No , we'd be ' slumming it ' with you lot in the Championship

I'd like to see a French top flight and our top flight where the winner of each countries knock out meets in the gf rotated between old Trafford and say Paris. A propper European cluc champion the winner of this plays the wcc. A total pipe dream but a nice one

Clearly the approach needed is anyone within the game of rugby league should be treated as part of an international brotherhood (and sisterhood for that matter).

As for respect for French fans, how would England RL look if the following had occurred during it's historyOf course the French deserve tremendous respect. Only a true love for the game would have allowed it to survive in such brutal conditions.

In answer to this, I posted this (below) some time back here. It still holds true in my view.
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Typically the answer for French rugby league already exists in their glorious past.

The model for the game in about the period 1945-55 should be given detailed and careful consideration by the French rugby league hierarchy.

Basically, this involves a structure along the lines of the following

never thought I'd say this to our cross channel associates but amen brother

Catalans has been a great addition to SL and I hope to see another couple of French teams join in over the next decade or so. It is the only way they can improve to Int standards imo. I can't ever see a time again when there is enough interest to have French TV paying the money needed to run a FT league in France.

Why not?

They didn't cover other sports until recently and rugby league has a lot longer history in France than many other sports.

Frankly, you know nothing about the game in France.

And little more about it in Australia.

because in the "good old days" it didnt cost anything like 3million euros to run a prof team! Only 2 countries in the world can afford to run a FT prof RL comp and that is beacuse they are the only ones where TV is willing to fork out huge sums to cover it.

Show me any inkling at all that a French TV company is willing to spend 30million+ Euros a year to show RL. Live in your pipedream world all you like but France is never getting a SL equivalent league in my lifetime, neither is NZ nor PNG. Only way to develop these countries at an elite level is to bring them into leagues that can generate that sort of media cash.

In case you missed it...

Frankly, you know nothing about the game in France.

And little more about it in Australia.

To be fair he raises a good point about them needing a TV deal to be able to run a professional league. I reckon they'd need at least 4 professional teams before anyone would consider throwing huge money at French RL.

Where did I mention they wouldn't?

Of course they would need a TV deal.

It would be as a result of rebooting the internal game in France via an updated Elite.

Im sure you would hark for a TV deal like the French had in those halcyon days of the 50's Gijou................

Not bad.



In fact, the press coverage we were afforded in France during the 1950s was very impressive.

We would be looking to get back to similar coverage. Albeit in the newer mediums now available...

They have a TV deal now for the internationals later in the year with an option of extending it with Direct8 (TNT), it's not the biggest at the moment, but being FTA and digital, over the next few years with the uptake of digital set top boxes and Digital TV's, it will def grow.

If these manage to get reasonable ratings for the games with some decent crowds at the smaller stadiums so it looks good, we could see this station or another one come to the party in regards to Les Catalans and Toulouse.

If that happens, none of us can say what the outcome will be for French RL, it could stay at that with those two/three teams, or they could end up getting some decent sponsors on board and that TV station or another going out on a limb to promote the sport.

The GF will also be shown on France 3 FTA and a semi or 2 (not sure on the semis) and I think the Lord Derby Cup final.

The FFR 13 have also done a deal with the same mob (direct8 TNT) where the channel will promote the games and the print media has done a deal to also promote the games.