Neville Smith pushing for a Champions League involving 8 teams from the NRL and SL

[Berkeley_Eagle]

THE British television guru driving Super League has proposed a rugby league Champions League tournament between the top four NRL clubs against the best four from England.

Neville Smith, Sky Sports' rugby league executive producer for 25 years, outlined the case for an end-of-season club extravaganza with teams such as Manly, Brisbane, Melbourne, Wigan, Leeds and St Helens going head to head.

Smith, who was behind the video referee concept, also called for a Papua New Guinea team to be introduced into the NRL.

A northern beaches-born executive, who has returned home for a holiday, Smith is the brains behind Sky Sports' coverage of all Super League games. Despite competing with Premier League soccer and rugby union, Super League still attracts a average audience of 250,000 viewers each game.

Smith wants an end-of-season showdown in which three countries would be represented by sides from eight cities.

Sides would represent Sydney, (Manly), New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, Leeds (Yorkshire) St Helens, Warrington and Wigan (all Lancashire).

"An expanded World Club Challenge would be exciting," Smith said. "It could run immediately after the season. It gives the teams an extra edge - like football teams fighting for a place in Europe.

"Probably to start with it should be played in England - there would be more appetite for it over there.

"It could be played over a three-week period.

"Initially the interest would be built in the UK and maybe in year three, or year two, it could happen here in Australia.

"Teams would be against sides that have played together all year - not just thrown together at the end of the year. They would have to look for a window to do it without being at the expense of the international game."

Super League attempted a rushed version of this concept in 1997 but the gap between the competitions was excessive and the experiment failed. But the top four English clubs are now robust and professional - ensuring a bumper contest.

Asked how many Super League teams could compete in the NRL on a week-to-week basis, Smith said: "Wigan, Warrington, St Helens, Leeds and we're expecting Catalans Dragons to come good this coming season and potentially make the grand final."

An NRL spokesman said of the Champions League tournament: "I'm sure the concept would prove popular with fans, but to add another event to the already-demanding schedule is not a realistic option at this stage."

Smith also proposed PNG should be the next franchise granted entry into the NRL. Although some may scoff at his idea, rugby league would only strengthen by marching into a new country.

"Yes (to expansion) if they can tap into an area with an already deep interest and a classic example of that is PNG," he said.

"PNG would bring passion, entertainment, flair and TV revenue. The game is huge in PNG. It is a national sport.

"It would also strengthen their national side. Look what has happened to the New Zealand national side since the Warriors came in. They are reigning world champions. It would do the same for PNG."


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...and-super-league/story-e6frexnr-1226240276056

 

[no name]

Why didn't anyone on here think of that? :sarcasm:

 

[East Coast Tiger]

He's absolutely spot on about PNG.

I'm less convinced about the champions league thingy. If we had four top level pro leagues around the world and the could have the champions of all four play off in an extended WCC that would be perfect. But as soon as you start adding more than one team from each comp, especially when it's more than one from each country, you just end up having teams that weren't good enough to win their own comp playing in what is supposed to be a "champions" league. Plus it means you are likely to end up with two teams from the same comp, possibly the grand finalists, playing in the final again, which would be bit crap.

The one thing I do think is good about it is that it would make the top four battle a bit more important. If clubs really wanted to play in this comp, and realistically money would have to be the driving force, they would see the top four, or whatever is required to qualify, as worth striving for even more than now. Instead of the mediocre goal of just making the top eight, which we seem to see a lot now, clubs might aim higher. I know English clubs definitely would. They'd give their right nut to be in it. The bit about "Sides would represent Sydney, (Manly), New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, Leeds (Yorkshire) St Helens, Warrington and Wigan (all Lancashire)" doesn't make much sense. If he wants a team from NSW, Qld, Lancashire and Yorkshire fair enough but then what about the rest? Do Melbourne and the Warriors get an automatic spot? Anyway the detail doesn't really matter at this stage. I suppose at least someone from high up in Sky is putting some thought into the game and is willing to explore possible TV opportunities. That's something we need if we want the $Billion because we aint gonna get it at this stage.

 

[betcats]

Club challenge is enough imo, distance is too far a champions league to work, the players already whinge about the workload. As for PNG, i disagree.

 

[Frances the Mute]

Players will whinge and clubs will not want to risk injuring their stars.

Simple as that.

 

[adamkungl]

I'm less convinced about the champions league thingy. If we had four top level pro leagues around the world and the could have the champions of all four play off in an extended WCC that would be perfect. But as soon as you start adding more than one team from each comp, especially when it's more than one from each country, you just end up having teams that weren't good enough to win their own comp playing in what is supposed to be a "champions" league. Plus it means you are likely to end up with two teams from the same comp, possibly the grand finalists, playing in the final again, which would be bit crap.

Agreed. We just need to start treating the existing WCC like a sort of Superbowl. Schedule it 2 weeks after the GF in alternating countries and give it the respect it deserves.

 

[Canard]

Even in a soccer mad country like England (and a bit of Wales) those viewing figures are a lot more mediocre than I expected (an average of 250K?). For a combined population of 50+ Million or so.

 

[franklin2323]

It's nice to dream. Sadly the clubs only think of themselves & it won't happen. We could play it in USA or the middle East & promote the crap out of league.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Even in a soccer mad country like England (and a bit of Wales) those viewing figures are a lot more mediocre than I expected (an average of 250K?). For a combined population of 50+ Million or so.

Despite the Murdoch money taking the game to Sky in the UK was a massive mistake for RL. Aside from a few Challenge Cup games the sport is almost entirely relegated to subscription TV. 250k is not that bad compared to other sports, except soccer, but if games were on free to air they would get into the millions and that would be much better for the exposure of the sport. Challenge Cup games already break a million viewers quite often and apart from the final they're generally pretty minor games. If we had big SL games, the WCC and Tests on the BBC, or another free to air channel, the game there would be in much better shape overall.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

only way it could happen i see is if both comps were shorter, but then again they kickoff in England on the 3rd Feb and finish about the same time as us so there season is longer than ours anyway

 

[Qld-Sharkie]

Sides would represent Sydney, (Manly), New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, Leeds (Yorkshire) St Helens, Warrington and Wigan (all Lancashire).

Wouldnt it be fairer to take the top 4 teams, not a select team from a city. Or is it a case of Broncos getting richer as other clubs struggle?? Honestly, they get just about every free-to-air game & now they can get more by playing every year in this club challenge.
When will this comp EVER be fair?

 

[aussies1st]

It's not the top four NRL clubs when you start listing teams! Top 3 NRL clubs plus the Warriors to keep the Kiwis happy. Won't get off the ground though, not much of a window for it and going by the current thing we have going this will end up being held in England every year.

 

[Lowdown]

Seriously, its a 24-48 hour travel commitment to the other side of the world for a few 'exhibition' games that dont mean much.

The seasons dont align.

The players already play too many games - particularly the better ones and the ones we least want to see injured.

Its not going to add that much revenue to either code. So why bother?

Sounds like Super League UK are pretty desperate. As soon as the new TV rights get agreed, there's a good chance the raised salary cap together with the strong Aussie dollar will continue to see less and less quality players go to Super League, and more of their better players come here to play.

What we need to do is reduce the number of rounds, get rid of the ANZAC test and focus on quality rather than quantity.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

So we need to focus on "quality" by removing arguably the highest quality game on the calendar?

 

[bluesbreaker]

It's all in the bid

 

[carlosthedwarf]

Manly, NZ, Brisbane and Melbourne were the top 4 sides, they were the ones contesting the Grand Final qualifiers.

I guess it depends on whether you want them qualifying based on ladder position or finals performance.

 

[firechild]

Wouldnt it be fairer to take the top 4 teams, not a select team from a city. Or is it a case of Broncos getting richer as other clubs struggle?? Honestly, they get just about every free-to-air game & now they can get more by playing every year in this club challenge.
When will this comp EVER be fair?

I think this is more of a "if it was being played this year" scenario. There's a good chance that each year there will be a team from NSW and a team from QLD in the top 4 (or in the prelims depending how they want teams to qualify), then Melbourne and NZ (even Canberra or WA in future) are a reasonable chance as well. We could end up with 3x NSW and 1x QLD in a given year but that would not be common.

 

[Von]

Wouldnt it be fairer to take the top 4 teams, not a select team from a city. Or is it a case of Broncos getting richer as other clubs struggle?? Honestly, they get just about every free-to-air game & now they can get more by playing every year in this club challenge.
When will this comp EVER be fair?

Agree. If this were to ever happen, it would have to be the top 4 teams in the whole comp. Full stop.
None of this region business.

Imagine the Broncos finishing 10th in the season and then earning a place as the "Brisbane representative" each year. Laughable.

or if the 3 Queensland teams all finished bottom of the ladder, but the highest of thiose qualify as the "Queensland rep".

That detail would have to be worked out.

I'm a fan of the overall concept, but not based on regions.

 

[sretsoor]

For it to succeed - the carrot needs to be big. If the eventual winning team was awarded something like a $5 mil first prize - no one would complain.

 

[franklin2323]

Agree. If this were to ever happen, it would have to be the top 4 teams in the whole comp. Full stop.None of this region business.

I didn't read the online version but the actual paper gets delivered to the office. It had a note under the teams and said 'using 2011 results'. So I took it as the last 4 standing EACH yeah would get the places the next year. In that case it works