I accept your comments, though the history of RL in south east France in 1939 is hardly material to modern considerations.

More germaine is that 5 years ago there was not a club in that area that were of a comensurate standard to the mid table cubs in the RL 2nd tier.

My point was that Catalans were prepared historically, financially, administratively, and in RL culture to join the SL fraternity.

That they were offered that position without them having to work by promotions through the lower leagues was a risk call by the RFL.

So I say again, It was an expansion success.

Ditto, it was a geographical expansion of Superleague. I can't help but notice that some people try to undermine attempts to expand the game by saying that Catalans were never really an expansion team anyway because the game has been played in the south of France for a long time. When i then ask these same people if Lezignan and Lyon should have just as much chance of getting in SL as Widnes, Leigh and Halifax because after all by their definition they are heartlands teams, the answer is usually "but thats different".

I think you hit the nail on the head 'expansion of Superleague'. But why not give it its full title of 'Super League (Europe) Limited'? After the demise of Paris the 'Europe' bit was a bit superfluous. So, despite what any of us think, SLE felt compelled to 'expand' the game somewhere outside England and, preferably, outside GB. A success, well, maybe, but what sort of a hand-up did they have?...



[list

three years to prepare

the right to field a team in the French national tournaments

an exemption from relegation for three years

the right to buy any French player without paying a transfer fee

[/list:u



Having said that I can't begrudge the French this 'success' as at least RL in this country wasn't officially banned! (Which is what happened in France under the Vichy Gov't : the players were 'invited' to play Union and RL assets were seized. As far as I can find out, the assets have never been returned. Oh, and it is still impossible for anyone studying to become a state registered sports instructor to take rugby league as their main option).

Well [url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/09/12/07/RUGBYL_Crusaders.htmlSouth Wales[/url did not work. We now have another SL club within commuting distance of Warrington & Widnes.

What a disgrace this is.



We might as well kick the franchise system into touch if this deemed acceptable.



Feckin rubbish.

tbh, I could not agree more.



And they must be gutted down in South Wales. What a kick in the nuts for the game down there.

Completely.



If I were them I might be tempted think " to this, I'm off"

Just as a reminder...



"A five-man RFL panel assessed the 19 applications based on four key criteria: stadium facilities, finance and business performance, commercial and marketing, and playing strength, including junior player production development."



So much for their 'qualification process', at my count they've actually produced on maybe (generously) two of them...



I wonder how many of the criteria were a case of 'talk the talk' ? I don't know about you guys but I've seen plenty of 'strong' business plans based on superficial statements like 'we will get x% of the market' without ever actually stating how! Yes, bloated, impressively pompous sounding, waffle does it for some people every time

Yeah the whole Crusaders thing is a bit of a joke, given the fact they are in SL for expansion and all.....



what I will say though is that we must keep on trying to expand, we can't be a regional game and not expect RU to keep on poaching players....people are on here stating a hybrid game would be accpetable, well it would be anything but a hybrid, we would simply be absorbed by the game that is truly national, has an international game and a stack of money. Can you imagine them being told they must change their rules, break off from the IRB etc....it would never happen.



I would prefer a two-tier Super League, we could probably support 18/20 full time (or at least largely full time) teams...the likes of Leigh, Widnes, Halifax, a cumbrian team, Toulouse should be able to sustain themselves and with promotion and relegation the fans would have something to immediately look forward to...not the hope of a SL place in three years time. All this would cater for the traditionally large teams and hotbeds of rugby league, whilst allowing the scope for all the expansion teams.....I'm sure a succesful Crusaders team in SL2 would make it more appealing than a bottom of the ladder SL1 team year after year? Ah well, who knows, I'm no expert but the RFL doesn't seem to be too clued in either otherwise we wouldn't have this thread!

Oh fekk

At the start I was fully behind what was the 'Bridgend' Crusaders, spreading the game and generally giving them a chance. However now were going to end up with another 'northern' club with even less support! New licences: IN: Halifax and Widnes, OUT: Crusaders and Wakefield.

I think most of this is covered on the 'Expansion' thread mate. It's a good point though, I think a lot of people are a bit annoyed with the whole Crusaders move.