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 I dont think the likes of Cas or Wakefield have had outdated stadiums by choice, there is no money in the game.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.

The issue here is that, once you move away from on field performance being the driving factor, the whole situation can be engineered to suit whatever agenda is being pursued at a particular point in time.
There is some mention of expansion but also having a cap on 2 overseas clubs (for now). Are we going to see big cities trying to bid for clubs in the top flight and just who and how will the "weighting" of the various criteria be decided ?
Surely, having a set of minimum standards for SL and (tier 2) would be the right way forward and for God's sake, while we are still classed as a sport, let's have success decided out on the pitch and not in a smoke-filled room.
If not, people will be walking away from the game in numbers. Fans will be better off turning up to board meetings, rather than supporting their side on a Friday night

The responses to the presentation so far just show how divided the sport is currently. Those who are traditionalist and want the sport to stagnate and go back to semi pro to protect the 'as is' and their own club's current status. And those that want the sport to move on and improve through attracting new investment, even if it means some clubs being left being.

Sitting and doing nothing is not an option here. Promotion and relegation has added nothing to the sport and it needs to be gone as soon as possible. The IMG proposals are a halfway house, they encourage clubs to improve to achieve the higher gradings whilst leaving the door open for clubs that do significantly improve. The bit about expanding the league if they can fill it with A clubs is a good one, plenty for aspirational Championship clubs to go for.