Clubs consider combining Championship and League 1 for 24-team competition

[John Drake]

Clubs consider combining Championship and League 1 for 24-team competition

A radical proposal to change the landscape of the league structure outside of Super League was discussed in a meeting of Championship and League 1 clubs last week.

League Express can reveal a plan has been outlined that would see an amalgamation of the two divisions to be replaced by two regionalised conferences.

https://www.totalrl.com/clubs-consider-combining-championship-and-league-1-for-24-team-competition/

[Eddie]

I don’t like this idea at all, the bottom 4 of L1 would get destroyed. Not really into conferences either. 

[Damien]

I don't really see how this would work. There is far too big a range between the teams.

[Hela Wigmen]

Is this not an indication that Toulouse are in Super League? This can only be East and West and I can’t imagine it would be deemed fair to send eleven clubs to France but not the other twelve. 

Can only guess it would look like:

West - Leigh, Widnes, Swinton, Oldham, Whitehaven, Barrow, Rochdale, Workington, Keighley, Coventry, West Wales, North Wales. 

East - Featherstone, London B, Dewsbury, Bradford, Halifax, Batley, Sheffield, York, Hunslet, Newcastle, Doncaster, London S. 

East is more stacked in terms of current Championship sides. 

I can’t really work out the merit of this idea, really.

[Rupert Prince]

Will they get equal monies... assuming any monies are available?

[DI Keith Fowler]

I'm willing to listen to arguments for it, but my initial thoughts are not positive. 

[LeytherRob]

Of all the half baked ideas in RL, this has to be one of the absolute worst. The championship has been steadily progressing for the past 5 years now and has got to a point where there are 7/8 genuinely competitive clubs with a few more not far behind, now they want to split it in half and have full time teams playing against glorified amateur teams?! 

It's not just a potential commercial disaster waiting to happen, the has to be some serious questions for player welfare.

[GUBRATS]

Preparing for the total loss of central funding , reducing it to all part time , probably with a return to a £ 250 K salary cap 

[Hela Wigmen]

I’m not sure why the idea of fewer games between the sides who are professional or at least on a “hybrid model” is deemed a good idea for any of those sides. 

For smaller clubs in the current Championship and League One, it makes for total sense. It’s little surprise to see it’s a League One idea when in the past few years the league has consisted of London, West/South Wales, Hemel, All Golds, Oxford, Coventry, Toulouse and Toronto. By regionalising it, you get fewer of these sort of games, depending on your location, and you know you have the guarantee of home games against local sides annually that can’t be taken away by a promotion/relegation, as they are now. Take Workington, they’re not in the same league as either Barrow or Whitehaven, two games you’d say would be their biggest and best attended.

Much like the decisions made by Super League, it appears to be an idea that suits the smaller clubs and doesn’t really help the bigger and more ambitious clubs. 

[LeytherRob]

22 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

I’m not sure why the idea of fewer games between the sides who are professional or at least on a “hybrid model” is deemed a good idea for any of those sides. 

For smaller clubs in the current Championship and League One, it makes for total sense. It’s little surprise to see it’s a League One idea when in the past few years the league has consisted of London, West/South Wales, Hemel, All Golds, Oxford, Coventry, Toulouse and Toronto. By regionalising it, you get fewer of these sort of games, depending on your location, and you know you have the guarantee of home games against local sides annually that can’t be taken away by a promotion/relegation, as they are now. Take Workington, they’re not in the same league as either Barrow or Whitehaven, two games you’d say would be their biggest and best attended.

Much like the decisions made by Super League, it appears to be an idea that suits the smaller clubs and doesn’t really help the bigger and more ambitious clubs. 

The only clubs it will benefit will be those at the bottom of SL and those at the bottom of league 1. The gap to SL will become larger as teams play in an uncompetitive league just so West Wales and co can get a few quid from travelling Widnes fans. I don't think any proposal has ever made me quite so annoyed at RL, and that includes licensing. At least licensing had a degree of logic to it, this is just a race to the bottom.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

The only clubs it will benefit will be those at the bottom of SL and those at the bottom of league 1. The gap to SL will become larger as teams play in an uncompetitive league just so West Wales and co can get a few quid from travelling Widnes fans. I don't think any proposal has ever made me quite so annoyed at RL, and that includes licensing. At least licensing had a degree of logic to it, this is just a race to the bottom.

I don't think clubs at the bottom of League 1 would want this at all and it wouldn't benefit them. I'm sure they would prefer to be in a more competitive league with teams on a similar level where they have some chance of winning.

[BD20Cougar]

Not sure if this is the answer but with only 10 clubs in league 1 next year as things stand something needs to be done as 9 home games isn't enough. Might just be as simple as everyone playing everyone 3 times.

[LeytherRob]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

I don't think clubs at the bottom of League 1 would want this at all and it wouldn't benefit them. I'm sure they would prefer to be in a more competitive league with teams on a similar level where they have some chance of winning.

Reports are they are all in favour and that they are willing to forego any change in central funding to get it, it seems to be all coming down to how many championship clubs agree. It's bad enough that the championship is subject to the whims of SL without having League 1 drag it down too.

It also raises big issues for the SL clubs that send their youngsters out to the championship as a final development step before SL, instead of playing in tough matches week in week out they are going to be playing against glorified amateurs in walkover score lines. 

[LeytherRob]

1 minute ago, BD20Cougar said:

Not sure if this is the answer but with only 10 clubs in league 1 next year as things stand something needs to be done as 9 home games isn't enough. Might just be as simple as everyone playing everyone 3 times.

I'd say there is an argument for 2 leagues of 12, but it should absolutely be in a championship/league 1 structure and not conferences.

[Robthegasman]

I am neither for or against this.I am open minded on it and prepared to look at it before saying if it is good,bad or .

 I think logically and geographically it would have to be East-West(and Wales)

East Division 

Newcastle,York,West Yorkshire clubs,South Yorkshire clubs and London Skolars(as North London based)

West(and Wales)division 

Cumbria clubs,Greater Manchester clubs, Widnes(Halton/Liverpool city region)N and W Wales,Coventry(West Midlands region)and finally London Broncos(as West London based)

 

 

 

 

[Colin James]

League One clubs trying to pull a fast one. This wouldn't benefit a single Championship club, they have nothing to gain from it and plenty to lose.

[LeytherRob]

6 minutes ago, Colin James said:

League One clubs trying to pull a fast one. This wouldn't benefit a single Championship club, they have nothing to gain from it and plenty to lose.

A couple of the yo yo teams like Oldham will be inclined to take this so they get themselves a couple of guaranteed games against Leigh and Widnes each year

[doc]

More dumb ideas. Just leave it.

[Hela Wigmen]

In fairness there’s probably four teams with short term ambitions on promotion to Super League and one of them is likely to be the ‘chosen one’ this winter, so that’ll drop to three. One of Toulouse, Leigh, Featherstone or London are going to go up, the remaining three won’t be up for this idea.

Beyond that, there’s a handful of clubs with longer term “ambitions” on promotion and in most of those cases, I think I’m being generous in saying they have ambition. York and Newcastle have stated longer term aims of promotion, Widnes would like to get back but are rebuilding after financial collapse, Halifax fancy it but seem more settled as they are and we’ve seen Bradford make a bid for the Super League, yearning for the halcyon days of the 90’s, but they’re effectively homeless and we’ve seen in the past once teams leave their home ground, they’re never the same again. The rest who claim ambition for a Super League place are living in dreamland, let’s be honest. They’re either left to hope for a minor miracle, ala Batley in the 8’s, or a millionaire local fan to bankroll them, which is unlikely.

So, aside from a handful of clubs, why wouldn’t clubs vote for this? Local games guaranteed, a handful either side of the imaginary line will see good away followings, no risk of relegation and no major changes to the funding. 

[LeytherRob]

5 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

So, aside from a handful of clubs, why wouldn’t clubs vote for this? Local games guaranteed, a handful either side of the imaginary line will see good away followings, no risk of relegation and no major changes to the funding. 

In a week, we seem to have gone from RFL voting in favour of Toronto and losing to trying to take us back to the Yorkshire cup days. Insanity.

[Tommygilf]

Most League 1 sides will support this move, even those like Newcastle and Doncaster with stated aims beyond the Championship.

I think the divide here will be between Championship sides that are happy being Championship sides (those that have in the past 5 years been the Championship 2 if you like) and those that see themselves as Super League clubs in waiting. I think both sides are understandable and it should take some serious convincing to change the status quo. 

Perhaps this is preamble to an eventual division of aspirational Full Time and part time clubs with a narrow route between the two.

[LeytherRob]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

Perhaps this is preamble to an eventual division of aspirational Full Time and part time clubs with a narrow route between the two.

The championship has spent the last 5/10 years(and more) developing into exactly that, it's gone from a league with 1 or 2 good teams to 6+ teams all capable of giving SL teams a fright, whether in the middle 8's or the cup. The professionalism, even within the fully semi pro clubs further behind(Batley, Dewsbury etc), is far beyond the level even at the top of the championship a decade or so ago. Why any fool at the RFL would believe they have a better job of selling a league consisting of Bradford vs Hunslet than Bradford vs Leigh/Widnes is the very definition of insanity.

The sheer chasm in standards between Championship and L1 is arguably greater than that between Champ and SL right now. It would be akin to them merging SL and Championship and making Saints and Wigan play in a league against Swinton. 

 

[Tommygilf]

10 minutes ago, LeytherRob said:

The championship has spent the last 5/10 years(and more) developing into exactly that, it's gone from a league with 1 or 2 good teams to 6+ teams all capable of giving SL teams a fright, whether in the middle 8's or the cup. The professionalism, even within the fully semi pro clubs further behind(Batley, Dewsbury etc), is far beyond the level even at the top of the championship a decade or so ago. Why any fool at the RFL would believe they have a better job of selling a league consisting of Bradford vs Hunslet than Bradford vs Leigh/Widnes is the very definition of insanity.

The sheer chasm in standards between Championship and L1 is arguably greater than that between Champ and SL right now. It would be akin to them merging SL and Championship and making Saints and Wigan play in a league against Swinton. 

I totally agree the Championship is simultaneously a really interesting league and also really predictable depending on the fixtures that week. A bit like F1 and so called F1.5.

I suppose the ideal scenario would be to have more clubs pushing to the top group of Championship clubs. Newcastle, Donny, maybe a single Cumbrian club or a dark horse outsider could do that in the next 5 or so years. Maybe more French clubs could be an answer. Its easier said than done though.

[RugbyLeagueRaj]

A few people on this thread and lots on Twitter are criticizing the RFL for suggesting this but from the report it sounds like a suggestion from the League 1 clubs though perhaps the RFL should have had a quiet word and had the idea quashed by now.

Personally, I think it's a terrible idea. As others have said the Championship has improved in the last five years and with the new stadium at York it should be even more competitive when we can next actually play a season.

And we really don't need another structure change...

[Rugby&soccerfan]

So its a return to the of Northern Ford Premiership. But split into conferences which had been suggested before they went with the National Leagues.

I don't think as a temporary measure to get the game restarted its a bad thing but with any future expansion unless more clubs joining. Could be many mis matches.