OK, the worst Rugby League structure proposal yet.
The idea, as far as I understand it, is that the two bottom teams will be relegated from Super League at the end of 2014, regardless of which teams they will be. There could even be three teams relegated if the clubs decide they want Toulouse in the competition in 2015 with a TV deal possibly on the table from BeIn Sport.
There will then be two divisions of 12 each, which will play each other once (eleven games) in the first half of the season.
In the second half of the season, those clubs will split into three divisions of eight teams, depending on finishing places in the first half of the season. The bottom four Super League clubs will be in with the top four Championship clubs (which may include the two SL clubs relegated the previous season). Those teams will play each other at home and away (14 games) in the second half of the season.
The top four clubs in the second tier, at the end of that season, will then return to Super League for 2016.
ALL CLEAR SO FAR? The good thing about Richard “the tennis guy” Lewis as RFL Chairman was that at least he shut up all this terrible bollocks.
God, it makes Scottish football look sensible. If you’re going to have play-offs for the top 8 at the end of the season anyway, you might as well have 16-18 clubs in the top flight. I don’t see how it makes Super League any better if there are fewer teams in it, and increasing the chances of many current Championship clubs reaching SL might help increase interest and attendances in some traditional RL towns that seem shut out of the present top level, as well as giving ‘expansion’ clubs the opportunity to get into SL on their own merits.