French Federation make statement after World Cup elimination

[The Masked Poster]

4 minutes ago, tim2 said:

Do you know, I almost went for that joke but decided it was a bit too much.

Hey, I was just saying like.....

[Exiled Wiganer]

On 31/10/2022 at 15:09, Toby Chopra said:

Disagree on the first point - 3 years is a single contract in a globally mobile sport, and doesn't demonstrate enough of a connection for me. Plus the shorter it is the more open to abuse it is: imagine a Saudi Arabian national rugby league team if eligibility could be bought in 3 years? 

Agree on the second one though, makes absolutely no sense and you can't demonstrate much more of a connection in a country than representing it in international sport. 

We could ditch the grandparent qualification rule, in which case France would be one of the top teams again. 

[Harry Stottle]

14 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

We could ditch the grandparent qualification rule, in which case France would be one of the top teams again. 

You reckon?

France would struggle to come third in a 2 horse race.

[The Masked Poster]

5 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

You reckon?

France would struggle to come third in a 2 horse race.

That's absolute BS. France have A) French players and B) the makings of a good team.

How that translates into making it happen is for other, smarter, people than me to decide. 

But your actual assertion is disrespectful garbage. 

[Harry Stottle]

13 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

That's absolute BS. France have A) French players and B) the makings of a good team.

How that translates into making it happen is for other, smarter, people than me to decide. 

But your actual assertion is disrespectful garbage. 

A) We have reached the last 8 teams in the WC, how many French players would you consider good enough to replace any of the player's in those other teams?

B) And all those French lads working together quite simply do not make a good team, it is not as though there was not a good coaching team behind them was it, so what went wrong.

Not being disrespectful, just factual.

[The Masked Poster]

14 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

A) We have reached the last 8 teams in the WC, how many French players would you consider good enough to replace any of the player's in those other teams?

B) And all those French lads working together quite simply do not make a good team, it is not as though there was not a good coaching team behind them was it, so what went wrong.

Not being disrespectful, just factual.

In 1999 It was factual to say that Leigh couldn't win a raffle. Maybe the game should have dumped them. They were Shiite playing in a shed that embarrassed SL when they were promoted.

I like this, it's easy to trash things. 

[Madrileño]

On 31/10/2022 at 20:26, hw88 said:

 

Were I to move abroad I would have no desire to play for that country as I was born British and always will be - even if I moved to said country permanently. I don't understand the mentality of people who want to disown their pace of birth!

You are only looking at this from your own personal perspective. Not everyone feels like you do.

How about people who have no pride whatsoever in the country they were born in?

[Tosh]

3 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

That's absolute BS. France have A) French players and B) the makings of a good team.

How that translates into making it happen is for other, smarter, people than me to decide. 

But your actual assertion is disrespectful garbage. 

How long have people been telling us this?

The French National RL team havent improved one bit since the inclusion of the Catalan dragons into to super league and the inclusion of Toulouse.

[Tosh]

2 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

In 1999 It was factual to say that Leigh couldn't win a raffle. Maybe the game should have dumped them. They were Shiite playing in a shed that embarrassed SL when they were promoted.

I like this, it's easy to trash things. 

Leigh are world beaters now?

[UTK]

1 hour ago, Tosh said:

How long have people been telling us this?

The French National RL team havent improved one bit since the inclusion of the Catalan dragons into to super league and the inclusion of Toulouse.

The French National side would be infinitely worse without Catalans inclusion in SL, other national sides have improved at a greater rate and this distorts that fact.

[Tosh]

2 hours ago, UTK said:

The French National side would be infinitely worse without Catalans inclusion in SL, other national sides have improved at a greater rate and this distorts that fact.

I agree and I’m not advocating for the dragons to be booted out of super league.

The problem is that there aren’t enough French players playing for the dragons and Toulouse.

In fact there aren’t enough French players playing in super league including English based super league clubs fullstop.

[The Masked Poster]

5 hours ago, Tosh said:

How long have people been telling us this?

The French National RL team havent improved one bit since the inclusion of the Catalan dragons into to super league and the inclusion of Toulouse.

That's not the point I was addressing. They aren't - but they COULD be - a good side. Not sure who or what can bring about that change but they are certainly better than the way Harry described them. 

[The Masked Poster]

5 hours ago, Tosh said:

Leigh are world beaters now?

Well they seem to be Harrys personal team so I was using them in this example. 

[Tosh]

1 minute ago, The Masked Poster said:

That's not the point I was addressing. They aren't - but they COULD be - a good side. Not sure who or what can bring about that change but they are certainly better than the way Harry described them. 

I’m a big supporter of French RL but I’m afraid they are shocking and an embarrassment.

We need to increase the player pool at youth level and implement structures and pathways for these juniors into the professional game be it in France or England or maybe even Australia.

[The Masked Poster]

2 minutes ago, Tosh said:

I’m a big supporter of French RL but I’m afraid they are shocking and an embarrassment.

We need to increase the player pool at youth level and implement structures and pathways for these juniors into the professional game be it in France or England or maybe even Australia.

They are not embarrassing. They obviously have deep rooted problems in converting individual talent into the national team. 

Solve that and you could be the hero of the day. 

[Tosh]

1 minute ago, The Masked Poster said:

They are not embarrassing. They obviously have deep rooted problems in converting individual talent into the national team. 

Solve that and you could be the hero of the day. 

Where’s General de Gaulle when you need him!!

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Tosh said:

I agree and I’m not advocating for the dragons to be booted out of super league.

The problem is that there aren’t enough French players playing for the dragons and Toulouse.

In fact there aren’t enough French players playing in super league including English based super league clubs fullstop.

People keep saying that the French need a TV contract to widen the public awareness in RL and in turn would/should increase in participation numbers something I totally agree with, but I have asked this question many times on these pages and nobody has ever come up with a logical reply, "Is there enough interest with the French public for a broadcaster FTA or Subscription to take a gamble and invest in the sport" If there was and those broadcasters could see a return on their investment then wouldn't they be making some positive moves in that direction, I don't believe there is but I am happy to be corrected on the subject.

[Harry Stottle]

13 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Well they seem to be Harrys personal team so I was using them in this example. 

Correct.

[Tosh]

2 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

People keep saying that the French need a TV contract to widen the public awareness in RL and in turn would/should increase in participation numbers something I totally agree with, but I have asked this question many times on these pages and nobody has ever come up with a logical reply, "Is there enough interest with the French public for a broadcaster FTA or Subscription to take a gamble and invest in the sport" If there was and those broadcasters could see a return on their investment then wouldn't they be making some positive moves in that direction, I don't believe there is but I am happy to be corrected on the subject.

Until French RL gets it’s act together there won’t be a mad rush from French broadcasters to sign up the game.

The French RL need to make the game more appealing and a must see/invest in product.

[Harry Stottle]

11 minutes ago, Tosh said:

Until French RL gets it’s act together there won’t be a mad rush from French broadcasters to sign up the game.

The French RL need to make the game more appealing and a must see/invest in product.

I agree.

[UTK]

I don't think it's fair to say French RL is embarassing/shocking, I think people forget how little relative participation there is in France compared to the other major nations. 

France has around 7000 RL participants, England has 75000. France had 2 pro clubs last year, England had 12 I believe (drops to 11 with Thunder going back to part-time).

2 weeks ago these teams met and the result was 42-18 in favour of the side with 10x more participants and 6x more pro clubs, which nation is embarrassing again? 

[RP London]

1 hour ago, Tosh said:

Until French RL gets it’s act together there won’t be a mad rush from French broadcasters to sign up the game.

The French RL need to make the game more appealing and a must see/invest in product.

Its very much chicken and egg. There is probably a latent interest there that the TV companies could tap into, but (as harry said) its about return on investment, which can come but there is a risk involved. Arguably Super League in the UK is at the same point and is why we get the discussions about the TV deal etc. However, what we are also fighting against are sports that know this and grasp this and provide plug and play content or something a bit different.. We need to do this on both sides of the channel so that we can have 2 TV companies bidding and pushing the price up, we can get 1 French TV company interested, we can then look to try other markets with a world wide online presence (ie not restricted to UK only viewing) etc etc etc etc.. 

we will get there IMHO but its only know that they are starting to grasp this.

[ATLANTISMAN]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

People keep saying that the French need a TV contract to widen the public awareness in RL and in turn would/should increase in participation numbers something I totally agree with, but I have asked this question many times on these pages and nobody has ever come up with a logical reply, "Is there enough interest with the French public for a broadcaster FTA or Subscription to take a gamble and invest in the sport" If there was and those broadcasters could see a return on their investment then wouldn't they be making some positive moves in that direction, I don't believe there is but I am happy to be corrected on the subject.

Harry the reality is there is no interest from Paris TV stations in French RL (Under the current set up) the only chance for French RL to be on national TV (Without paying the production costs) is a fully professional league with a good geographical spread throughout France

Well that ever happen god only knows although the president is convinced it can work and has investors lined up.

He is really between the devil and the deep blue sea and will have to keep all the traditional clubs/areas on side where there is lots of self interest (I think in England we can all relate to that)

I have followed and been involved in FRL for years and enjoy going to the Dragons and Toulouse however to be honest at my age i prefer the real local stuff nice day out food wine rugby but that's me i have more enjoyment now at Pia or Lezignan  and find the SL matches basically boring same old same old for me nowadays its a social thing.

 

P 

Edited November 2, 2022 by ATLANTISMAN

[Jughead]

Maybe throwing money at unnecessary professionalism in Elite 1 isn’t such a good idea?

[JM2010]

5 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Maybe throwing money at unnecessary professionalism in Elite 1 isn’t such a good idea

I agree. If there was a choice what any investment should be spent on then it should definitely go to getting more juniors playing the game and developing pathways. However, the money might only be getting invested by people who want to run professional clubs so there might not be an option to spend it elsewhere.

If that's the case then some money, regardless of how it's being spent, is better than none