Toulouse is a rugby (mainly union) mad city. I was taken aback by it when I went a fortnight ago. I still think they should only go into Super League if and when they have met all the criteria. In the meantime the emphasis should be on them bringing through French players.

Brilliant news, we need competition for places in super league wherever it comes from. It is also another step along the road to a potential french league existing on its own and a possible european comp seperate to the league, this is the way to go IMO.

Paris cashed up, that's a very big IF, and even with the cash they need the players: 8-10 SL ready French players to add to top League players from Oz, Nz or the UK.
TO look promising, but they never push themselves as a club (not players, but club). If the club had the ambition they could have signed all the top non-Catalan French players and been in the playoffs this year, but they play it safe, which will see them rise to SL level, but very slowly and probably miss the boat for 2012.

If you put 3 French teams in SL in 2012 you would just have 3 average teams with lots of foreigners keeping them ticking. Even a second side would risk diluting the top talent from the Dragons. It has to be phased in and they have to get French players at the right standard, which means TO taking the plunge and making a dareing bid for a GF place and Paris actually having a league team in a competition.

Looking at the Nosey Parker column in the League Weekly, it seems that the Stade Francais consortium are willing to be self financing and are not looking for any SL TV monies. If they can guarantee that, the RFL will be stupid to ignore it (given their love of expansion).

The RFL could justify the inclusion of Stade Francais by expanding the league to 15, which would cost them nothing to do. All the other clubs in SL wouldn’t lose a penny as a result, and no-ones SL place will have been lost as a result. The RFL get another French club with no cost – and a prestigious one at that. They could, potentially, be one of the wealthiest clubs in SL if their backers are as good as they seem to be. Poor old Carlos Zalduendo, and his club cannot match that.

So they would be less risky than Toulouse, who would require TV money and would need to hit the ground running, otherwise they could end up struggling financially like the Celtic Crusaders last season.

If this situation is as good as it appears – and that’s a very big [size=200if [/size– then it looks likely there’ll be a club based in Paris after 2011 in Super League. If Stade Francais get the go-ahead, they will have 2 years to prepare. This seems to be a very different situation from the usual ramshackle expansion clubs that lunge from one financial disaster to another. This offer looks like an RFL wet dream. This could be the real deal.

As long as they dump the Magic weekend

i argue les cats are an expansion club.

but if idiots like you want to call them a heartland club then ill put it back on you and ask why people like you arent fans of the inclusion of toulose since they also must be a heartland club on the same dumb logic.

just put them both in SL if their bids are strong enough.

especially if 3 french SL teams means a paying TV contract from a French TV station to cover the costs of these extra teams

good logic but why have a bye each week and have a club lose home gates? taking it to 16 by having the RFL fund one more team shouldnt be too hard, especially as toulose look like having a very good bid as well.

of course salford and wakeys SL spots are certainly up for grabs as well.

Byes probably wouldn't affect SL clubs the same way it has many Championship clubs. The RFL have already stated that they'd be prepared to go to 15 clubs, if there is no club worthy of demoting, in order to accomidate the promised Championship club. So I would assume they've thought it through.




Obviously, as Starbug Mentioned, they’d have to lose the Magic Weekend, or work round it somehow.



I'm not too sure that there'll be enough quality French players to have 3 French clubs in SL....yet. They probably don't have enough for two yet either. All that would do is lead to more Antipodean imports cramming all these teams, which sort of defeats the object. Slowly, Slowly catchy monkey. If this Paris deal is as good as it looks, it would be worth the risk, but adding two more French clubs at once wouldn’t help either of them imo.


That was always the case.

even if the french clubs are full of imports initially, its worth the risk

clearly paris has to be taken if the people behind it are interested but toulose deserve a SL spot too and shouldnt be knocked back again.

for example im a fan of celtic crusaders but toulose would be stronger club than them. im not saying crusaders should be booted out for toulose, more so that the RFL has to find a place for toulose as well.

it does makes things a whole lot easier for the RFL if salford fail on their ground cause thats 2 spots there with wakey. though salford with a new ground behind them would offer lots to RL too ...

I am all for the inclusion of Toulouse - once they meet the criteria set out. Can't you read or comprehend what i put in my previous post about Toulouse? You're an idiot.

So location and a stadium are all that is relevant to you as far as expanding the game is concerned ?