RFL chairman Richard Lewis

It is a complete disappointment for them but I hope they do recognise that they are on the right track as a club, they are in a much better position than they were 12 months ago.

Richard Lewis
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RFL chairman Richard Lewis was in the Boots 'N' All studio to discuss why Widnes failed to make the Super League grade.

Salford and the Celtic Crusaders were the two sides who, along with the current 12 Super League sides, made up the 14 teams to compete in the Super League for the next three years.

The biggest controversy was the exclusion of Widnes Vikings, however Lewis was not in a positional to go into too many details.

"I am not going to go into too many details as I think that is disrespectful to the club," said Lewis on Boots 'N' All.

"We are going to be meeting with all the clubs who have been successful and unsuccessful over the next few weeks.

"That will give us the chance to give them our feedback and talk it through with them.

"The fundamental problem that Widnes had, which to be fair to Steve O'Connor [Widnes chairman] was highlighted in his press release on Tuesday, was that it was only a short while ago that the club was liquidated.

"It was a previous organisation, board and owner, but they had gone from a high risk strategy - you could even call it reckless -- of trying to win the won match the National League One final last year in order to get into Super League and within two or three days the club was liquidated and had disappeared.

"From that position the new owners and the new board have done a fantastic job, but it is only a few months. That was a fundamental problem when you assessed their licence application.

The way I feel about Widnes Vikings right now is yes, it is a complete disappointment for them but I hope they do recognise that they are on the right track as a club, they are in a much better position than they were 12 months ago.

"Given time, they can be in a very strong position having played in the national League for a couple more years."

Phil Clarke asks the question that had Widnes won that final and been promoted instead of Castleford, would they have been granted a licence at the expense of Castleford,

"That is hypothetical. I honestly don't know," answered Lewis.

"Given what the previous Widnes owners were doing, which I understood was basically planning to use the money from Super League to pay off tax debts, I don't know if they would have survived.

"Who knows what the situation would have been."