The odds of Stade forming an <i>treiziste</i> team and meeting the published licence criteria in time for 2012 are …?

..irrelevant as the rules are re-written to suit.

I reckon 2012 will be too early, 2015 might be adifferant story though, if 3 french teams make it to sl and can flourish (as les cats have done) with the backing of people like this we could see a fench fulltime league within 10 years, definatley something to consider.

There will be a lot of 30 year old Australian players rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of topping up their pension funds.

If that mattered, do you think this article would come about after a meeting with Richard Lewis? They clearly aren't entering the Championship next year.

Not surprised, the English in it is shocking!!!

Toulouse are more important than Paris to RL in France at this stage. Any talk of including Paris has to be AFTER Toulouse in my and most other people's opinions it would seem.

probably irrelevant

Not wishing to come over all albert, but there's already more amateur RL activity in Paris/Ile de France than in say Wales, or Salford. They would have the best stadium in SL. The RU side is the richest in the world. Less than 10% of their *playing* budget would max out on our salary cap - they are not going to struggle to put together a competitive squad if it's a serious bid.



A full house 80k at the Stade de France, for a double header of Superleague/Top14? Simply cannot see the RFL turning it down in favour of Toulouse, Salford, Celtic, Widnes, Wakefield...



Of course, it all depends on how seriously Stade are taking it. If it's just going to be a case of you can use our name and stadium, then it's a non-starter. But if they do put significant resources in - and planning on winning SL?

I tend to agree. Despite what some poster's think, I think the current regime at the RFL is very strategic in its thinking. The decision to bring in Catalans, keep Harlequins, and bring in the Crusaders, shows that they are working to a steady beat of expansion. A Paris team with some serious, and I stress serious, financial backing, is something that they'd be crazy not to consider. PSG were never seriously interested in investing the money to succeed. Stade Francaise might be. If they are, we should bite their hands off. It would immediately bring a better tv contract in France, and thus widen the financial base of the sport.



I completely understand why people in Widnes/Leigh/Halifax/Featherstone/Barrow etc, hate this kind of discussion. But money will talk in this situation. None of the obvious north of England sides who would like to expand offer much potential revenue. They offer history and continuity, but at the moment, that doesn't cut it.

First of all, wouldn't a team be a good start? Get them in the LER with the aim to get them in the Championship ala Toulouse, in the not too distant future, then take it from there.

Richard Lewis (owner of the Super League)







Never trust an on-line translation engine.

It would help if the LER was able to go full time and turn it into some kind of French Superleague.



Featuring Paris and maybe some other new teams.