French rugby league to launch 13 team summer pro league in 2014

[The Daddy2]

The finer details have yet to be confirmed but that is wat has been presented to the French league clubs, not sure where they'll get the players from and 13 teams seems a bit too much, but this is great news for the game over there, I understand the aim is to have a league full of large city teams.....let's see how this develops. You'll need to run the links thru Google translate.

http://www.marseille...ns/rugby-ligue/

http://www.rugbyforu...=51363&start=30

 

[deluded pom?]

Your links don't appear to work.

 

[The Daddy2]

http://www.marseillettefm.com/emissions/rugby-ligue/


http://www.rugbyforumxiii.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=51363&start=30

 

[PaddyBoy]

If they made a winter championship surely they could get some players to come over to Australia on loans to gain experience in between? Still, pretty good news.

 

[Evil Homer]

I can't see anything in there that isn't the speculation we've seen already. It would probably be the biggest news for 20 years if it comes off, but I don't want to see them move too fast and have it blow up in their face as a result.

 

[bowes]

Hope this works. Though the fact they've said 13 teams is dubious as it's too many at that level. 8 would be better IMO and then you'd be talking more Queensland Cup/Championship than NRL/SL.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Fascinating, exciting but very audacious. Key points from the interview with Nicolas Larrat:

- 13 team, closed professional competition

- Summer

- A compromise between traditional Elite1 clubs and big cities (Nantes, Lille and Strasbourg are mentioned but nothing at all concrete at this stage).

- Entities invited to enter bids to join the competitition, fusions of older clubs possible

- Al Jaazira and BeInSport possible broadcasters

Things are certainly starting to happen on the ground in France. We can only hope that traction is gained. With a pro comp in France league in Europe could start thinking about rivalising with union.

 

[Foreign Legion]

intresting times ahead, there better off with 8 teams though

 

[RedVee]

Fascinating, exciting but very audacious. Key points from the interview with Nicolas Larrat:

- 13 team, closed professional competition

- Summer

- A compromise between traditional Elite1 clubs and big cities (Nantes, Lille and Strasbourg are mentioned but nothing at all concrete at this stage).

- Entities invited to enter bids to join the competitition, fusions of older clubs possible

- Al Jaazira and BeInSport possible broadcasters

Things are certainly starting to happen on the ground in France. We can only hope that traction is gained. With a pro comp in France league in Europe could start thinking about rivalising with union.

I hope this goes well, though I wonder if 13 clubs is a stretch? Did they pick 13 as a symbol of the game Rugby 13 and all that?

Could you explain to me what is meant by a 'closed' competition?

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Geez 13 clubs is a lot more than I would have expected. And a random number too, well apart from the whole XIII thing. I expected it to be about 10 clubs with the bigger Elite 1 clubs joining three or four new big city clubs and possible merged entities. With so many I tend to think it could be ALL of the Elite 1 regulars plus three or four or even five big city new clubs. If you take the current 10 and drop Lescure that's four new clubs. Marseille, Paris and Lyon would be three. It would make for an unusual comp with tiny village clubs like Limoux and Pia up against huge cities. I don't know how that will work. The small clubs would have more support at present but ideally the 3,000 odd that those clubs would get would be outdone by the new clubs in the long run. Interesting times anyway.

 

[clarency]

It's 2 years away. I hope they drain the NRL's talent, diluting it to ESL's level.

Ultimately it will lead to a closer international comp between the nations....

 

[deluded pom?]

Marseille, Paris and Lyon would be three.

Bordeaux?

 

[miguel de cervantes]

It is hard to see where the Dragons would fit in. Would they continue in ESL or be dispersed.

For the teams I would guess something like:

Perpignan
Montpellier
Marseille
Avignon
Lyon
Paris
Nantes
Bordeaux
Toulouse
Carcassonne/Aude

and then three less obvious teams from the following, possibly Strasbourg, LIlle, Clemmont-Ferrand, Toulon, Nice, Tours, a second Paris team.

Whatever happens you have to give it the FFR13 for even thinking about the idea and trying to develop on the possibilities available to them to make the game go foward.

 

[Big Sam]

Is there really a market though in Paris for a RL team? Currently both their RU clubs barely draw over 10k for non-marquee games. And PSG's crowds for the SL were atrocious.

Whilst it's good to expand, there's nothing wrong with sticking with the heartland in the South where you'll get guaranteed support.

However, another (pie in the sky?) idea I'd like to see explored for expansion is Catalunya/Barcelona. The Dragons got 15k to a game there a few years back (compare that to the 8k Paris got for the Four Nations test) so there's some interest in it. Plus it's just 2 hrs from Perpignan so there'd always be a good level of away support.

A great idea to switch the season to summer too. The comp will have at least 2-3 months where there'll be no other professional domestic sports league to compete with.

 

[Gambass]

Could you explain to me what is meant by a 'closed' competition?

No promotion/relegation, which is real unusual for french sport history.

To me, there are only 13 potential cities:
Paris
Lyon
Marseille
Bordeaux
Toulouse
Perpignan
Bordeaux
Villeneuve
Carcassonne
Avignon
Montpellier
Nantes
Roanne

Beyond these cities, other places will be either too small or without any league history.

An other possibility could be to target medium to large southern cities with a loose union interest but no professionnal team. Cities like Nîmes, Nice or Saint-Etienne.

 

[nadera78]

Wouldn't be surprised to see Albi (or a regional team based there) get a slot. Historically strong RL town and a lot of work has been going on locally to regain lost ground.

Completely off the top of my head but an 8 team French league and a 10 team SL with a cup comp between them would be ideal.

 

[bowes]

If the money is there I'd start at 8:

Perpignan
Carcassonne
Montpellier
Toulouse
Albi
Avignon
Marseille
Lyon

Then pencil in Paris and Bordeaux for future expansion if it's a success.

 

[bowes]

Wouldn't be surprised to see Albi (or a regional team based there) get a slot. Historically strong RL town and a lot of work has been going on locally to regain lost ground.

Completely off the top of my head but an 8 team French league and a 10 team SL with a cup comp between them would be ideal.

10 teams would be too small for SL. Though if we lost Catalans to a pro French league we could go back to 12. May be all northern though as London are on last legs.

 

[nadera78]

10 teams would be too small for SL. Though if we lost Catalans to a pro French league we could go back to 12. May be all northern though as London are on last legs.

Not necessarily. You could have the top 2 in SL compete with top 2 from the NRL in an expanded WCC, and then the remaining 8 SL teams go with the 8 French teams into a cup comp. 4 groups of 5, gives everyone 3 home games, with 2 from each group going into 1/4 finals, etc. Means the clubs get the games they need financially, but also with some variety.

 

[Warrior@Heart]

I'm really looking foward to watching this concept come to fruition, the french are always better at doing thihgs their own way as opposed to trying to fit into a uk competition. They could possibly expand into Italy & Spain one day.