Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 10:46 am  

From a selfish point of view, the split might help us back into SL

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 10:55 am  

daveyz999 wrote:

From a selfish point of view, the split might help us back into SL

Which superleague though?

The 'official' a-little-bit-sh!t one, or the megalomanic Koukash one?

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 12:08 pm  

I'm finding it hard to look past this as anything other than Dr K spitting his dummy out because of the whole salary cap decision. He's clearly fed up of the RFL because he's not allowed to do what he wants, when he wants. I have to agree with Roofaldo that he doesn't seem to have any idea what to replace the RFL with, just that he wants rid.

I can't see him getting much support unless he can guarantee TV rights along the same sort of scale as what the RFL have with Sky at the moment. How many teams are reliant on that to keep going? Look what happened to us since we had it taken off us.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 1:25 pm  

There is no point to all this.

The top soccer clubs had the world of big sponsors and broadcasters at their feet when forming the Premier League.

We have Sky (which btw already has the rights for years) and so even before you start, any "breakaway" is dead in the water as any club breaking away would rightly be fulsomely sued with no defence (as all clubs are parties to the deal)

Ignoring that - where would the money come from to finance a breakaway elite league? Pretty much all clubs are technically insolvent already (that is, they rely on loans and largesse to a significant amount).

If it wasn't for Sky, the game would be fscked already, at any rate, as a full-time "elite" sport. Who thinks Sky would be a party to any such shenanigans, other than protecting their own commercial interests, and which broadcaster would pay a huge amount of money to buy the rights to the new competition?

And that's just the very basics, before you even start to think about what sort of a body would run the new breakaway league. Presumably, it would be dedicated solely to the interests of that narrow little incestuous league. The RFL would remain as running the professional game overall. How would that relationship work?

The RFL has responsibilities for a huge range of issues within the sport, not just running a league. If the new organisation broke off, who would takeover all the responsibilities which the RFL discharges?

Marwan has totally lost the plot. It is one thing to have votes of no confidence, and seek change within RL, but a totally different and quite nutty thing to bluster drivel about breakaway leagues. Man's delusional.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 3:56 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

.........

Marwan has totally lost the plot. It is one thing to have votes of no confidence, and seek change within RL, but a totally different and quite nutty thing to bluster drivel about breakaway leagues. Man's delusional.

I agree with Ferocious .... in particular his concluding paragraph quoted above. A breakaway league would IMO , be disastrous for the game.
The calibre of administration over the past few years has been mediocre at best. I do not think many fans would rush to the defence of Nigel Wood or the current Chairman if a vote of no confidence was proposed by the clubs.
Personally I would welcome such a vote with an open debate and publication of the result.
The biggest success during Big Nigel's tenure was the last World Cup - in terms of administration not results. And the biggest reason for that success was the female executive ( sorry I cannot recall her name)who was the organising force behind it. All the signs were that she wanted to continue involvement with the game.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 5:17 pm  

daveyz999 wrote:

From a selfish point of view, the split might help us back into SL

How?

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Thu May 19, 2016 8:34 pm  

Bullnorthern wrote:

I agree with Ferocious .... in particular his concluding paragraph quoted above. A breakaway league would IMO , be disastrous for the game.
The calibre of administration over the past few years has been mediocre at best. I do not think many fans would rush to the defence of Nigel Wood or the current Chairman if a vote of no confidence was proposed by the clubs.
Personally I would welcome such a vote with an open debate and publication of the result.
The biggest success during Big Nigel's tenure was the last World Cup - in terms of administration not results. And the biggest reason for that success was the female executive ( sorry I cannot recall her name)who was the organising force behind it. All the signs were that she wanted to continue involvement with the game.

You mean Sally Bolton. Very talented executive, was appointed MD for the 2017 World Athletic Championships but resigned a couple of months ago. She seems to specialize in the organisation of major events rather than the ongoing management of a sport, nevertheless I'm sure she would bring a great deal more to the role than Wood ever has.

Sadly I suspect Rugby League may not be big enough to attract her back, but you never know.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Fri May 20, 2016 12:40 pm  

rugbyreddog wrote:

How?

If I reword to say the 'Top Tier' instead of 'Super League'.

If there is serious interest in the clubs breaking away and creating a new league, it would make sense to "invite" a club with huge tradition and following to play in the new league. The whole middle 8 games would (hopefully) be abolished, meaning there is a case to have a larger top league. Could also be good news for Leigh, who would welcome the idea of having a higher salary cap limit.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Fri May 20, 2016 12:42 pm  

Stan Doffarf wrote:

You mean Sally Bolton. Very talented executive, was appointed MD for the 2017 World Athletic Championships but resigned a couple of months ago. She seems to specialize in the organisation of major events rather than the ongoing management of a sport, nevertheless I'm sure she would bring a great deal more to the role than Wood ever has.

Sadly I suspect Rugby League may not be big enough to attract her back, but you never know.

Sally was appointed as Head of Corporate Affairs at Wimbledon yesterday.

Re: Marwen And The RFL debate : Fri May 20, 2016 1:59 pm  

Marwen K is a typical knee jerk reactionary as we all seem to realise. I believe no one in their right minds would think that 12 clubs in the SL would have the clout to re negotiate a done deal with SKY?
However if his flamboyant actions bring about a vote of no confidence in the present management structures at the RFL, then he may have done some good.
I thought that Sally Bolton MBE would have been a option to keep in the game at a high level, however if it hadn't been for Maurice Lyndsey pointing out that it was her and her team, and not Nigel who were the architect of the success we enjoyed, I don't think she would have been given any credit at all! Similarly when SL said they had lined up a General Manager for the League, the RFL stepped in and appointed Blake Solly, who seemingly created a problem for his boss, insofar that he seemed to believe he was working for the benefit of SL not the RFL. Or so the report in League Express went, when we found out he had suddenly resigned his job with SL.
Certainly many questions need answering and I feel that the least the SL council could do was to call for an EGM ( If enough clubs call for an Emergency General Meeting, they can't refuse)to raise all the issues Mr K has talked about?
But as a friend in the game said, "We shall see, as they don't call him Teflon Nigel for nothing!"