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Quote: JEAN CAPDOUZE "We shall give the RFL no credit for keeping RL club participation restricted to northern English clubs (with one exception) for 2015 on. We shall give the RFL no credit for failing to fulfill a past promise to bring in more interesting foreign club teams like Toulouse and Avignon, and for allowing the crucial non-northern English team London to fail.

That is why viewing figures in the UK are so small. Rugby league is a game mostly played by northern pit villages and mill towns. That is why British sports journalists look down on rugby league

Name a single pit village with a Super League team.

Or a mill town.

Your image of the north is at least 40 years out of date.

You could make a better point if you made the comment that the majority of SL's fan base resides in the M62 suburbs/commuter belt in what formerly were smaller towns based around heavy industry near to the major ports and cities. A similar criticism was also levelled at the NRL in an article I believe you yourself posted on here recently. We have a lack of presence in the main cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield with only Bradford, Leeds and Hull having meaningful urban fan bases. Even if the game had infiltrated these places the fact that the media is based in London would still pose a problem.

Therefore London and Toulouse would be welcome additions. As would anywhere that could draw or potentially draw a healthy following. However the key word here should be "additions". Many in the North feel hard done to because it seems that their team at some stage has been dropped/merged/prevented from entry in favour of an expansion club that has fared no better. They are therefore angry at the RFL for "favouritism'.

It's high time this ended. It's very rare I read on here RL fans saying it's a northern game and should stay that way and much more common to hear so called fans blaming the game's ills being on insular northerners for having the bare-faced cheek to want place at the table if the game gets bigger.