Super League boss Robert Elstone feels promotion and relegation should be canned

ROBERT Elstone admits Super League is ready to pull up the drawbridge and scrap relegation – and promotion may soon go with it.

SunSport told how the 12 top flight sides are keen to keep the status quo for 2021 because that and the Championship have been ‘compromised.’

Having Toulouse in the second tier means they may have to play their games in the UK.

Toronto are also unable to play in Canada until at least June 30, while Catalans owner Bernard Guasch revealed to SunSport they are willing to base themselves on these shores for two months.

And Super League executive chairman Elstone feels it would not sit right to send a team down this year or bring one up, with talks with the Rugby Football League expected soon.

He said: “As we’ve moved on, the sense is our season will end up looking very, very different to what we thought it would do.

“Add that we’ve the added complication of having Toronto and Catalans, it makes it appear to me that relegation from Super League is not going to be a fair and equitable proposition for clubs.

“It wouldn’t feel right to do that and if we’re not there yet, it seems very likely to me that we will arrive at that point in the near future.

“That clearly has a knock on into promotion and my belief very strongly is if all those conditions apply to Super League, such that it’s unfair to relegate, then that has to be mirrored into the Championship.

“Against that same backdrop it would feel unreasonable and unfair to promote a team into Super League. The way this is looking it would seem that in the very near future, those issues may well fall away.”

Rugby league is looking at a behind closed doors restart, with July looking a likely date, but the effects of the Covid-19 shutdown may last up to three years.

However, Elstone admits Super League will take its lead from the Premier League.

He added to Sky Sports’ Golden Point podcast: “The mantra coming out of football is, ‘We have to finish the season,’ and that’s very much our mantra.

“I’m really hopeful the Premier League gets back up and running as we’ll need a strong case study that this can work, there’s a model that shows other sports can go behind closed doors quickly.

“We’re hopeful it’ll be July.”