Sorry for spelling mistake [criteria] it must be a combination of old age and dithering fingers :

Sky have renewed their contract on several occasions since SL started in 96. Therefore when they last renewed Quins were in and there was agreement about the French team.

There are no direct quotes about which teams should be in because if there where it would be very clear that Sky called the shots obviously that would be very unpalatable to the fans and the RFL etc.

There were however lots of cryptic comments from both sky and the RFL when contracts were being renewed about, " the benefits of a wider geographical spread", and the number of Sky RL supporters in the , " South East". This was clearly aimed at supporting the need for a southern / London team.

Indeed the franchising criteria of not being within 20 miles of an existing professional RL team clearly benefitted only 3 clubs which were the three i previously mentioned as NO team along the M62 corriudor would ever have gotten a point for meeting that criteria.

So thats a no then

Cheers Mick

So nothing direct and im going off cryptic clues

We got any links for these cryptic clues or am i taking your memory as a given?