Euros cancelled

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

They wouldn't even need a separate 'merit table' because that's essentially how the IRL rankings work:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRL_Men's_World_Rankings

You would just look at the European nations and this autumn have -

France play Tonga (pre-England) then Wales

Wales play Ireland then France

Ireland, Wales and Italy

Italy, Serbia and Ireland

Serbia, Greece and Italy

Greece, Scotland and Serbia

1 home match against the team ranked above them and 1 away against the team below.

What it doesn't do is fund the travel, accommodation and facilities and that is the problem.

Related: As far as we know, the Euro B Championship is still going ahead.

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/competitions/136

[Harry Stottle]

18 hours ago, gingerjon said:

It is small time stuff. It is indefensible, really, even with an understanding of the why.

It is the culmination of a long, long sequence of completely avoidable problems.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to blame rugby union in some way.

But this, like so much else, is entirely rugby league inflicting damage on rugby league.

But as you say if it depended on subsidies to go ahead and they ain't got the money to play the tournament without it what are they supposed to do, without each participating nation asking the player's to pay for their own flights and accommodation and all the other incidentals like hiring the pitch, paying the officials, transport from airport to hotels to games etc etc.

We are an impoverished sport especially in the NH, the second biggest nation being France have not got two 10 cent coins to rub together, how are the other peripheral countries supposed to finance it.

They have taken the correct decision in postponing the tournament.

[Barley Mow]

3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Related: As far as we know, the Euro B Championship is still going ahead.

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/competitions/136

Interesting if the funding for that is still available, but not for the other.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Barley Mow said:

Interesting if the funding for that is still available, but not for the other.

Smaller ambition, I guess?

Plus set up known about a long time in advance so countries can self-fund?

I'm really not sure and would be guessing but it is a little weird.

[rlno1]

13 hours ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:

I have a feeling we are going to have a 8 team WC

i actually think you are right it will be reduced probably to 8-10. It will be in 2026 and Australia will control it just as Phil Gould was saying after the 2021 WC was cancelled.

It will be played in Penrith, Campbelltown and Auckland because we can make a profit there. Welcome to the new brave world of RL.

[The Masked Poster]

11 hours ago, nadera78 said:

I never go to watch live games anymore, since the Broncos gave up trying. I watch fewer games on TV than ever. I visit this forum less than ever. I talk about RL less than ever. I think about it less than ever. And none of it was a conscious decision, it just crept up on me.

Life's too short to bother with a sport that, at best, refuses to help itself and, at worst, seems to actively seek out damage.

This is exactly what happened to me. I didn't jump up one day and say "enough", it just sort of happened and I realised one day that not only was I not following the game particularly, I wasn't actually that bothered.

Obviously I regret and feel saddened that I feel this way due to the number of years I'd been watching and the time and effort spent going to hundreds of games.....but the truth is sometimes not easy to accept. 

I'm sure it will be dismissed as just one guy who has moved on but let me stress, I most definitely was not a casual RL fan, pretty much all my free time was taken up with following RL or watching it (to the detriment of my personal life I'll be honest) 

I strongly suspect that I aren't the only one who has realised that when you stop banging your head against the wall, it's nice - and you don't have to do it anyway. Ah well. 

[Pulga]

No real surprise.

The IRL is not what most think it is. It barely is anything at all.

[gingerjon]

6 minutes ago, Pulga said:

No real surprise.

The IRL is not what most think it is. It barely is anything at all.

Right now, it appears to be a way for a few blokes to draw a salary whilst waiting to have some work to do

[Pulga]

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Right now, it appears to be a way for a few blokes to draw a salary whilst waiting to have some work to do

I'm not sure many are even on a salary after what big Nige did. 

 

[crashmon]

13 hours ago, nadera78 said:

I never go to watch live games anymore, since the Broncos gave up trying. I watch fewer games on TV than ever. I visit this forum less than ever. I talk about RL less than ever. I think about it less than ever. And none of it was a conscious decision, it just crept up on me.

Life's too short to bother with a sport that, at best, refuses to help itself and, at worst, seems to actively seek out damage.

Pretty much this,

From having 3 Season tickets for 20 years at the Broncos, buying 5 shirts every year (not including the occasional England or GB shirt), to going to 10 games in the 2013 world cup, attending Magic \ Bash every year
to

Going to 3 broncos games in the kast 2 years, not been to bash since 2020, went to only 1 WC game last year (the england semi final). I did go up to wire for the England v France game.

Now I go to the Flames Ice hockey on a weekly basis. Don't have viaplay so won't be watching any of the bash games, and I really don't think I'll be going to another broncos game this season, although might go to the cup semi final if its a home game (but not if they play the home game in ebbsfleet, then I won't bother)

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, rlno1 said:

i actually think you are right it will be reduced probably to 8-10. It will be in 2026 and Australia will control it just as Phil Gould was saying after the 2021 WC was cancelled.

It will be played in Penrith, Campbelltown and Auckland because we can make a profit there. Welcome to the new brave world of RL.

Personally I didn't mind it being 8 teams 

There would be less.blow out fixtures....and overall more interesting fixtures

England, Aus, NZ, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and France would be great (obvs Aussies I assume would want Cooke islands instead of France but....)

[JM2010]

9 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Personally I didn't mind it being 8 teams 

There would be less.blow out fixtures....and overall more interesting fixtures

England, Aus, NZ, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and France would be great (obvs Aussies I assume would want Cooke islands instead of France but....)

France, Lebanon, Cook Islands Tri Nations in 2024 to qualify for WC

[Barley Mow]

12 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Personally I didn't mind it being 8 teams 

There would be less.blow out fixtures....and overall more interesting fixtures

England, Aus, NZ, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and France would be great (obvs Aussies I assume would want Cooke islands instead of France but....)

The eight that have already qualified (by virtue of being world cup quarter finalists last year) are Australia, Samoa, England, New Zealand, PNG, Tonga, Fiji and Lebanon.

It would be pretty controversial to unilaterally remove one of those just because someone (?) would rather have another country represented. And why Lebanon rather than any of the other defeated quarter finalists?

[ATLANTISMAN]

4 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

But as you say if it depended on subsidies to go ahead and they ain't got the money to play the tournament without it what are they supposed to do, without each participating nation asking the player's to pay for their own flights and accommodation and all the other incidentals like hiring the pitch, paying the officials, transport from airport to hotels to games etc etc.

We are an impoverished sport especially in the NH, the second biggest nation being France have not got two 10 cent coins to rub together, how are the other peripheral countries supposed to finance it.

They have taken the correct decision in postponing the tournament.

This is all caused Harry by the Financial car crash of RLWC/2021  

[Barley Mow]

2 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

This is all caused Harry by the Financial car crash of RLWC/2021  

Paul

Are you able to tell us any more about the financial car crash?

Troy Grant has implied that the tournament didn't make a profit, but we have also been told that a fee was paid to IRL by the tournament organisers.

My assumption was therefore that IRL had received the fee they expected/asked for and consequently their finances will be as they had anticipated before hand.

Are you saying that the tournament has other creditors that it hasn't/won't be able to pay? Or is it just that there was no profit on top of the fee to IRL after settling with creditors?

Neither of those scenarios should prevent IRL from providing funding (at whatever level was already anticipated) because (we are told) their fee is already accounted for.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Eddie]

18 hours ago, Barley Mow said:

It would be a huge shame for France to go from being hosts to not even taking part.

It would, but having 7 teams with hardly any domestic players getting battered by the big 8 is tin pot to say the least. Maybe 12 teams would be ok, 16 too many imho. 

[eal]

International rugby league is barely a thing. I mean we had countries with 50-100 registered players playing in a World Cup. The France 2025 debacle has really brought home how fragile the code is and how the resources just aren't there.

[Dr Tim Whatley]

17 hours ago, nadera78 said:

I never go to watch live games anymore, since the Broncos gave up trying. I watch fewer games on TV than ever. I visit this forum less than ever. I talk about RL less than ever. I think about it less than ever. And none of it was a conscious decision, it just crept up on me.

Life's too short to bother with a sport that, at best, refuses to help itself and, at worst, seems to actively seek out damage.

This post could just as easily have been written by me - it matches my experience with the sport almost exactly.

Just drifting away from the game...

[Odsal Outlaw]

1 hour ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

This post could just as easily have been written by me - it matches my experience with the sport almost exactly.

Just drifting away from the game...

Same, I used to watch SL on sky every week, go to Bulls games, play the game etc etc. but have been slowly drifting away and whilst I will still always call it my favourite sport I don’t devote the same time (or money) to it anymore. I don’t live in the heartlands so for me the stuff that really gets me interested are the big games and events, especially internationals, and simply we don’t have enough of them, and when we do they compare so poorly to other major events that are so easily accessible.

The last 5 games I’ve been to are Eng v Greece, Eng v PNG, Eng v Samoa, Aus v Samoa and then the CC Final last year. The last merch I bought was a Brazil WC hat! Come on RL, give me more big events with some theatre to spend time and money on!

Ill be heading to the Bash on Sunday for the Bulls game and then prob the CC final will be the next game. 

[Big Picture]

7 hours ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

This post could just as easily have been written by me - it matches my experience with the sport almost exactly.

Just drifting away from the game...

That sort of thing is quite understandable, I can see that many here are feeling just as deflated as I did when the complaints about Toronto being in the English pyramid and bringing "no away fans" were coming out.  Unfortunately this latest development is another illustration of how small time and hand-to-mouth the game is in the northern hemisphere.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Big Picture

[lucky 7]

7 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Personally I didn't mind it being 8 teams 

There would be less.blow out fixtures....and overall more interesting fixtures

England, Aus, NZ, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and France would be great (obvs Aussies I assume would want Cooke islands instead of France but....)

2 groups of 4 and the winner of group A for example plays the team who finishes bottom of group B. and the winner of group B plays the team that finishes bottom of group A. 2nd from each group plays 3rd from bottom from the other group. Nice and easy to follow with the winners going through to the semi finals.

[Anita Bath]

7 hours ago, Barley Mow said:

The eight that have already qualified (by virtue of being world cup quarter finalists last year) are Australia, Samoa, England, New Zealand, PNG, Tonga, Fiji and Lebanon.

It would be pretty controversial to unilaterally remove one of those just because someone (?) would rather have another country represented. And why Lebanon rather than any of the other defeated quarter finalists?

Didnt they do this previously? USA made quarter finals …all except them were given automatic qualification to next world cup.

 

[Mathius Hellwege]

30 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

Didnt they do this previously? USA made quarter finals …all except them were given automatic qualification to next world cup.

 

But because of governance quarrels as a specific sanction

[welshmagpie]

14 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Related: As far as we know, the Euro B Championship is still going ahead.

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/competitions/136

As a result, this year’s ERL championships - which would have doubled up as World Cup qualifying rounds towards RLWC2025 - have been delayed, meaning the European Championships A (Men), European Championships B (Men), European RLWC Qualifying Competition (Women), Middle East & Africa Cup (Men) and Americas Championship (Men) are now removed from the 2023 calendar. However, ERL will continue to explore alternatives for nations this autumn.

[Sports Prophet]

There have been some interesting stories from our forum friends here, about their dwindling interest in the game.

I understand there is disappointment in the international game and many want to find a scapegoat for the poor situation our sport is in, but the reality is that hardened fans can soften over time. That is life. Priorities change. Responsibilities change. There are stories of Broncos and Bulls fans with less interest in the sport. My interest would wake too if my club were withering in a lower division after over a decade of repeated financial incompetence.

When I was young, I used to watch at least two footy games on TV every Saturday and Sunday. That was after playing three of my own every weekend. I would watch panel shows for both RL and Aus Rules each week. As a father of three young children, I barely get enough time to watch each of my favourite NRL and AFL teams. Mostly I end up missing the Bombers, but I will always get the Sharks in. 

People having a diminishing interest or active involvement in the professional game is a reality for all sports. It’s a reality of life. It would appear the governors in the NH have been doing an awful job of attracting an a large number of new and younger audience to the sport over the past 20 years. That os the battle which needs winning.

In saying that, the start of SL this year was looking refreshingly vibrant. I hope that interest is holding up as the season continues through the midpoint.