get a large amount of success if we are only introducing French players to a full time set-up at 18/19/20, they would be 2/3 years behind their cohort.

In a different league system, yes. In the current system no.

Why, because SLE is determined by the incumbants already in the league. When you say 3 more additional french teams in SLE, you are not just saying 3 in 3 out, because 3 out could be any one from a variety of clubs. So automatically before you get any further you can see up to 6 clubs voting against this just for self preservation. Then other SLE clubs need to be convinced of the financial benefit to them.

Take Wigan for example, they are fairly rich have no real need to keep lower teams, however ask them about the costs of travelling to France 4 times a year, (plus any playoffs or CC ties) rather than the 1 trip currently. Ask about the cost of losing away fans against the likes of say Widnes or Hull KR, where you are replacing what could be 1000's of travelling fans with less than a coach full. All that balanced against some possibility of SKY maybe upping their deal or another TV company maybe showing interest. It's too many maybe's for almost any club to be bothered voting for. UK based clubs bring certain financial clout, European clubs just bring certain financial costs with no certainty of any compensation.

If I had my prefered league system which would be divisional then you could easily add more French teams, as the only cost would be the reduction in % revenue from TV. If the proposed French clubs could counter this with some deal of their own, then you could have 4 French clubs tomorrow. Split the league into 2 divisions 8 in each, 2 french clubs in either division, job done. But that is as far aware as any other proposal there can be.

Why are you assuming three in has to also equal three out?

In fairness, 4 French SL clubs is over the other side of the horizon and can't possibly happen any time soon.
IMO this is where the sports governing body, with reference to the current professional clubs, should be taking the lead.
If we are to expand/ contract/ maintain the league, then is should be carried out in a clear structured manner, with the consensus of those involved.
As a sport, we seem to tinker with things quite regularly, ie nos of competing teams, new teams, play offs (and numbers within the play offs) and ok, if something
isnt working then dont persist for the sake of it but lets have some proper structure and work toward improving the game a a whole.
Dont just pander to the favoured few at the top of the tree but, look how to improve the sport as a whole, with open dialogue and clear goals/ targets.

It appears that there may well be a further French team in SL in the short/ medium term future and it also seems likely that as soon as one of the Welsh clubs
is strong enough, then they will be "promoted", but if this is the case, we should be brave enough to go public and find the best framework to allow these things to happen.

There will never be a consensus because clubs view on what constitutes the best route forward is based on self-interest not in the interests of the game. Even if there was a massive TV deal on the table from France and a real commitment to improve the game in France with 3 more clubs ready and willing to step up, with 3 new stadia, massive investment in youth development etc etc etc, and some clubs will vote against their admission because a strong French game, and strong French clubs would make other clubs relatively weaker.

£££££

?????

What's up with a British league. Can't understand the obsession with Europe. Toulouse was a failed experiment in the championship. If the SL clubs cared about player development, instead of scrapping teams to save money. Just stop the jolleys to France. Just a personal opinion.

This is the whole crux of the issue. What do we really want from the game of rugby league.

1) A northern based working class game.
2) A national sport takn seriously by the media
3) An international sport where there are a number of competetive teams (enough for a World Cup)
4) Or a sport played only in certain areas of England and Australia (plus a small part of Southern France)

I'll take an attempt at number 2. Maybe the last attempt.

I wonder what the cost of 27 cross channel trips for teams plus club officials costs our game....half a million?

Cue Nigels chums.

What is wrong with a Northern based sport, take it witch ever way you like Rugby League is a working mans sport, there are lots of sports in the British game who we cannot compete with, How many clubs do we have out side of the North, we keep telling every body who is watching on Sky during the games that its the best game on earth, in my opinion it is but like me & others we are in a very small minority, the international game is a joke, we played against Wales, then France, and then France again [Next week] against Wales we went through the motions and put a Cricket score past them, and then France, the reporters keep trying to tell us it was a lot closer than the score says, but for me the score dose not lie, if some chairmen got there way the mistakes of the past would count for nothing, they would get rid of all the clubs in the lower half of the league so they can fill it with so called expansion clubs, and pore even more money in to the black hole. I always thought when you grow something it starts from the inside and goes out words not outside in, the RFL need to make the game strong at its roots before they come up with more big hiders, and it all comes down around them

Most yes , but not all , only by actually trying something like this could you assess its worth , for you to suggest otherwise as ' fact ' is ridiculous

100% agree with you.

The people who don't want any expansion out of the M62 corridor are always complaining about how little attention we get from the British national media. They cannot see the connection between being a regional game and not being taken seriously by the national media.

Similarly they are unable to recognise just how badly off the British rugby league scene is financially -- despite the financial collapse of a great club like Bradford, and the impending financial crises in Hull KR and Salford --- and how this might be connected to the fact that rugby league is located, on a professional level, mostly in the north.

If RL in the northern hemisphere is to get out of its financial hole, its status as the poor man's game in the sporting world, it has to attract more rich and generous national and international corporate sponsors. Only by developing the game nationally in the UK (more SL clubs in the midlands, the south and Wales), and internationally (which means first and foremost in France) can rugby league find the national and international corporate sponsorship it needs to flourish.

Interestingly, Toulouse is one of the best placed clubs to start the ball rolling in this direction. It is located in a place which is the home of the aerospace industry in France, especially Airbus. It will give rugby league the beginnings of a national profile in France that it cannot possibly create in the "ethnic minority" dominated Catalan region. It can attract French corporate money for the club, and make Toulouse a future centre for holding international rugby league games (Toulouse has the money, the stadia and the excellent rail and air links to the rest of France and the world). If Toulouse succeeds --- and I am very sure that it will within three years -- then soon after a lot of interest will come from other parts of France for setting up Super League clubs in other cities. For example, one of the businessmen who supports Catalans is from Lyon. If there is the chance of expansion he might become part of a consortium that could work to create a future Super League application from the great city of Lyon. Personally I think that Avignon is better placed than Lyon to follow Toulouse in 2018 perhaps, because there are organisation structures and players already there, but a 4th club would be wonderful and Bein Sport would demand a big city in order to help fund more French clubs with a new more lucrative French TV contract. Carcassonne does not have the industrial, mercantile and financial corporate base to support a Super League team. Lyon, like Paris, certainly does.

If Toulouse succeeds in SL then you are definitely going to have thousands more French schoolboys taking up the wonderful game of rugby league, because they will see the chance of a professional career in their home region, not in far away Perpignan where most will not want to relocate in their teen years. From these schoolboys will come more professional rugby league players (some small minority of whom, as adults, might play in England) and many future French international players. Toulouse has a much bigger population base (more than 1.1 million just in the Toulouse urban area alone) than the entire Catalan region, so the chances of growing our French game more than double its current size are wonderful there. It is hard to imagine that this will not improve the performances of France in international rugby league.

2 French clubs in Super League will make some significant improvement to the game in France. 4 French clubs will make a huge difference to the game in France.

So Catalans haven't been a success then?

What an absolute crock of rubbish. If the RFL had this way if thinking, the game would have no major sponsors, a small TV contract, little money to spend, and all the top talent would be playing union.

Why does RLFans harbour so many inward, pessimistic defeatists who want to contribute to the death of the game?!