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Because it's stupid to even attempt to do so, a World Cup is a global event, a club competition will be of interest to a couple of clubs involved and maybe some enthusiastic neutrals.
No, it wouldn't. Last year the French champions played Featherstone, the Co-Operative Champions from 2011, and Featherstone were up 42-6 by half time. You cannot have competition in RL where it's a semi-pro team against full-timers. Even at international level, we need as many nations with as many full-time players as possible for them to have any hope of not being blown away. Trying to pit any full-time team, let alone a champion team, against semi-pros would just be a waste of time for everyone.
It's only more club orientated because people are too lazy and stupid to do things properly and prefer to come up with contrived garbage rather than actually developing the international game. The club game ≠ the international game.
Oh and as a rah-rah, our world cup was never a nothing event, our first one was only in 1987, and even that one was bigger and more competitive than any of the four-team league world cups which have been around since the 1950's. Which World Sevens are you talking about? The one Wigan won in 1992 perhaps?
That's a very good point, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he's right; RL is more club orientated. It's always going to be when you only have two major leagues in the world. Whether we were lazy and stupid up to this point is irrelevant, it's what we're stuck with. I can see what he's trying to do, establish some sort of international comp using the game's strength, club football. It's making do with what you have.
I don't agree that these warm-ups will be beneficial in any way necessarily, however. I'm all for clubs at the highest level playing each other, but with the SL and NRL the only two shows in town, clubs from outside this sphere are, for all intents and purposes, feeder-clubs. There are French teams in the English system; NZ and Queensland teams in the old Sydney Premiership system, now the NRL. If there are world class players in any other league in the world, they will end up in these two competitions. The Catalan Dragons are the best French club in the world. The Warriors are the best NZ club in the world. They would both beat the respective champions from their home countries in a canter, and in doing so devalue those leagues in the eyes of the sports public. Should teams from those leagues get a leg up into a world championship competition? Not if they can't get near the Dragons and the Warriors, it becomes a farce. Can you imagine the Storm thumping Lezignan knowing that the Catalan Dragons would have been more worthy opponents? Knowing that the best players in the Lezignan and French development systems have moved on to SL, NRL and the British 2nd tier? Knowing that the best French club hasn't qualified from SL, but a club from it's feeder competition has? The idea has some merit if it's for semi-pro and amateur teams only, but then we'll end up in a situation where there is a grander world competition for lesser teams while the world's best play in a one-off pre-season game; again, that's farcical. I can understand your idea for loaning players around, but again, this is already done for the World Cup, which is our best tool for international awareness in the wider world audience.
The term "World Cup" has a lustre to it that attracts the world media, much more than "World Club Championship" "World Championship" "World Series" or "Trinations" Especially to a world which doesn't know the difference between an All Black and a Kangaroo. We should continue to pump this up. And with internationals, promotion goes along way. Get a few faces on telly in the states for example, USA vs whoever, show a few big hits and dazzling skills and promote it.
The best way to bring about the World Club concept we'd all like to see would be to overhaul RL at club level in a huge way, involving growing the PNG, French and New Zealand championships to rival the NRL and SL in some way and even the possibility of splitting the Australian premiership and dare I say it, bringing back the BRL(!) All this is fantasy football stuff unfortunately. This will never happen. (But we can dream of an alternate history can't we?)
Remember, as strong as RL's club football is, it's based on only two major league competitions which may have the funds to afford it. Using clubs on a global level is expensive, impractical and leaves a lot of players from the countries involved out in the cold because their club hasn't qualified. The best idea for your concept would be to look at involving national teams instead- and then reducing the number of fixtures and amount of travel. Unfortunately what you may end up with, is what we already
Oh and as a rah-rah, our world cup was never a nothing event, our first one was only in 1987, and even that one was bigger and more competitive than any of the four-team league world cups which have been around since the 1950's. Which World Sevens are you talking about? The one Wigan won in 1992 perhaps?
And how does this event have any bearing on a proposed World Club Championship:crazy:
Not really. The soccer club world championship is an afterthought for casual fans for a number of reasons, I don't see why a RL competition would be any different, or how it would really be of that much benefit. I'm basing this on actual comparisons with a similar competition, not just assumptions.
It doesn't, but it's not international sport, you were trying to push it as such. And certainly a club competition could never be an equivalent to a World Cup as you were saying, and nor should we want it to be.
I doubt it would be that much of a big deal, because these areas have access to Super League teams every other week via Catalans. It would certainly turn into a complete farce when the 'champions' were beaten by 80 points. Nobody would be interested, there would be no point in playing the match and it would probably have a negative impact for the French team. And where would they get Australian players from, why would they have any interest in participating at all? This is just completely ridiculous.
No, because we're talking about pitting a champion full-time team against a bunch of semi-pros/amateurs. If you can't see why this is a bad idea then it's not really worth debating.
I know they're pushing Toulouse Olympique as an option, but it would be interesting if they could come up with another merger similar to the Catalans. Maybe a provincial team this time instead? Languedoc-Roussillon or Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur perhaps? I don't know if the French are more club-orientated or whether they'll identify with a provincial team they way we do. Catalans works well because they also represent an ethnic group.
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