JM2010

Absolutely brilliant. If the game can be promoted well and reach out to younger fans then the product sells itself

Good stuff. Real potential in Africa. Hopefully the African Cup can keep growing.

Countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon are ripe for development. They have big populations, and would require less money to be spent than in places like USA, Canada and some of the European countries. Also, there are sizeable African communities in the UK which could also be targeted alongside domestic development to help increase the player pools available to these countries. There’s already quite a few players of African heritage playing in the professional game with the potential of lots more if these communities are targeted These countries could be developed together along with other African countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Kenya with regular international tournaments and test against each other.

Looking at the story it sounds like the Moroccan team is being picked from their domestic competition

Is there any chance London could get some more young SL players on loan? What’s the limit for loan players?

I’m not saying to put them straight into SL. I’m saying they have potential. When did I say change nothing??

It’s quite a big town isn’t it? Good amateur scene, seem to have some money behind them and surrounded by large population areas. They could be a big club

This should be all over social media with videos of the training and interviews with the players. Would be great publicity Edit - just read the article again and seen that the video is getting released soon

This is how I’d like to see the RL organised. SCL at the top with more regionalised league underneath. If more teams could be added to the merit league in the future then it would be good for them to split into an even more regionalised structure underneath. It’s good to see the Skolars back. Hopefully they can become a strong community club

I wish they’d hurry up and announce it. I want to book some tickets

Typical RL fans strike again!! This started as a positive thread about SL getting some media coverage and I’ve just come back on and that’s now forgotten and a few are just having a personal argument about which is the biggest sport

At least this thread can’t be dragged ‘off topic’ down the IMG rabbit hole like all the others

What’s the record for the highest average SL attendance in a season? I think it might get beaten this year

This is exactly the kind of event RL needs. Hopefully this can be built on in the future and continue to grow.

The NRL have mentioned growing the international game in the NH when discussing international RL. I wonder if investing in countries such as Greece, Malta and Italy would be the best route due to the fact they already have communities in Australia which produce players. I’m not saying just play internationals with only heritage players and no domestic development underneath. A combination of the two would be best. If Greece, Malta, Italy, Serbia and Ukraine could play regularly in European competitions and be competitive then this could be used to accelerate any development in these countries

I’d like to see more RL players on tv shows and podcasts. I enjoy watching the Overlap and would love to see someone like Adrian Morley or Sam Burgess as a guest. Roy Keane is a big RL fan so it could work well

This a great initiative. I’ve always thought RL should look to athletes in other sports that might not quite make the grade and maybe be better suited to RL. If this takes off and is repeated in other cities then a big talent pool could be opened up

It’s great to see this competition being played. Are there any other countries who are going to be able to join in the near future? Could it be linked to the North American competition in some way?

One of the main growth areas for international RL could be the WC qualifiers. If this can be built upon and expanded to include more nations in the regional qualifiers and then the following year expanding the World Series that then gives at least two years of competitive RL for the lower tier nations

To answer the original question. I don’t think there is a plan

That’s fair enough. ITV won’t replace something with good viewing figures. Would there be any time slots available on terrestrial tv even if just highlights. Better than nothing and they could even build a bit of a following

It shouldn’t be SL Europe. That won’t work. As I said earlier it needs to be domestic development with possible cross border competitions if they are viable.

Do they get millions of viewers? Where did you get the figures from?

Or they could just develop their own domestic competitions and have inter league competitions with nearby countries

Developing the domestic competitions in other European nations has nothing to do with this statement