Marty Funkhouser

You do realise the virus hasn't harmed over 99.5% of all human beings? Professional football has restarted in Europe. A few weeks and sport in the UK starts to follow. It would appear a twisted section of society are going to be distraught when the virus has receded and things can go back to normal, even without any vaccine, especially the "experts" who foretold of 40 million deaths or 2 million even at a very, very best case of whole world lockdown for months. Miles and miles out yet again. They would be better off forming their own doom and gloom/panic and fear societies and leave the rest of us to get on with living our very short lives. The vast majority of people acknowledge their personal responsibility and act accordingly, very few act to deliberately injure or harm others, and those that do, would do so virus or no virus. Thankfully there are still many who realise that the everyday risk of injury, harm or death is the other side of the bargain of being lucky enough to be a living organism. Covid 19 is no more a risk to the vast, vast majority than many other things. People even die playing , and training for, Rugby League. Yet thousands of people still train and play knowing this. Having mentioned Keighley you likely know that fact. Should every person wishing to play even a game of touch rugby in the local park first ask an "expert" if it is ok? As soon as the regulations allow, we should play, no question.

Bonnie Prince Charlie , Idris Elba, Tom Hanks, Rand Paul, Placido Domingo, Lee Mack, Hudson- Odoi, Marouane Fellaini , the dozens of other football players, etc etc etc etc etc and of course , the Prime Minister, to name just a few , and not including the many, many thousands of "ordinary" blokes report no lasting effects and are all back at it. Never understand peoples motivation to needlessly scare or worry others.

Indeed and of course they also have the upper hand when it comes to renewal. Whilst I never really expected any other bids, it would appear we will be (happily) accepting just whatever is on the table. Loan to pay back and advance on Sky payments mean tightening of the belts for a good while yet.

Davidson , no British biases and not bothered about pleasing anyone so appears to be no agendas.

Lee Gilmour is one.

"Ensuring any support staff within the training environment are operating to the minimum standards of practice that ensure any professional body endorsement and professional indemnity insurances they require are still valid." Can anybody shed any light on what is "required" for support staff in professional RL?

That is just for the training environment MOK and solely for "Step 1" but includes all the expected precautions that are well within reach. Can train as "groups of individuals" whilst maintaining the social distancing. It does say that step 2, when reached, will allow for "teams sports tackling" so we eventually should be fine going forward as long as all the other conditions are met. I would imagine it will be Step 4 or later that will deal with competitive games.

This is obviously going to be a local amateur level standard. Not too sure that TV are going to be interested in it. It sounds like a great grassroots initiative and deserves some support if it is as described but it is not likely to be anything other than that unless it lasts for 20 or 30 years. Let it run and see where it goes.

None, Bradford got 3...

Scotchy, which of the 4 channels gave Rugby League the £87 million pounds to start RL?? And do not mix up Wigan struggling from Lindsay's mis-management, overpaying and bad model with other areas of the game. More "assets" were sold post SL than before. Clubs are STILL struggling, STILL in debt.....AFTER.... HALF A BILLION pounds...

Nothing wrong with that Gubs , if all clubs could pull that trick off we would be in a fantastic position. It is more the way they have kicked on from there, upgraded the still new ground, made money, put a good team out, invested in the youth as well as bringing in the big signings, which are welcomed by the watchers of RL, all in a decent Rugby League ground that is a definite upgrade from Wilderspool and wholly owned by the club in a decent location. They can still mess it up of course, as all RL clubs inevitably do at some point, but at the moment they are a model of improvement.

I am afraid that is just a popular myth Scotchy that probably came about because of firstly, Lindsay's emotive rhetoric when trying to press gang the rest of Rugby League into accepting Sky's offer without a proper in depth consultation, secondly because of the ridiculous , truncated 1995 season that led into SL which was as much a waste of time as is the current season, and thirdly because of the ill feeling generated around much of the game from the changes and decisions taking place. Just prior to the advent of SL the 1994 Ashes series (and tour 269,000 in total) was watched by the all time biggest crowds in the UK for an international series. It will likely never be beaten in this era. Wigan won the World Club in Australia in front of 55000. London attracted a crowd of 8300 for a home game. Numerous club regular games attracted in excess of 25000. 130,000 watched live three major cup finals all televised on terrestrial TV in 94/95. Nearly 88 million people watched RL on TV during 1994 and 1995, something we can only dream of now , and which will never be repeated. 5 million watched the Challenge Cup final etc etc. If that is last legs then some clubs need to get back to it pronto.

"Built many assets"...? We now have nearly two thirds of the Elite division playing in non-owned "assets". St Helens have swapped one reasonably valuable plot of land for a ground in area with co- tenants that ensures they will never be able to cash in as per Knowsley Road again. They and others will also be testing the reliability and longevity of flat pack stadiums before long. Leeds have ceded ownership of half of their ground and are now in the position of being a sub tenant. Not to mention the loss of grounds throughout the lower divisions , the whole Odsal debacle and the continuing decline of Belle Vue and Wheldon Road. On the credit side Warrington have undoubtedly improved their lot and are probably the shining example of what CAN be done. "Far more solid base"...??? We are one TV contract non-renewal away from no more Full Time Rugby League in the UK. We have many thousands less young people playing the game, have lost hundreds of amateur teams and have contracted at reserve and academy/colts level. Our main exposure to the population has degraded to the point of only half filling Wembley and attracting 20% of the TV audience. Total TV audience has, of course, fallen off a cliff , competitions which gained a large terrestrial audience have been abandoned and the aforementioned Challenge Cup neglected. All after receiving over half a billion pounds we had no idea we were getting.

Not sure about the "game" as an entity Derwent but full time professionalism is absolutely, wholly, dependent on SKY. How RL got in this mess is for another day but the game has had over half a billion pounds since the advent of SL in rights payments and we have no more a solid base than we did in 1995. All directly involved in spending that money bear some culpability. Not at all confident that we will access anything like that amount of money over the next 25 years even if coming through this period relatively unscathed. Even the wealthiest owners could/will not plug all the gaps and in any event they will not be around forever.

They won''t Scotchy, many of us realise that I hope. However Mr Johnson made it clear that the green zone in his alert system means no Covid present in UK and a return to normal activity. This is highly achievable , certainly before February although how it pans out for regular cross border and inter continental competitions might be a different matter.