You're telling me you've never been relegated to the second tier?

Not during the super league era.

You didn't enter into it until 1998!

But that's all irrelevant as we're not working under P & R any more.

They met the minimum criteria. They were lucky to get a second bite of the cherry. How do we know Widnes put in a better application than Fax first time around and the RFL weren't merely keeping a promise to Widnes for shafting you last time. The only way we know is because the RFL told us that was the case, you were happy to believe it then, but aren't so sure when they say Wakey are better than Fax

We know because it's plainly obvious and a lot of Fax fans openly admit it. Clutching at straws.

Look do you support franchising or not?

If not, accept you don't deserve to be in the top flight and Fax do, on playing merit.

If you do, why can't you accept that the independent analysis said our application is better.

You don't mind the decisions when it suits, don't like them when it doesn't.

FWIW, I would go back to P & R.

Bringing this argument onto a personal level? A below the belt move. I could argue this nonsense, but I wont bother arguinging with you further because of this.

Simply its an unfair playing field,

for championship clubs, with their budget, be able to compete in all these areas against million pound spending super league clubs is ridiculous!

you may as well just say thats it! it stays as it is, noone up.......

.....oh no that wouldnt work would it?!

because the RFL need someone to 'fill the boots' when one of these 'well run' 'financially stable' 'licence holding' clubs go bust! i get it now!!

so if Fax keep their nose clean, we might be at the becon call at some point....mmmmmmm, no thanks!

its a joke, and im affriad most true RL fans would agree the only way to save the sport is by reintroducing P&R!

then everyone has a fair crack.

Why is it plainly obvious? To you it is. But you never saw the respective applications.

Are you a professional property consultant, a qualified accountant from one of the largest accountancy practices in the world or an academic from a well respected university? The answer is you aren't, but the people who had input into the franchise application process were and said our application was better than Fax.

As I say, you were happy to go with the decision when it was you vs Fax, but questioning the one that says Wakey were better than Fax.

I don't need to clutch at straws as thankfully the decision went in our favour.

Cos you know it's a heads I win, tails you lose answer?

That seems to be the standard response on here to things that aren't understood or don't fit with preconceptions. Ah well.


I wasn't saying it at the time because I didn't have the facts at the time. I had no idea what a piece of work Samuels was until some of the Crusaders fans started to talk about on here. When he pulled out and Crusaders moved to Wrexham I [idid[/i criticise the RFL and also expressed doubts about the move. All of which is beside the point and doesn't change the facts.


As I said, I'm not going to comment on a performance I didn't see. I'll also take your version of events with a pinch of salt as you're hardly an unbiased witness. He's certainly failed to cover himself in glory on past occasions though.

You have a theory based on your particular feelings about the RFL. That's fine, but personally I prefer to base an opinion on facts where possible. Those available at the moment don't align with your view.


For this theory to be true, every other SL club would have to be in on the conspiracy as they had to vote on it. Another, possibly more likely, theory is that the RFL and the clubs were putting in some insurance against the impact of a couple of major HMRC cases now in progress which could lead to serious financial problems for all SL clubs.


What has changed is that, for whatever reason, administration isn't in the rules any more. It's therefore utterly pointless to keep referring to it. It could not and did not have any impact on the current round of licences.


It isn't impossible at all. You have to put forward a compelling case for how you would operate as an SL club with the built-in advantages you mention, not how you would operate in SL with no improvement in resources.

And you're still banging away about Wakey when there is zero evidence that they were chosen over Fax. In fact there's more actual evidence to the contrary. You're also ignoring the fact that the current owners haven't broken a single promise and is willing to invest in the club.


So you haven't seen any very angry people posting about this topic? Not one?

OK.

i sure do hope you beat Welshies on sunday!

what a meaningless game that is now! laughable!

There are quantifyable things we do know though. Things which make such a comparison a foregone conclusion.

In terms of crowds, by some distance, stadium, by quite a bit, youth, by some distance, turnover and backing, by some distance, Widnes were simply ahead of Halifax. Those are things we as fans know. There isn't many areas we can only guess about. On field, Halifax have been stronger than us, but it's no longer about that solely.

There really is no point in continuing this string further.

Tricky - if the roles were reversed you'd be hacked off. Yes - the bids were judged as they lay side by side at that moment in time and the panel made their judgement. But to Halifax fans they see their club keeping it's nose clean and being fairly successful on the field of play. They see Wakey going into administration and still playing out of a toilet. How did you expect Fax fans to react? Honestly, how would you have reacted? I totally understand that faced with a club with a new wealthy backer up against a club with limited resources the panel took their choice but it doesn't say much for the principle of franchising when two of the clubs holding licenses go bust.

The RFL need to go back to the drawing board in this regard and not simply abandon the rule during a license period because one of it's projects has gone tits up.

But this is the problem with the Widnes logic, because we've had three years of "franchising isn't fair, boo hoo, we cant get back in Super League", but you proved you couldn't get up to the top flight by any other route than franchising. Halifax's best beef is that franchising is wrong and it should be about rugby on the pitch, with which I agree, but of course that wouldn't suit Widnes.