Betfred League One will kick off again in 2024 thanks to collective action by its remaining member clubs, but its future beyond that is still open to question.
JUST two months ago, the very existence of Betfred League One was in doubt.
In the wake of Newcastle Thunder’s announcement that they were withdrawing from the competition in 2024 following a change in ownership, the remaining eight clubs feared a lack of fixtures would made the upcoming season untenable.
Having already lost West Wales Raiders ahead of the 2023 campaign and London Skolars in the aftermath of it, the spotlight turned firmly on the sport’s third tier of the professional game.
In late October, the remaining clubs issued a joint statement which saw – in a rarity for rugby league – all concerned parties very much on the same page.
It led to further talks between the clubs, their Championship counterparts and the RFL, with a push for a merged competition in time for kick-off next year high on the agenda.
But timescales and other factors worked against that proposal, with some Championship clubs already having sold season tickets. A compromise was reached with increasing league fixtures and an expanded AB Sundecks 1895 Cup, which in 2024 involves a group stage that sees League One clubs host higher division opponents to boost revenue streams.
Crucially, Newcastle Thunder had also regrouped sufficiently to signal their intent to compete – something welcomed by all parties – and have now been accepted back in.
At the heart of the negotiations throughout was Rochdale Hornets chairman Andy Mazey, who became a figurehead for the League One clubs uniting behind a common cause.
“People were never fully happy with League One but when the Newcastle announcement came it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Mazey explained.
“We’d had West Wales and London Skolars fall by the wayside which left us hanging on, and the Newcastle news felt like the catalyst to change something. A few clubs contacted me having been in and around the game for a while, and we had some new guys, like Fordy (Mike Ford) at Oldham, now involved again.
“Workington and North Wales got in touch and I was speaking to Carl Hall at Doncaster regularly, even though it wasn’t his issue any more because they’d been promoted. To be fair to Carl, despite that, he was one of the people that came out and showed some support for League One, even though he’d escaped that situation if you like. He was very supportive and understanding of what was going on.
“I was asked if I would take the lead for the League One clubs, and I said I would, but only if we had unity and that all the clubs that felt the same way were willing to stand up and do something about it.
“The biggest issues during my time in rugby league have been a lack of unity between the clubs and never having a collective approach to anything. If you don’t have the ability to go to the table collectively then you quickly get divided and picked off, and I didn’t want that to happen again.
“I wanted it to be a collective approach but also not to cause trouble, to be professional and not do things through the media. I was willing to put my head above the parapet but only if it was done professionally and there wasn’t people bad-mouthing the RFL through the media.
“I thought we did act professionally at the same time as fighting our corner. We did our best to force a radical change and have a merged competition, but in reality that was always going to be a long shot for 2024.”
For Oldham’s Ford – a man steeped in rugby league history himself but who had been out of the sport for two decades – he found himself thrown into a rapidly evolving situation just months after being part of an ownership group that had taken over at the ambitious Roughyeds.
“I’ve come back into it from the angle that if rugby league is going to be strong, we all have to look after each other,” Ford said. “After what happened at the end of the season with London Skolars and then Newcastle saying they wouldn’t be involved, we needed to come together for the best of the whole of rugby league.
“I found that some clubs were looking after themselves in their decision making and just thinking about tomorrow, whereas some clubs looked at the bigger picture.
“I get both sides and to be fair to the Championship clubs, while they didn’t want one division, they did have some empathy with us.”
The League One clubs formed a WhatsApp group that shared ideas and standpoints, and constructed a letter that was sent to the RFL executive board and chief executive Tony Sutton.
“It’s the first time that I know of from my time in the sport where we had every club in a division all on the same page and willing to do something about it,” Mazey continued.
“We’re happier with what we’ve got now from what it looked like being. It’s fair to say that we were all 100 per cent behind Newcastle making the starting line, to keep going what they’ve done up there and maintain that progress. As unified clubs, Newcastle were always involved in those conversations and it would have been a massive shame to see the community and development work they’ve done in the north east fall by the wayside. Every club was determined to try and help Newcastle.
“Our view was very much that if League One is staying, we needed to create some more games and not just by sticking in loop fixtures. With the geographical spread we have, unless we were really creative in how we divided it up, we could have had a load of games that nobody needs.
“The 1895 Cup was a good option in terms of it being drawn in a localised way as best it could be, and having an agreement with Championship clubs that all group stage matches are held at League One clubs to give us an opportunity to drive a bit more revenue.”
Ford also believes a fair compromise was met.
“For this season, I feel that they’ve got the format right,” he explained. “We needed more games than last year – we had 18 league matches, now we’ve got 20 and at least another two in the 1895 Cup, plus the Challenge Cup.
“Last year you could play for two weeks and then not for three, and it was ridiculous when you’re putting together a business plan and precarious if you had three or sometimes four weeks when you weren’t at home. To get that sorted as best they could in the situation, I thought the Rugby Football League did well, and Newcastle are still in which was important.
“I would have forsaken some money to keep Newcastle in after all the work it’s done over the years, and it would have been a real shame to see another club go. I’m a bit precious about it having seen first hand what’s happened in rugby union, which hasn’t been great for their game at all. If you’ve got no teams to play against you’ve got no competition.”
The one public blemish on an otherwise apparently agreeable process was the exclusion of Cornwall from the 1895 Cup. It was a move that was greeted with widespread criticism from supporters across the sport and a statement from the south coast club that included the line: “Cornwall RLFC has graciously agreed to the collectives request to not participate in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup in 2024.”
Mazey thought that was unfair. He responded: “If I’m brutally honest and truthful I was a bit disappointed by their statement and the way they went about it, because again if truth be told it worked for them not to play in the 1895 Cup.
“There were discussions in there about them being financially compensated and it was disappointing that we all got thrown under a bus as flat cappers and anti-expansionists. That wasn’t the case, it was more that it was common sense for them not to play. They made themselves martyrs a bit and generated a load of negative press which we all agreed we didn’t want to do.”
For now, everybody is looking forward – and what happens beyond 2024 is also relevant for all involved.
Ford added: “The fairest competition is when you play each other home and away, and at the moment we’ve got too many teams for one division of that. You can’t have 20 plus teams and play each other twice, especially with the new laws coming in on how many minutes players can play.
“I’m not saying one division isn’t possible – you can be quite creative and have conferences. But all we are concentrating on at Oldham now is what’s in front of us, what the rules are at the moment and how we can move forward.
“Next year there will be more discussions and with the IMG grading format we need to make sure we don’t hinder any club’s ability to earn points in whatever structure they have. We can’t have clubs disadvantaged.”
Mazey is definitive about his long-term view.
“In the future I’ve made it clear that I don’t believe League One is sustainable as it is now. This measure was put in place for 2024, and part of the conversations and negotiations was that there is an agreement that this will be part of a full game structural review.
“We had the first meeting on that a few weeks ago and again League One clubs were represented alongside the Championship ones. The idea is to try and dig into all the detail and look at different ways and scenarios to move forward.
“Hopefully common sense prevails and whatever the structure looks like it has to be beneficial to all the stakeholders and be right for the game as a whole.
“There were a lot of counter arguments for merging the comps for 2024, with it being too short notice and season tickets already having been sold.
“But that doesn’t apply to 2025 and we’ve now got time on our side. The top end Championship clubs are concerned about blow out scores but there is a smart way of doing it where you do the draw differently. Hopefully it’s not all lip service and we can find a way forward for 2025.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 492 (January 2024)
Click here to subscribe to the print edition of Rugby League World
