No I’ve checked and the French Federation is called
Fédération Française de Rugby XIII.
No I’ve checked and the French Federation is called
Fédération Française de Rugby XIII.
What does it matter what it's called, as long as people know it's Rugby League? Premier League, Championship, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Champions League etc. all don't contain the word football but everyone knows exactly what is being talked about if you say Champions League winners.
I ate a tuna sandwich on my first day!
I’m always the pedantic putain, made worse by the visits to watch Saints play PSG at the outset of Super League. Firstly got sick of the French asking what the jersey was wherever we ate and not understanding what rugby league was; then, once I’d looked up what was called over there, getting blank looks whenever I just said rugby treize, and then getting a questioning “rugby a treize”. Just a bunch of encules.
Everyone knows what is being talked about because football is a world wide sport. It’s become not only our national sport but the national sport in many other countries.
The point of this thread, however, was originally to highlight the point that the name “Super League” is being used by too many other sports and if the European Super League goes ahead, Super League will be synonymous with football. It doesn’t help that the words “Rugby League” are rarely heard on Sky, which is the principal broadcaster. I think our small (outside Australia) sport needs to preserve its identity and to have the right, distinctive branding if it is to move forward.
One thing the European Super League proposal has brought home to me is that you have to be careful who your owners are and fans have no say in that.
Going on a bit of a tangent, but you have to respect the "fundamentalist" attitude of football fans that have prevented all this for so long.
They've said no to the 39th game, commercial changes to team names, stadium naming rights, and the pursuit of keeping the game as "unchanged" as possible in regards to the league system/pyramid, etc
As Rugby League fans, we've been through these seismic changes to sport, in both appearance, and organisation, and we've largely been passive throughout. But I have solidarity with the football fans willing to stop this, and I hope they can.
At this point, the Super League name has as much positive PR as a lump of sick. It was also gimmicky, and undignified. But it was also literally a rupture in our sport, that moved our entire season, undermined sporting merit (bye bye Keighley), and sold the game's soul with a bit of cheap razzmatazz.
At least these breakaway Football teams can bypass "legacy" fans, and exploit new markets in the far east, or wherever. Ironically, this was never an option for SLE, and yet we all let it happen just as easily.
Last edited by machoTit; 20th April 2021 at 17:39.
With Manchester City having pulled out and Chelsea rumoured to be doing so, the new football enterprise may be a non-starter. If that’s the case, we’re probably stuck with the Super League name.
If SLE marketing are reading this, we'll be having a round of fixtures played in the far east in the coming seasons!! Forget expansion just outside of the M62 corridor, forget Canada or USA, just follow the £££!! It'll be confusing when we sell them broadcast rights to "Superleague", tuning in expecting to see AC Milan v Barcelona, but get Salford v Wakefield!!
I must admit that I struggle with this.
At the time, Sky and Super League were a shot in the arm for RL.
Looking further back, if we hadn't embraced a 'brave new world', along with numerous rule changes, we would all be watching Rugby Union now.
Unfortunately, we seem to have lost our way a little. Too much reliance on one paymaster, and too many 'rule' changes and tinkering brings us to where we are today.
Personally, I still think it's a decent sport to watch, but it has lost that 'edge' that it once had IMO. Maybe it's an age thing, as some of you have already mentioned 'it's not like it was in my day'.
All is not lost, but something needs to change soon.
Agree completely. Also, the move to summer brought a way better standard of entertaining rugby (at least until the numskulls ruined that)
Said before that during the first decade or so of SL, there was a positivity about the sport, an upwards trajectory. That has now been squashed and squandered.
Despite the collapse of the ESL I think the RFL still needs to consider a name change, that word SUPERLEAGUE is very much tainted and has a very negative profile now.
Interesting reference to superleague in relation to the proposed European Super League Football fiasco.
BBC NEWS QUIZ on Friday
1. An Irish comedian says he is a rugby league fan.
2. Appreciative murmur from the audience.
3. A bizarre attempt at a St Helens accent.
4. A mickey-take about the small geographical area of the sport.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v9v6
NB Near the start of the programme.