Ellis has spoken on JDs show about this.
He says the intention is to assess the extra teams to make sure they are ready. If not then it might nit be 14 teams.


Now I'm quite pro IMG so was not happy about the extras being assessed differently but if what it means is an assessment to make sure the teams in 13 and 14th place are high enough in the rankings to succeed then fair enough.
IMG was always about getting a league of As.
If expending to 14 means you are letting in a C, then you shouldn't do it.


I guess we'll see whether it's just badly explained.

Although it wouldn't help us this year, the top 5 play off was the best of the lot, with the top 2 having more chance to make the GF.

Another farce from Salford last night.  Who can trust these supposed new owners to be any different next season if they even stick around or are there in the 1st place.  Reason enough for SL to have them eliminated regardless of how they may blag a decent IMG score

I expect this move to dock Salford 8 points for fielding a weakened side a bit back is part of the plan to get them out of SL as it would lower their total IMG points.   Their owners are clearly very unreliable, displaying all the red flags I remember from 2012-2019 at the Bulls.  


Matthew Shaw's article yesterday seemed to say Bradford were assured of a place in the 14 but it made a lot of assumptions.    Personally I can't see both Toulouse and London going into the 14 team SL.  One of them yes.  Definitely not both.  On the field York and Toulouse deserve a shot.   

If it has to be Bradford, then it also has to be York.

Agreed.  They're a good side and have a nice stadium.  

It’ll be Toulouse via IMG (check their data from last year and this year), then Bradford and London via the ‘independent panel’. I can explain why but I don’t think anyone cares.

Having a nice stadium or a good team isn't the point of IMG.
It is trying to establish financially stable with growth potential.


The stadium, finances and social media type checks establish that.


So I'm not sure what else an independent group is going to use to decide.

Looks like the lower leagues are being merged too. Big fan of that, and hope they go with a Championship East / Championship West format. There'd be a few mismatches (particularly in the short term for Newcastle and Keighley), but better crowds, less money spent on travel, more consistent end to each season, and a proper season for League One clubs. I assume it'd look something like this:


Championship East


Batley
Bradford or York
Dewsbury
Doncaster
Featherstone
Goole
Halifax
Hunslet
Keighley
Newcastle
Sheffield


Championship West


Barrow
Midlands Hurricanes
North Wales
Oldham
Rochdale
Salford
Swinton
Whitehaven
Widnes
Workington


Each team plays home and away. Then top 6 of each division come together for a play off series.