wiganermike wrote:
Rod Studd raised the same point on RL Backchat. With Toronto beating Leeds unless Widnes now do no worse than a 13 point defeat on Sunday and consign Hull KR to the MPG then many will take the view that they willingly threw the game to secure the full parachute payment. Despite the fact that Widnes have been poor for the whole season anyway.
There are only 2 ways to avoid the conspiracy theories now, either 1) the RFL announces tomorrow that every club that is relegated will receive £500k as a parachute payment whether 1 or 2 clubs are relegated or 2) the RFL announces tomorrow that due to the scrapping of the qualifiers that no relegated clubs will receive a parachute payment. Doing either of those removes the perceived incentive that seemingly exists for Widnes to lose by 14 or more on Sunday.
Not content with spreading crucial games over 4 days, we now have this.
The game should NEVER put itself in a position where such things can happen, it's just appalling.
Whether other results can prevent the potential for "fixing" a scoreline is irrelevant, it should never be possible.
Who the hell is running the sport and why risk such a scenario.
Yet again something that really isnt difficult to avoid, has been allowed to happen.