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Spain Rugby League (Merged threads)


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2 hours ago, Bob8 said:

I was going to ask if anything is happening in Vigo.

I assume not.

Heard nothing about Galicia or the north of Spain at all.  A number of the Valencian teams are posting training pics and they seem to be gearing up for something.  What that something is, nobody has said.

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6 hours ago, bbfaz said:

Sorry to bump the thread but I was wondering if anybody here has any insight into just what the hell is going on?

The international team has played this season but the club game has ground to a halt.  Daz Fisher was quoted in a recent article as saying that they're trying to revamp and regionalise the domestic competition.  However, this is a process that has been essentially going on for 18 months, when the Andalusian clubs announced they were going it alone.  Does anybody have any insight?

I believe Spanish RL is (and always has been) Valencia-centric.  The Madrid team (that won the comp) walked away.  I'm sure there were many reasons, but I think the main one was, they had made so many trips to the Valencia region, only for the Valencia teams to forfeit their one trip to Madrid, which would be understandably infuriating.

Andalusia was looking good at one stage, not sure what is going on down there now.  Of course the most logical thing to do would be to have a Valencia and an Andalusia conference, then perhaps a GF between the two winners.

But there are still something like 5-6 active teams in the Valencia region, which is enough to sustain any Affiliate member nation.  But of course, more would be better.

On a positive note though, their national team seems to be progressing nicely and they also recently sent their top two Match Officials over to France to TJ in some matches (Elite 2 level I believe).

I also read the 'Everything Rugby League' article, but it was more focused on national team than domestic activity.

 

 

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17 hours ago, langpark said:

I believe Spanish RL is (and always has been) Valencia-centric.  The Madrid team (that won the comp) walked away.  I'm sure there were many reasons, but I think the main one was, they had made so many trips to the Valencia region, only for the Valencia teams to forfeit their one trip to Madrid, which would be understandably infuriating.

Andalusia was looking good at one stage, not sure what is going on down there now.  Of course the most logical thing to do would be to have a Valencia and an Andalusia conference, then perhaps a GF between the two winners.

But there are still something like 5-6 active teams in the Valencia region, which is enough to sustain any Affiliate member nation.  But of course, more would be better.

On a positive note though, their national team seems to be progressing nicely and they also recently sent their top two Match Officials over to France to TJ in some matches (Elite 2 level I believe).

I also read the 'Everything Rugby League' article, but it was more focused on national team than domestic activity.

I agree with what you say.  Valencia has enough teams to have a league tomorrow, I just don't know what's taking so long.

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3 hours ago, bbfaz said:

I agree with what you say.  Valencia has enough teams to have a league tomorrow, I just don't know what's taking so long.

They already do have a league.  But the question is, how many months per year do they play, and are these teams still dabbling in union or do they only play league now?

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10 minutes ago, langpark said:

They already do have a league.  But the question is, how many months per year do they play, and are these teams still dabbling in union or do they only play league now?

They've not been playing and haven't played any games since last April.  Still no plans for a league going forward.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Things afoot in Andalusia...

I tried to embed the Facebook post but I don't know how.  So translate/C&P/rejig

"Today the statutes of the ARLA (Rugby League Association of Andalusia) have been approved - in addition to the basis for the Andalusian League in 2019.

The new board of the ARLA is composed of Joaquín López (President and delegate for Jaén), Javier Vergara (Secretary and delegate for Seville), Fernando (Vice-President and delegate for Córdoba) and Adrien Thyme (Treasurer and delegate for Huelva) will create the foundation for the 2019 season."

From what I can gather, they've create delegates to cover the individual provinces, though this would mean they only have four provinces that they're working on.  There has been an announcement of a new team near Jaen.  This is at least somewhat positive news.

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What are the prospects of the Spanish and French governing bodies coming together to form a joint league competition? Basically do what the Balkan states are doing with the Balkan Super League.

 

Catalans Dragons are very popular in Catalonia, Spain. So it makes sense. Audiences in 'developing' countries are always more enthusiastic about a sport when their teams are playing against teams from other countries.

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52 minutes ago, NotToday said:

What are the prospects of the Spanish and French governing bodies coming together to form a joint league competition? Basically do what the Balkan states are doing with the Balkan Super League.

 

Catalans Dragons are very popular in Catalonia, Spain. So it makes sense. Audiences in 'developing' countries are always more enthusiastic about a sport when their teams are playing against teams from other countries.

There's no chance.  Realstically, RL in Spain is less than 5 1/2 years old.  The association in Catalunya completely collapsed, it's as if it didn't ever exist.  Essentially, everything started again in late 2013.  There was a great deal of early expansion and there has been Rugby League played in Madrid, Valencia and Andalusia since then but it has been erratic in recent times.  In fact, the agenda over the past two years has been a regionalisation and federalisation of the game, as one of the repeated issues is that the Valencians basically control everything.

I think people don't realise just how big Spain is and how mountainous the terrain is.  Madrid to Valencia is 4 hours, to Malaga 6 hours, to Barcelona 7 hours (the tolls knock 30 minutes off).  Malaga to Barcelona is a 2-3 day trip for an amateur team.

I also question how popular the Catalans are.  There's no Rugby League on TV in Spain.  There are Union players who have no idea League even exists.  A team called Catalans can walk into Camp Nou with a trophy and pop the crowd but I don't think they're any kind of serious draw.  There may be a handful of teams but, for all intents and purposes, the sport doesn't exist.

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31 minutes ago, bbfaz said:

There's no chance.  Realstically, RL in Spain is less than 5 1/2 years old.  The association in Catalunya completely collapsed, it's as if it didn't ever exist.  Essentially, everything started again in late 2013.  There was a great deal of early expansion and there has been Rugby League played in Madrid, Valencia and Andalusia since then but it has been erratic in recent times.  In fact, the agenda over the past two years has been a regionalisation and federalisation of the game, as one of the repeated issues is that the Valencians basically control everything.

I think people don't realise just how big Spain is and how mountainous the terrain is.  Madrid to Valencia is 4 hours, to Malaga 6 hours, to Barcelona 7 hours (the tolls knock 30 minutes off).  Malaga to Barcelona is a 2-3 day trip for an amateur team.

I also question how popular the Catalans are.  There's no Rugby League on TV in Spain.  There are Union players who have no idea League even exists.  A team called Catalans can walk into Camp Nou with a trophy and pop the crowd but I don't think they're any kind of serious draw.  There may be a handful of teams but, for all intents and purposes, the sport doesn't exist.

 

So the game is still in infancy there. But I think the same is true for the Balkans, I don't think it airs on TV in most countries there either. Turkey, Albania and Bosnia are completely new to Rugby league.

Maybe the time isn't ripe right now but I think over the next 5 years, a joint competition would be a good idea. You need to "give people a reason" to follow RL, or participate in RL, or even to cover it on TV.

Look at Pro14 in rugby union; at first they were just Scotland and Wales, then later Ireland joined. Then it took a decade before they became good and Italy joined, and now South Africa. My idea has already been done before and it shows results.

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23 hours ago, NotToday said:

 Maybe the time isn't ripe right now but I think over the next 5 years, a joint competition would be a good idea. You need to "give people a reason" to follow RL, or participate in RL, or even to cover it on TV.

Look at Pro14 in rugby union; at first they were just Scotland and Wales, then later Ireland joined. Then it took a decade before they became good and Italy joined, and now South Africa. My idea has already been done before and it shows results.

You're living in fantasy land though.  I've seen what it is like on the ground and, sadly, they're going further backwards in some parts of the country than their going forwards in others.  As I've said before, if everybody got their ducks in a row, there could be 17 teams across the country.  That's not enough to do anything with.  Union can't get on TV here and they had their fair share of franchise rugby ideas.  Who remembers the Superiberica de Rugby?  Contact sports aren't in their blood.  Boxing is a fringe thing, American football is a curiosity and only played under 9-man rules, Rugby Union is a university sport with a limited pool of players.

Realistically, they need to establish regional leagues with a steady pool of teams and expand below that with additional teams, juniors and trying to get into universities.  Andalusia is doing that, Valencia could do that very quickly.  There needs to be serious expansion in Northern and Central Spain.  There needs to be a steady civilian team in Madrid, they NEED to get into Valladolid, which is probably the closest thing Spain has to a Rugby football hotbed.  Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country.  They all have a taste for it, they just don't know the game even exists.

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26 minutes ago, bbfaz said:

You're living in fantasy land though.  I've seen what it is like on the ground and, sadly, they're going further backwards in some parts of the country than their going forwards in others.  As I've said before, if everybody got their ducks in a row, there could be 17 teams across the country.  That's not enough to do anything with.  Union can't get on TV here and they had their fair share of franchise rugby ideas.  Who remembers the Superiberica de Rugby?  Contact sports aren't in their blood.  Boxing is a fringe thing, American football is a curiosity and only played under 9-man rules, Rugby Union is a university sport with a limited pool of players.

Realistically, they need to establish regional leagues with a steady pool of teams and expand below that with additional teams, juniors and trying to get into universities.  Andalusia is doing that, Valencia could do that very quickly.  There needs to be serious expansion in Northern and Central Spain.  There needs to be a steady civilian team in Madrid, they NEED to get into Valladolid, which is probably the closest thing Spain has to a Rugby football hotbed.  Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country.  They all have a taste for it, they just don't know the game even exists.

 

A joint competition doesn't have to be a franchise from every city. It can be as few as three clubs from all of Spain, plus five or nine clubs from France. Sometimes fewer is better.

Keep the regional leagues doing their thing regionally, but have another club who plays with French clubs. This can work in the long-term, even if it doesn't there's no harm no foul.

Most Balkan states aren't even in the EU, and the sport is extremely niche there. They know that a joint competition helps them grow. It's been done in rugby union, and it's been done in basketball. There's Adriatic League and Euroleague in basketball, and they're trying to emulate that model with rugby league.

RL isn't big in France either, but they have 2 teams in SL-RFL pyramid, that alone is why Rugby league is slowly growing in France because it gets some TV coverage.

 

 

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I'd love to see Spain enter a team in the French Lord Derby Cup!  Saluzzo have done so for the last two years.  First year - a heavy loss, second year - a very narrow loss.  (a bit like the Irish in the Challenge Cup)...

I think if they can be competitive, so can a Spanish team, even if they don't get past the first round, would be a great starting point.

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What's the obsession with adding costs to grassroots clubs? Just let them grow the sport on the merits of the sport to establish a baseline of activity, then when there's enough interest in the sport for it start to professionalise (i.e. a few fully pro players, a the rest semi pro, then look at big competitions.

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^ agreed.  All too often people get over-excited and lose all sense of realism.  France has well established leagues already.  So if a Spanish team ever did stand out (and have the financial backing to do so) they're lucky to be relatively close to France so they could think about possibly entering a team, as Saluzzo have done.  Anything beyond that, is unrealistic.

I could understand Sicily and Malta having a joint competition, due to the close proximity and the fact neither one will likely ever have more than 2 teams any time soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Last week, the AERL announced that Liga Nacional will operate in 2019 under a conference system.  Leagues based roughly on where there are teams (Andalusia, Valencia, Madrid) but no date has been announced for when the league will start.  Main news from the post is that Boquerones RL Malaga will now be called XIII Victoriano.

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  • 4 weeks later...

They've moved fast in Valencia, getting five teams together who are ready to play now.  Tigres d'Torrent, Xativa Roosters, Valencian Warriors, Ontinyent and newcomer Tavernes will start a new season on the weekend of the 13th/14th April.

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Other leagues aren't as ready to go it would seem and there's no positive news out of Madrid.

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