Surely Sam Burgess is eligible for the "Overseas Sports Personality of the Year". There's no stipulation that you have to be a foreigner is there?

All they have to do is show half of the Sam Burgess - Rabittohs Tribute montage from the video sharing site
rlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v

usually the chinese and russians to avoid in gymnastics

Don't get me started on those b'stards at the BBC.

A Wellington consortium have prepared and delivered their bid to have a Team in the NRL by 2018. How come that after I have to search for the RL section on their web-site, the BBC have failed to give this bid by a New Zealand team to join a predominantly Australian competition any coverage at all.
This is further proof that they hate Rugby League and have weekly meetings to plan for new ways to keep the game out of the public eye......I am so happy I no longer pay the licence fee

What is this reference to?

I suppose my life long residence in the South makes me unqualified to talk about the BBC and any sporting bias.

However, there are reasons why I am not bothered about Burgess not making the long list. Generally the sports made popular by the big broadcasters attract chumps.

Football is ruined by cash and corporatism. Darts has been infected by poorly behaved beered up louts. Even the bastion of the Land Rover driver Rugby Union is now infiltrated by the hooligan and lout.

Have a look at some of their forums and see what I mean.

But rugby league, whilst it still has its problems and an attitude of inferiority feels better to me for that.

Would I like all clubs on a sound financial footing and to be able to read about it in the daily papers? of course.

But do I feel part of an exclusive little club that other people don't understand ? absolutely.

If our game remains a secret and exempt from stupid amounts of cash and 24 hour media nonsense (envisage a transfer deadline night of RL, with reporters outside Langtree Park talking to Kieron Cunningham through a car window to discuss if there is substance in the rumours of them signing Leon Price back, for example) then I can live with that right now.

Below is a map of the regions that receive BBC broadcasts. The Red dots represent the location (approximate) where the top flight Rugby League clubs are situated, the blue dots, where the top flight Rugby Union clubs are located.
Whilst I have no wish to crush the aspirations of junior Fox Mulder wannabees on here regarding a supposed "agenda" to keep league in its place, this simple map does demonstrate why a great many people and corporate sponsors think League is a small localised sport and Union is a National one. And that's before you take into account the mammoth difference in international reach.

A really good article below from Jim Mansell regarding Sam Burgess and SPOTY www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... -clue.html

A really good article below from Jim Mansell regarding Sam Burgess and SPOTY www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... -clue.html

Premier Sports has been asked to provide the BBC with Sam Burgess footage for the show. Something may be afoot. Overseas Sports Personality?

I take it Sam will be at the ceremony so i would imagine it will just be used for a snippet before they interview him on his great year and his prospects for the WC next year etc...

Give it a rest....geezzzz

Why? Burgess played a minority sport in rugby league that gets little national coverage in the media. ....any media. He played this minority sport 12,000 miles away and the only people that would have seen him on tv would have had to subscribe to a channel that is niche, to say the least.
what in any of the above facts gives bitter and narrow minded fools the impression tht the bbc should have nominated him for a prize that he doesnt qualify for?
for those who have a problem with the popularity of union over league and who struggle with words of more than one syllable, there is handy visual aid with red and blue dots that underlines the gulf between the sports.......

I see Mr Secure felt so secure that he's had to bitch and whine about the topic on yet another thread, complete with maps and everything. His ironic tale about insecurity is hilarious given his continued need to bite and counter attack every little anti-RU post on this board.

What relevance does geographical spread, media coverage or attendances have on Sports Personality candidates?