Also posted on the international board, to which my reply was:
I don't think anyone is pretending everything is rosy. St Gaudens going into administration this week clearly highlights the issue in case anyone wasn't paying attention.
I don't think there's a clear focus on what the LER is actually for, especially as it's the only professional league played during the European winter. This is something the FFRXIII could do with getting to grips with rather than dallying with the quinzistes of Stade Francais. I don't have a ready answer, but I'd love to at least kick-start a debate.
National recognition for the sport only comes when a club does something great - Toulouse to the Challenge Cup semis, Dragons to the final - when a page in L'Equipe is about as good as it gets. Having a club in Paris won't change that unless they do likewise. The excuses for not covering a Parisian team will be fewer, but they'll still exist. Moreover, having a team in Paris for the sake of having a team in Paris is a foolhardy, short-sighted idea - like a toddler giving it the 'look at me's. We've built houses on sand before and, who could have foreseen, they duly collapsed. Doing it again would only, again, financially imperil the FFRXIII and/or Super League. The Dragons and Toulouse are built on a solid foundation, as would be the proposed Aude club about which discussions are ongoing.
With clubs playing in the English leagues, aspiring players have something to aim for. An inability to tap into that is to the shame of the FFRXIII and club boards.
