(Away) Championship
fevnut's musings
Rugby League Chief Executive
It seems to us absolutely imperative
that the appointment of the new Rugby League Chief Executive is made as soon as
possible. The role of leadership for the whole of rugby league is desperately
needed and we seem to be left in a very weak position with the Super League and
some of its chairmen using the vacuum in power to make a grab to take all the
power and control of the game unto themselves. Whoever is appointed will need to
take some very decisive action very quickly indeed.
The Super League War
This issue would appear to us to be
comparatively straightforward Robert Elstone, Ian Lenagan and Eamonn McManus
need to be told no, no, no. Super League must not be allowed to dictate
decisions that affect the Championship and League One.
Advocacy
The profile of rugby league in this
country is probably at its lowest since pre Eddie Waring days. Whoever is
appointed needs to make sure that the RFL has a top quality marketing team that
works very closely with all clubs.
Reserves
Last week Fev faced a Barrow team
that were only able to bring 15 players. That is not the only time this season a
‘professional’ team has been unable to name a full 17 man team. With a quick
glance through this season’s line-ups we have found three other teams that have
been in that predicament and there may be more we haven’t spotted. This is
happening because teams are running on minimal squads and a few injuries,
therefore, makes for big trouble. It never used to happen because teams always
had their ‘A’ team players to call upon. That used to be quite exciting because
there were many occasions when a player stepped up from the ‘A’ team and then
established themselves as a regular first team player. We believe that the
return of compulsory reserve grade teams is essential. The Super League teams
say that it can’t be afforded. That is rubbish. If Halifax and Keighley can do
it then they certainly can. And maybe one way to find the money is to stop
bringing in expensive Australians of dubious quality. That change would be of
huge benefit to the game and the development of a much higher standard of play
in this country.
Championship Salary Cap
The current salary cap for the
Championship is the same as that for Super League. That is patently crazy, the
change being made to accommodate a spending spree by Leigh Centurions to enable them to make a bid for Super League in 2016. The vast majority of Championship clubs
cannot afford even 10% of the allowable cap of £1.8 million. What it means is
that one club with a multi-millionaire owner can in effect buy themselves
victory in the league as is so clearly the case with Toronto this year. We also
believe that the finances of the Championship is also de-stabilised by the
granting of parachute payments to relegated Super League clubs. We believe that
super league contracts include a clause that terminates the contract when a
club is relegated. Those that are good enough can be signed by other super
league clubs and those that are not good enough should not be protected by
being able to continue as full time clubs in the Championship. That’s harsh but
we want to see the Championship as a fair competition.
Visas
Last year we ran into problems with
the renewal of Misi Taulapapa’s visa which meant that he missed the first nine
years of the season. This year Sheffield had a similar problem with Menzie Yere
and he missed 13 games. Funny how this problem
doesn’t seem to afflict soccer clubs or the cricket counties! And we haven’t forgotten when South African runner Zola Budd
was granted immediate UK citizenship because she wanted to run for GB in the
1984 Olympics. She couldn’t run for South Africa because they were banned as a
result of their anti-apartheid regime. We believe that the leadership of the
Rugby League should meet with the Home Office and sort this problem out with a
clear, centralised policy.
And there is another very big visa
issue that needs fixing. At least two teams have had to take weakened teams to
Toronto because some of their players didn’t receive the required paperwork in
time. This is completely unacceptable. The RFL should make Toronto Wolfpack
responsible for negotiating with the Canadian government to ensure that week
long visas are automatically granted to all players and bona fide officials of
clubs who are going to Canada to play them. Their continued participation in
our competitions should be dependent on a satisfactory conclusion of this
issue. We are not against the inclusion of Toronto and we are very much looking
forward to our trip there next month (we have our visas!). But it is
intolerable that a team comes in from abroad and benefits in competition terms
from the weakening of opposition because of visa issues. The day might come
(because of Brexit) when the same problems occur with playing in Perpignan or
Toulouse.
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