Lezignan for Championship

[bowes]

Wouldnt the logical step be to have the Lezignan first team in the NL1 and their reserves (with Cats and Toulouse) playing in the first division. I dont see how this would harm the first division too much.

Very much doubt Lezignan could support a Championship and a French Elite side, it isn't that big.

I guess an Aude side with separate Lezignan, Limoux and Carcassonne feeding in would be better as it would only take about 1/3 of the players from each team, so would help even out the Elite too (although may also mean in the short term Pia win easily). Longer term a Vaucluse side could be done in the Championship based on Avignon and Carpentras. If the Elite standard were a little lower they could get the top Elite 2 sides in (Montpellier and Corbeil being the top ones but ideally a couple of others) and the rest of elite 2 could be merged with National 1 and split west/east to cut down on the large travelling there currently is.

I cannot support a Paris team for SL though, unless there are roots to it

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

The idea of having French teams in the Championship came about because of a need to compensate and/or prepare Toulouse for Super League admission. In fact the names National League 1 and 2 were changed to Championship precisely because a French team was in the competition. Simultaneously, the RFL called for Scottish and Irish clubs to apply for the Championship.

If another French club is admitted to the Championship, it should be in order to prepare itself for Super League. That would preclude Lezignan because Lezignan cannot possibly ever become a Super League club. The Aude dignitiaries and fans met a couple of years ago, after Les Catalans had become successful, to explore the idea of an Aude SL club. They concluded it was impossible because of insufficient population and financial resources. The same would apply to Lezignan by a factor of 10. It is a village of less than 10,000 people. Carcassonne is much bigger and even it could not consider a SL club. Lezignan should be aiming more for an enhanced Elite 1 competition, funded by television money, if more French clubs from other areas can get into SL.

Paris, Lyon and Marseille, or even Vaucluse and Montpellier, make much more sense than Lezignan, as future Super League clubs. They therefore should be France's priorities for a spot in the Championship over Lezignan.

 

[crimpo]

You can't blame Lezignan for having ambition but I agree that its hard to see what's in this for the Championship since (unlike Toulouse) there is no possibility of Lezignan reaching the Super League.