Saints chairman excited by re-structure
St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus has backed RFL chairman Brian Barwick and says he is positive about the future of the sport.
The game at club level was thrown in to chaos last week, when a scheduled EGM to announce the results of the Policy Review was postponed, amidst a revolt of Super League clubs.
It had been expected that a re-structure to two leagues of 12, which then split in to three leagues of eight, would be rubber stamped, following months of talks between clubs at all levels.
News of any changes now look like being delayed until after the World Cup, which gets underway on October 26, with the final taking place at Old Trafford on November 30.
McManus told the club’s official website: “I have never been so optimistic about the game’s potential to grow and improve as I am today.
“The platform laid by the World Cup will be followed up by a restructuring of the fixture format of the leagues in 2015 which I believe will reignite Super League and the Championship as well as strengthening and improving the Challenge Cup.
“It will produce a season where every game every week at every level will count and be competitive. It will be compelling to spectators, sponsors and the TV alike and will produce a virtuous circle commercially both centrally and for the individual clubs.
“All the Super League Clubs were in favour of this at the last Super League meeting and there was unanimous agreement that this was a hugely positive and necessary step which must be adopted in the wider interests of the game.
“It is also a great and opportune time to have a newly appointed RFL and Super League Chairman in Brian Barwick, whose highest level background in media and in professional sport can assist rugby league greatly in its strategic direction and commercial strengthening. He deserves our full and unqualified backing as we seek to strengthen for the benefit of all.
“There may be some areas of corporate governance and representation which need to be separately addressed and improved (from the current system which, ironically, was enthusiastically constructed and endorsed by Super League Clubs only five years ago) and I have no doubt that these can be rationally and sensibly resolved.”