The Official Down to the Wire Franchise Thread

Quote: padgate wire "Wigan need i say more about how corrupt it was that they were punished with the wrong years set of rules because Wigan told them that was what they wanted + other occasions when the so called top teams get off with lesser sentences at disciplinary hearings.
As for Celtic they should be behind Salford,Widnes ,Leigh,Wakey,Cas,Halifax,Featherstone and Doncaster and imo be the last on the list of clubs to join in SL and in the order i have put them in except maybe Widnes who imo should be 1st choice as it was the RFL'S fault that they went bust seeing as they were relegated to let Catalan in the league that season when imo their should have been no promotion that season if they wanted to accommodate Catalan,lets face it if you finish 2nd from bottom relegation should not have happened ,for it to happen again to the same team is wrong and unjust and looking at the criteria Widnes have a better bid than Celtic so the only reason for them to get in over Widnes would be because the RFL push it through unfairly because they want to expand into Wales which is not part of the criteria lets face it the 1pt for not having another team within 25 miles was only aimed at Catalan,Quinns and Celtic lets face it when Catalan and Quinns are in town it is the 2 worst attended home games of the season and if Catalan wasn't such a good jaunt for the fans nobody would want them in either.
to get onto Leigh who imo have a far superior bid than Cas and a superior bid than Wakey apart from playing staff ,which wouldn't take much to put right .so we will see next week corrupt or not all will be revealed next week .'"

Decided to transfer this to the proper thread for this discussion...

OK - Wigan's salary cap issue while not necessarily the best thing ever to happen to SL, to call the RFL corrupt because of how they dealt with the issue is taking it too far. Naive perhaps in thinking they could punish a team under one set of rules for a transgression that took place under a previous set of rules. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that the Pies were legally advised as to the nature of their defence & I would imagine the RFL would have received legal advice as to the appropriate nature of the punishment. Yes it was inconvenient to us, but was it fair & just to punish Wigan a season too late for an offence? Probably not & realistically the current "in-season" monitoring of the cap is the best way IMO.

Why would you have Doncaster, Featherstone, Halifax ahead of Celtic in your race for a franchise? Because they are in the M62 corridor? Are you really going to get more fans on a regular basis going to watch Fev v Widnes or Celtic v Widnes? I suspect it will be pretty similar. Developing the areas outside the heartlands of the M62 corridor is essential to the long-term future of our game in the face of challenges from RU, football & the like - players coming through from Wales, Scotland, North East, South of Widnes & Ireland all deserve an opportunity to grow & develop playing the game & that takes place better with a top flight team & that is only good for the game but takes time to come through - there are 7 overseas players in the Harlequins squad this season (including Frenchman Julien Rinaldi) against our own 6!

Catalans relegation issue was one that was known & agreed as they entered the league. I'm not saying it was the fairest thing ever to happen to Widnes, but corrupt? No.

Incidentally, attendances at the HJ this season have seen fewer at the Quins & Cas games than at the Catalans. The attendance for Catalans being within a couple of hundred of those for Huddersfield & Wakefield, within 80 of that for the Hull KR game & nearly a thousand more than that for Bradford. That kind of blows your attendance argument out of the water doesn't it?