{"id":298704,"date":"2025-07-28T14:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298704\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:41:13","slug":"nigel-wood-rules-on-french-future-in-super-league-amid-extraordinary-4000000-leigh-leopards-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298704\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Wood rules on French future in Super League amid extraordinary \u00a34,000,000 Leigh Leopards’ claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Nigel Wood, the Chair of the RFL Strategic Review, has given his verdict on the future of French clubs in Super League whilst also making an incredible claim about Leigh Leopards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wood was appointed to a Strategic Review with the owner of Leigh Leopards, Derek Beaumont, among those key in Wood\u2019s return to the rugby league picture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having taken a huge pay-off to leave the RFL, he was brought back into the frame to oversee this Strategic Review and suggestions and reports claim that French clubs involvement in Super League is high on the agenda.<\/p>\n

A major argument used against Catalans, or even Toulouse\u2019s, involvement in Super League is that they bring very few fans to away games and therefore English clubs do not benefit from them.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the large English travelling support to Perpignan aids both the town and the city and Wood has now made an extraordinary claim about Leigh Leopards\u2019 recent trip to the south of France, arguing that it was worth \u00a34,000,000 to the local economy.<\/p>\n

Do French teams have a future in Super League in Nigel Wood\u2019s opinion?<\/p>\n

Appearing on\u00a0The Bench Podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jenna Brooks and Jon Wilkin, Wood was quizzed on a number of things including French involvement in Super League, of which he was quick to remind listeners of his involvement in that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was part of the group that recommended the inclusion of French clubs into the British competition,\u201d he stated before explaining that the three objectives of having a French team in Super League were to strengthen the national team, create revenue and offer supporters a destination to attend.<\/p>\n

Expanding, he said: \u201cI would argue that 20 years on only the the last of those three has been achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe broadcast situation in France is very tricky because rugby union and football have such a stranglehold over that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there is a role and there\u2019s room for French clubs in the British pyramid but I think the issue is not whether they\u2019re in, it\u2019s on what terms are in.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an example of fans heading out to Perpignan en masse, Wood claimed that 4,000 Leigh Leopards fans headed there for their Round 15 win and he approximated a massive spend.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cRecently I\u2019m told Leigh took 4,000 supporters down to Catalans probably spending a \u00a31,000 a piece. That\u2019s an economic impact of \u00a34,000,000. How much of that is actually finding its way back into the very club that made that happen at Leigh? That\u2019s the challenge we have to get right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep getting told well that you shouldn\u2019t build a club on away support and that\u2019s entirely right but at the moment there\u2019s an imbalance because you know full well that the British supporters will go en masse into in France but the reverse doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find a way to work to the benefit of both the British game and the French game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would conclude that he is \u201cvery confident\u201d of France\u2019s involvement in the Super League going forward, however, his earlier comment about terms being revised could cause further issues for Catalans, who already have to pay for the travel and accommodation of English clubs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Wood, the Chair of the RFL Strategic Review, has given his verdict on the future of French…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-298704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}