On a domestic level, Richard Lewis has done a fantastic job IMO, mostly in setting the foundations for expansion and marketing Super League. More recently the Championships are slowly being transformed into a creditable competition in itself instead of the dark basement that was the National Leagues.

As for the international game, there has only been one financially successful tournament since the Super League War of 97 that shattered the game at that level. While it may be a mess, its a mess on both sides of the world, and one that Lewis (as Vice-President of the RLIF) and Colin Love are slowly cleaning up.

The brains behind the franchising system, which will just about kill the lower leagues.

What those lower leagues that arent that far off the standard played by teams in The BARLA leagues....?


yet he could be the Brains behind the idea that Got the Catalan Dragons playing in front of sell out crowds, getting to wembley, producing French players plenty good enough for Superleague...and the knock on effect improving the French Game........


Boo Hoo..... Bring Back Widnes its ten minutes away from My front door......


Jesus Wept.....

dont be such a tit. rl was already established in the south of France. They had a backer who brought in Australians and stacey Jones, to say that some bloke from the rl did this for Catalans is just plain stupid.

Im saying look at the state of some of the lower league teams, gateshead, Oldham and Rochdale for a start. within 5 years, there'll be onl 2 leagues thanks to the franchise system and the lack of promotion and relagation.

Of the lower leagues, only Barrow have the ammo to be in superleague, evenmore than Celtic and Harlequins. A lack of quality coming through from the lower leagues, ultimately effects superleague and the national team.

Would Stacey Jones et al have even considered going to Catalan if Richard Lewis and the RFL had not invited them into Super League in the first place.



So you would like to see clubs spend lots of money they don't have on trying to get into SL? Would you like to see clubs that fail to get into SL go bankrupt because they've invested so much money into one season, and so you can have a cheap thrill once a year sat in front of the telly while 34 men play for their livelihoods in an attempt to put food on the table for their families?



No it doesn't because a lot of Super League clubs develop talent from within these days. Look at Kevin Sinfield, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, Kyle Eastmond, Joe Westerman all of whom played for Leeds, Saints and Castleford academys respectively.

Are you on drugs?

I know they do, so basically you're saying if they dont make it to a sl club, then they may aswell pack in? Have a look at the current GB squad players and see where they all started, not all started off with a sl club.

And tbh, I was happy about Catalansbeing brought into sl, what I'm not happy about is, franchise system.

Vikingman;

Barrow own their ground, have a wealthy backer and have no debts.
How many other lower league teams can boast those facts? Certainly not Widnes...

Yes Craven park is a real gem, you have the ability to pee all over your own shoes and stand under a tin shed and buy a rat burger.

A wealthy backer? Des has a fair amount of money but he isnt in the same league as our chairman.

We made a loss last year but also come just short of a 1 million turnover, no other club can get anywhere near that.

We are the best supported club outside the top flight and your statement is idiotic.

I think Richard Lewis has done a fine job. He can't fix everything, even in five years let alone five minutes, and he had to go conservative on the international game after the losses of the 2000 World Cup. I also agree with another poster that, given the perceived vast superiority of Aus over England, we'd be unlikely to be able to get those 50,000 plus attendances for Wembley and the like, so it's better to sell out Wigan than have 30k in a 75K seater stadium.

The fact that Lewis is also not a 'classic northerner' also helps with media. I'm a northerner myself so no offence here, it's just good to hear RL spoken about intelligently by someone with 'received pronunciation' and to have the media broadcast this to a public that often still thinks we all have cloth caps and whippets.

sniffs his own crack

I'd class him as a solid administrator - he's executed a simple strategy well. He has done alot of good things and got the sport back onto an even keel financially and moved it forward in a lot of areas - such as negotiating an improved TV deal with Sky. He has also helped to put together a more coherent International schedule.

I think what the game really needs now is more of an entrepreneur - a good promoter basically to help it move on to the next level.

The marketing of the Four Nations has been poor to the neutral / non- traditional supporter. The International game should be seen as a way of bringing new supporters into the game, which will eventually benefit the club game. We should be willing to 'risk' a bigger stadium for one of the 4N games.

As for other sports - I would say what Bernie Ecclestone has done with F1 outshines anything Richard Lewis has or will ever do with RL. Richard Scudamore has also grown the EPL to an unbelievable position worldwide. The France family has helped grow NASCAR from a Southern hick motorsport to the dominate the US racing landscape and become the 4th biggest sporting area in the US.

The Bernie Ecclestone comparison is a bit odd.......especially as many people question Lewis and his expansion policy bringing Celtic in and Leaving Widnes out....

doesnt Ecclestone do the Same....he drops famous Venues like Spa and Silverstone at the drop of a Sheiks Wallet doesnt he....

and considering he oversaw the sports biggest Farce when 6 cars raced in the US grand prix that time....I cant think of a similar thing to throw at Richard Lewis...

And its in Ecclestone's very own interests to make F1 succesful he takes 50% of its revenue.....

I assume Ecclestone and Briatore and the other bloke (the 4th richest Man in the world) will have QPR as Champions of Europe in no time.........??

or is it different when you dont "Make" money out of Soccer club ownership ?

I do Agree that Lewis is a Solid Administrator and someone else is needed to take us to the next level....

My Bernie comment was more about how he has grown it from a rag bag bunch of teams into the billion dollar global business it is today.

F1 gets far more media coverage than it ever did when I was growing up (the 80s /90s) - you were lucky to get the start of the race and then it was straight off at the end. To watch all the BBC coverage now takes up a weekend! Which is great if you love motor racing as I do

Bernie's hands are tied at the minute around the old venues etc. as he is answerable to a VC (CVC) which has taken out massive loans against F1 - they are essentially milking F1 to service the debt on the bonds they've taken out and then will pay all parties when they come to fruition in 2012 - making a tidy profit for everyone (but the people involved). It is this that the real power battle between FOTA and the FIA was about earlier this year (plus getting rid of Mosley) and why they've all signed up till 2012. Then the teams are expecting a more equitable settlement - at the minute around 75% of all the money made from F1 (over a billion dollars) goes out of the sport. A ridiculous situation.
Which is why the teams all reacted angrily when Mosley suggested the budget cap saying they needed to save money etc. when they're seeing most of the revenue go to a VC with no real interest in the sport. The person suggesting also being the one who sold the rights to Bernie for a song at 100m gbp for 100 years.....

I think Bernie if he was in sole charge would be more willing to do a deal with the 'traditional' events. There's also a clause in the Concorde Agreement which means the FIA can protect the 'crown jewel' events - Monaco, France and Britain. Although they didn't do this for the French GP apparently because the FFSA (the French governing body) didn't ask them to intervene. Bernie has also recently done a deal for the German GP to have reduced terms.

Rugby League desperately needs a Bernie. The US farce was more down to poor preparation from Michelin - although interestingly a similar thing happened in NASCAR at the Brickyard 400 (also at Indy) 2 years back where the race was marred by tyre failures and they ended up having to throw yellow flags every 10 laps or so to enable people to pit to change tyres.

I'm afraid I agree with the flying biscuit when it comes to Bernie Ecclestone. Everything he does is done just for him, and the sport seems incapable of reigning him in. How else can the decision to extend his license to manage these rights by 100 years be justified? We're well off-topic now, so best leave it, but we do not need anyone like him - 'Honest Mo Lindsey' as in the same bracket but not as extreme.