Explain it without hiding behind the term affiliation. What are you talking about specifically?

Right say I was the chairman of Wigan and I said this to good old Starbug who is chairman of Leigh



If you don't get it now I'm going to bed

And as I said , the dual reg and loan system takes care of all on field collaborations between SL and Championship clubs

So what off field collaborations do you mean considering that we are talking about what will usually be close neighbouring clubs ?

That Leigh may choose to never play.

I don't know - I don't manage any clubs but I'm sure we can affiliate

My feeling on this is similar to my feeling on mergers...

If my club were at the bottom of the barrel, about to die and there was no way they could survive on their own, then I'd rather still have a club to support than no club at all.

However, I think it's important that if clubs are to become feeder clubs then there is some kind of clause in place that allows for someone to take the club out of the agreement again. In the case of Leigh, if there was no alternative (i.e. no buyer came in and the current owners couldn't fund them any more) and Wigan were to buy them and make them their feeder club, then should a time in the future come when a consortium could afford to buy the club back, the club should be forced to sell for a certain price.

The dual-registration system only allows for a certain amount of players to be loaned out IIRC. If the entire academy were in a feeder team, then it would help all of their development.

I posted a topic a few years ago about how the RFL should allow SL clubs to create their own feeder clubs in the Championship with their own identity separate from the SL brand as an alternative to taking over current Championship clubs (or National League clubs back when I suggested it). This would allow the Championship clubs to keep their identity as well as increase the size of the league so there are more games (so more revenue for clubs) which clubs have been complaining about. Would help the development of players, and in fact would be a brilliant club development tool as well. The SL clubs are effectively creating new clubs that could be bought out in the future.

They can learn good on field and off field procedures from the Leigh club and improve the relations between the two towns which will in turn generate merchandise money.

In football, if another club bids for a player from one of the affiliated clubs then the other affiliated team can make an offer that will automatically accepted.

So in practise if Hull make an offer for Jamie Ellis, Wigan then have the choice to do so and then the player can choose his future. Then they could use a loan back clause to loan him back to Leigh so that he gets experience at a club he knows well.

That 2nd part is an interesting idea.

Leeds for example set up a feeder club in Leicester who play in championship/championship one using for the most part Leeds youth players and players coming back from injury. When that club hits a decent level and becomes interesting to the local population it is sold and run as club in its own right and leeds set up elsewhere, sounds ideal in theory.

Big problem with that is the costs would be massive.

Another thing is why people think that clubs would be forced to be a feeder club. If Leigh dont want to and can afford not to. They dont have to. If Sheffield wanted to, they should be able but if they dont, they dont have to.

How can improved relations improve merchandise sales ?

Sorry but SL clubs don't make ' offers ' for Championship players any more , they just take them

Well I was only using Wigan and Leigh as an example.

Do it then

No problem , affiliate with Gateshead then