Tough northerners my ar$e.
I new rl fans had insecurity problems but some of the whining thats going on on these forums is ridiculous

The levels of debt are usually misleading for the reasons others have mentioned. You'll find very very little in the way of externally sourced debt across SL - by which I mean actual loans from banks. Pretty much all other debts will be impossible to collect in the event of bankruptcy anyway, as most clubs wouldn't have the assets to liquidate to pay them off.

Just to pick an example, in their current position as tenants of a ground, how much exactly would anybody expect to be able to make if Salford were liquidated? They could have £10M or £100M in 'debt' but nobody will ever be able to collect it.

The only issue that really matters is the annual position of each club, and whether they are making enough money to cover operating costs each year. If they are then there shouldn't be a problem - if not then there will be a problem if their owners decide to stop financing them. In that regard SL is exactly the same as 95% of professional sports teams in the world.

So BBC does a hatchett job on RL a week out from the season opening. What a surprise! or maybe we just need "thiker skin", "be less paranoid", "stop our northern whingeing"?

F** the British media and how it treats our game, glad I am well out of it!

Is there personal benefits to directors "loaning" their club money each year rather than them giving it to them? Wondering if there is tax or other reasons directors term it this way seeing as, like you said, it is unlikely they will ever get it back.

Looked like a 10 minute advert for Castleford indoor Market to me followed by a few shots of the M62. What a L.O.B.

I'll offer a counter argument to the financial prudence approach that seems to get trotted out every time we get stories like this.

The only way for RL to prosper is for someone to come in with a sack full of cash and a great idea for promotion of the sport. Effectively putting all the clubs in more 'debt'
Unless this happens the sport will always be what it is now and probably get worse, there will be no fairy with a magic wand that makes people think wow this is a great sport I'll start going.
The international game is awful, its not going to get any better with initiatives and good will, the world cup will be a relative flop because there are only 2 good teams, one ok one and the rest are gash.
It may make a profit but it wont make a difference and we all know Australia will more than likely win it unless NZ can pull off a shock.

Even if the SL clubs worked within profit margins it is still based on 'shifting sands' as that level is fully reliant on sky not pulling the plug and lets be honest who wants to watch financially prudent clubs getting what they pay for, bang average players.

RL needs a 'big bang' moment to propel itself forward and unfortunately that will only come with a big bundle of cash, clubs running in debt backed by cash rich investors and the best players in the world coming over with a fanfare that the press gets behind. In essence we almost need and Indian Premier League type event to be launched. Anyone know a group of oligarch's that need a hobby....

I'd have thought George Riley had more integrity than to front this, 10 minutes of soundbites with no actual fact to back up their header claim.
He could have driven across country from Gloucester to Oxford and spent 10 minutes talking about how professional rugby league was expanding into new territory ? , maybe that would be far too positive .

to follow this , BBC follow this up with the usual quote 'Tony Smith diatribe' on their header page . about culling the SL to 10 teams , lets avoid facts , they get in the way.

There can be a benefit yes, and I've said elsewhere this is a complicated area, with accounts often reflecting tax and legal decisions.

This is a simple illustration (reality will be mote complicated, buy it makes a point). Let's say an owner wants to give a club £1m, and has no intention of every getting it back. He could subscribe to more shares, so the club would have the cash to spend; end of story.

Or he could lend the money to the club. This would show up as debt of course, but the interest would be tax deductible. This would also have the affect of making the club look like it makes less money-but it would save cash actually paid out by the business. The club need pay the interest on the loan to the owner-it coul be added to the loan itself (increasing the debt further).

So, in certain situations, it's advantageous of clubs to run with more debt -this will depend on the owners tax position, and a lot of other things. However, as I've also said elsewhere, to conclude on whether there is an issue you need to properly understand the legal structure at clubs. This is why this report is bolllocks, as it does nothing of the sort.

The first thing I heard when I woke up this morning was Tony Smith on the radio talking about 14 teams being unsustainable. The RL cannot control what a national broadcaster chooses to do with it's regional programmes, but the Superleague clubs could at least attempt to give out a positive message from their own season launch event. Regardless of the merits of his points, the timing was wrong. Will Smith be subject to the same criticism leveled at the Beeb and George Riley?

What prompted Smith to say this yesterday? These aren't exactly new views from Smith, and he's entitled to them, but I doubt he was asked about the strength of his squad and threw it in there.

I wonder if Georgeyboy will still be hosting SLTV on the website this season? Nothing like biting the hand that feeds.

To be fair to Tony Smith, they could have been playing an old clip of him having his favourite whine rather than it being his specific reaction to the programme.

Riley is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! TGG is not open to scrutiny or criticism from anyone... inside or outside... not now, not ever. The role of the media is to act as "positive news only" PR agents for the sport and if they don't follow those rules then get the hell away and follow other sports instead. The same applies to fans or anyone else - if they don't like it, if they continually question things or address issues about the current state of the game, criticise the RFL, criticise the TGG, promote negative opinion, etc, then leave... GO NOW... and leave us all in peace to enjoy our brilliantly-run sport which is on the up-an-up and simply gets better and better. Anyone who doesn't follow these rules shall not be tolerated, be subject to an inquisition, heretics fork, judas cradle, stoned, hung drawn and quartered, burned at the stake and then thrown to the lions.

It was Phil Kinsella (BBC Radio Mcr) interviewing Smith at the Launch yesterday. I get the feeling if you asked Smith what the time was he's likely to launch into his favourite monologue about his 10 team gentlemens club .
there is a time when this discussion is relevant:- ( league structure- P&R is on the agenda for meetings in March I believe ) . but at the launch day the SL comp shouldn't more positive aspects be promoted ? He probably didn't anything else to say , " well I've signed nobody & my older players are even older...next "

No one is saying that. The game should be scrutinised, but, this report is based on the findings of one "expert" and never explains what this debt actually is. That's poor journalism and scaremongering based on nothing we didn't already know. Sports clubs are not sustainable businesses, and that's not a problem exclusive to rugby league.

Why release this report now, on the day of the season launch? Why splash it as the main story on the BBC website RL section when it's not news?