Toulouse accept NL1 offer!

[Pepe Le Pew]

So now we know why the RFL guaranteed a place for an NL1 club in 2012. We can now kiss goodbye to getting a licence ourselves, unless one or more of the current SL clubs go bust.


Poorly translated, but you'll get the gist.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lequipe.fr%2FRugby%2Fbreves2008%2F20080829_162030_toulouse-jouera-en-national-league-1_Dev.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=fr&tl=en

[Sunny]

I wonder if they will get the usual "perks" of a favoured club, i.e. No salary cap or player quota plus maybe assistance from the RFL towards their travelling costs?

No.. maybe I don't wonder... and should just assume that they will. 

[vikingqueen]

Well, I'll be glad to see the back of this week with that little snippet and the RFLiars overseas quota stint this week.

Is there any other way they'd like to shaft the rest of us?   

[alanC]

While I agree with the suspicion that Toulouse will be given favours by the RFL and that they are now probably favourites to get the next available franchise, we must try amd make sure that between the rest of the hopeful clubs that they are not given the chance to win anything so they cannot be eligable for consideration, ie we must try and win everything, so that the rfl will have such a poor case to award a franchise to anybody else, saying that since when did the rfl give a fig about who has the stronger application oh well guess we will have to wait and see just how much of and advantage they are given over the reast of us.

[Tin Man]

So now we know why the RFL guaranteed a place for an NL1 club in 2012. We can now kiss goodbye to getting a licence ourselves, unless one or more of the current SL clubs go bust.


Poorly translated, but you'll get the gist.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lequipe.fr%2FRugby%2Fbreves2008%2F20080829_162030_toulouse-jouera-en-national-league-1_Dev.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=fr&tl=en

I agree Pepe Le Pew,they will be in 2012,but I think we will also get a place maybe because of other clubs financial difficulties.Toulouse should start in NL2 not in NL1 though,talk about disregarding NL2 clubs,but we are talking about the RFL.

[Pepe Le Pew]

While I agree with the suspicion that Toulouse will be given favours by the RFL and that they are now probably favourites to get the next available franchise, we must try amd make sure that between the rest of the hopeful clubs that they are not given the chance to win anything so they cannot be eligable for consideration, ie we must try and win everything, so that the rfl will have such a poor case to award a franchise to anybody else, saying that since when did the rfl give a fig about who has the stronger application oh well guess we will have to wait and see just how much of and advantage they are given over the reast of us.

The RFL will simply change the rules to suit. In 3 years time, if Toulouse have not got to a GF of finished in 3rd spot, they'll just chnge the rules to include a top 6 finish or perhaps winning an easy French cup that TO maybe still allowed to contest.

If you think I'm just being cynical then look at the changes the RFL have already made. They first announced that an NL1 club had to compete in at least one GF before being able to bid in 2011. Then they announced that winning the NRC would also do. They have now announced that a top 3 finish will also be good enough.

Toulouse will struggle to field a team of amateurs, as the weekly traveling will make this impossible for amateur players to get so much time off work. Many of their best players may have to move to another club, if they have good jobs, and they have already lost Fellous who has gone to Lezignan and Carrasco who has returned to Villeneuve. So you will have a proffessional Toulouse club stacked with Aussies and financed by the RFL.

You can bet Toulouse wouldn't be even considering playing in the NL1 without a cast iron guarantee of a licence in 2012. They'll be in SL in 2012 I can guarantee that. The only club that could be a threat to them is Gateshead. Our only chance now is if some clubs go bust.

[Pepe Le Pew]

[Peter]

The RFL will simply change the rules to suit. In 3 years time, if Toulouse have not got to a GF of finished in 3rd spot, they'll just chnge the rules to include a top 6 finish or perhaps winning an easy French cup that TO maybe still allowed to contest.
If you think I'm just being cynical then look at the changes the RFL have already made. They first announced that an NL1 club had to compete in at least one GF before being able to bid in 2011. Then they announced that winning the NRC would also do. They have now announced that a top 3 finish will also be good enough.

Toulouse will struggle to field a team of amateurs, as the weekly traveling will make this impossible for amateur players to get so much time off work. Many of their best players may have to move to another club, if they have good jobs, and they have already lost Fellous who has gone to Lezignan and Carrasco who has returned to Villeneuve. So you will have a proffessional Toulouse club stacked with Aussies and financed by the RFL.
You can bet Toulouse wouldn't be even considering playing in the NL1 without a cast iron guarantee of a licence in 2012. They'll be in SL in 2012 I can guarantee that. The only club that could be a threat to them is Gateshead. Our only chance now is if some clubs go bust.

In an earlier post I said that my money would be on Gateshead and Toulouse to go into SL in 2012.  They will get every perk that is going, and unless they are both relegated into NL2 they are certs as the RFL want to expand at any price.

[Pepe Le Pew]

In an earlier post I said that my money would be on Gateshead and Toulouse to go into SL in 2012.  They will get every perk that is going, and unless they are both relegated into NL2 they are certs as the RFL want to expand at any price.

Exactly.

The RFL will have to put an awful lot of money into bringing Toulouse into NL1. They are not doing that for the benefit of the likes of Widnes. They're doing it in order to shoe-horn Toulouse into SL. Otherwise they wouldn't spend a penny on this league.

[Abacab]

The writing is definately on the wall I'm afraid. Pretty easy to see how it's all going to pan out. Clubs like Widnes and Leigh will never meet the future profile for SL. 

[King Viking]

I said all along that if we didnt get a licence in 2009, then we'd have next to no chance in 2012. And I stand by that.

Sad days for rugby league.

[alanC]

Well at least we now know exactly what Lewis and his cronies are going to do next then , as you say toulouse will be full time and full of Aussies and possibly partly financed by the rfl its as plain as the noses on our faces they will have been guaranteed a franchise thats why they are coming in to NL1

[alanC]

Apparently , having not seen it myself they have got a 3 year cushion as did Catalans,very convenient takes them up to the franchise. this is really begining to stink, there is one hell of a logistics problem aswell, getting players and fans back and forwards to France it could prove very interesting, especially when most clubs will be part time next season.

[Peter]

Well at least we now know exactly what Lewis and his cronies are going to do next then , as you say toulouse will be full time and full of Aussies and possibly partly financed by the rfl its as plain as the noses on our faces they will have been guaranteed a franchise thats why they are coming in to NL1

Lewis and his gang of 4 will be remembered for expanding the Super League version of Rugby League into a corner of Wales and a corner of France. They will also be remebered for destroying the game of Rugby League as we know and love it.

[Pepe Le Pew]

I said all along that if we didnt get a licence in 2009, then we'd have next to no chance in 2012. And I stand by that.

Sad days for rugby league.

And I have said, ever since the RFL guaranteed a licence to an NL1 club for 2012, that all they'll do is bring in another expansion club - probably Toulouse -  and give that precious place to them. But people here seemed to think I was talking rubbish and that the clubs in NL1 would not accept it. Well, the RFL simply asked for permission a few weeks before the licence announcements were made and NL1 clubs with bids in didn't want to rock the boat, so they waived the idea through. Very crafty move by the RFL that. It's probably doomed all the heartland clubs in the lower leagues to the wilderness and sealed our fate. 

Hopefully it will become too expensive for the RFL and Toulouse and it will fall apart before the 3 years are up. Hopefully the Welsh experiment will die a death. Hopefully some of the clubs that promised grounds they cannot hope to build for the foreseeable future will be kicked out. Without any of these things happening we will have little chance of ever seeing SL again.

I'm sorry for the pessimism but the RFL are killing the game for the sake of the expansion dream, despite the lessons of the past. The people in charge know and care little for the history of RL, indeed they seem almost embarrassed by it, because we are run by ex members of the Lawn Tennis Association. People who wouldn't have been seen dead at a colloquial northern, working class game, if it wasn't paying their wages.