As the members of the Rugby Football League convene tomorrow, member clubs will be asked to decide on the best structure for the sport going forward.

What an unholy and indeed unnecessary process for a sport that has no need for radical change, a broadcast contract that still has another full three years to go and clearly no need to hit the panic button.

This whole sorry episode has been instigated by a few Super League Chairmen spotting an opportunity to enhance their power and control over the wider sport and load the dice in their own favour. They have been joined in this conspiracy by an obeying RFL Board seeking peace, at least until the World Cup in 2021 has been played. The potential losers in this cosy conflab, would be many of the Championship and League One clubs, who would be left staring into the abyss.

Given the stakes, we should remind ourselves how the sport arrived at this point. Because of the difficulties of trying to arrange promotion and relegation between a full-time league and part-time league, the RFL introduced the concept of a licensed league for Super League, giving protection for 14 clubs for three-year cycles, to provide stability and build stronger clubs. The only problem was that neither happened.

Club financial failures actually increased, although the worldwide financial crisis can’t have helped; promised new stadia were few and far between and increased investment in junior and reserve grades didn’t materialise to the extent expected, or indeed delivered the results hoped for.

I was on the board at Salford during this time and it is undoubtedly true that securing a Super League licence was a key objective for the club and for the local Council who built the club a ground. Five years on however, the new facility is hardly the panacea for Salford that the licensing proposals had intended it to be.

Licensing was widely unpopular, considered not to have delivered the desired results and seen as an impediment on the ambition for aspiring clubs, causing the Championship to wither on the vine. The end of licensing was met with huge fanfare, although the system the clubs voted for, the current 12 and 8s also had its critics.

However the new system soon delivered drama by the bucket load; the League Leaders Shield being delivered by helicopter and Million Pound Games of such drama, they trended the world. The system was and is capable of improvement though, more could be made of the Super 8s and the race to the Grand Final, and the Championship Shield is a clearly a non-event. The so called middle 8s though have delivered marvellous drama, but even they could, in my view benefit from slight tweaks.

In all my time in the UK there has always been at least one Championship club which never gets a win and I also have sympathy for the Super League club in position nine, who arguably shouldn’t have to go through the agony of re-application to Super League for what is a near middle table finish. But apart from those tweaks, there is plenty to commend.

There was a sting in the tail though, when the clubs voted the current system in, unfortunately for the Bradford Bulls and for the London Broncos, the new system would require two relegations to get the Super League down from 14 clubs to 12. More of this later.

Fast forward to May this year when three North West Super League power brokers, Ian Lenagan, Eamonn McManus and Simon Moran convene a press conference, unveil a new CEO exclusive to Super League who summarily announces that the middle 8s will not take place next year. Without any actual consultation with the owners of the competition. And from that point, there have been half-baked discussions between the Super League and the RFL.

I would like to tell you the details of the various offers and counter offers, but remarkably Championship and League One clubs have been virtually excluded, with just a single meeting late in the process, which didn’t amount to anything.

We did however have the benefit of Lenagan explaining his vision for the future, that Super League wanted £1million per annum of Championship and League One money and that the current four potential promotion places, be replaced by, errrrrr, just one, and even that may be a play-off between our champion club and the lowest Super League club. Some offer.

This was of course after the infamous letter, from Ian Lenagan, to fellow Super League chairmen advocating a storming of the palace, the amateurisation of League One and Super League taking control of the whole financial environment for the sport, deciding who got what and when.

Eventually even Lenagan spotted that a contract to 2021 is just that; a binding contract. Why would anyone unilaterally and voluntarily accept a diminished position?

The RFL blundered on, saying nothing has changed until something has changed; negotiating on its own behalf and allegedly on behalf of Championship and League One clubs, and finally came forward with a proposal that would take a minimum £2million off the Championship and RFL share of any new broadcast contracts.

Worse still, if the number slips down significantly then no guarantees are available to the part-time game or the RFL. None. It is the proverbial “Heads we win, tails you lose” offer to all our clubs.

Brian Barwick and his board's negotiating team have offered the Championships and League One clubs a deal that amounts to nothing more than a joint suicide pact, certain to result in mutual destruction of both through impoverishment and subjugation. It is a weak proposal designed to get the Super League tanks off the Red Hall lawn and to get the non-executive directors off the hook. They may not want a future in the sport beyond the Rugby League World Cup in 2021 but we, the clubs, do.

These are the facts, or at least we think they are because the absence of actual detail, which is of course wholly unacceptable for a decision of such magnitude. This is why our club and virtually every other Championship and League One club are vehemently opposed to this non-offer.

I have been called an irritant by one of the potential beneficiaries of this proposal but I can live with that if it means saving part-time rugby league for the dozens of clubs who have represented their towns and cities for decades. Clubs steeped in a rich irreplaceable history – now at risk of being dispatched to a chapter in history.

There simply would not be a future under the proposal offered for many clubs, and I have heard long-standing and respected Championship chairman tell me that it would represent the watershed moment that would likely cause them to withdraw.

The main problem I, and my fellow non-Super League Chairmen have, is that there is not one ounce of vision or ambition in the proposal. It is borne out of greed and vested self-interest, providing protection for a few Super League clubs, many of whom have enjoyed tens of millions of pounds over the years and have next to nothing to show for it. The proposal offered doesn’t tackle any of the issues the sport is facing, it is a simply defensive form of protectionism.

The Championship and League One clubs are not against change, but simply need to be persuaded that any proposal is better than what we have. Where is the evidence suggesting re-introducing 'loopy' fixtures is the cure for all?

Where is the intelligent evaluation about expansion, the difference in treatment of the Catalans and Toronto? I can’t see why RFL members should be cross subsidising French Rugby League, let them earn their own income like the Canadians are required to do. Where is the discussion about the empty stands and grounds where clubs use hired football stadia?

When Lenagan and his pals sat at the top table urging the game to accept their coup, one justification was that we need a freed up Super League to cut free and produce the revenues, which would trickle down to the rest of the league. Let’s read that again; trickle down to rest of the league.

Ever since then the only proposals I have seen have all, without exception, sought to take money from Championship and League clubs to pass it on to Super League.

I set out my personal position some weeks ago. We had a 14-team Super League competition before the introduction of 12 and 8s. If we are going to blow it apart again, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to go back to 14 clubs. Maybe even a legal one. This Super League proposal lacks legitimacy because it seeks to keep the Super League at 12 clubs, simply because that is more money each for the 12. Apparently the rest of the system can be jettisoned, but the financial benefits of 12 have to be retained. Go figure.

Go to 14 clubs, keep promotion and relegation, and keep some form of inter league play-offs. The very best part of the middle 8s. Stop wasting money on duplicating executives on gold-plated salaries and start investing in the whole rugby league community, grass roots and women's league, physical disability league, amateur rugby league, referees training and recruitment, and more junior coaches.

Tomorrow’s meeting is a vital for the sport. Whatever the outcome it is impossible to see the RFL restoring any kind of moral authority over the professional game when Super League have stuck two fingers up and the Championship and League One clubs are so unanimously against the RFL's best effort of a solution.

Even now the dirty tricks are continuing. I am aware of one Championship club, against the proposal, who have been told by their Super League dual registration partner that their relationship ends if they don’t change their stance and vote in favour – no players, no pre-season friendly, no access to training facilities.

A similar message has been delivered to a League One club chairman. I’ve even heard a threat to remove big central events from one club. Is this what the sport has come to, duress and coercion to bully through a proposal that moderate and loyal rugby league people believe to be intrinsically unfair?

Where is the supporters' voice and the players' voice? The stakeholders that have been completely ignored. Nowhere. Where is the research, the facts making the case? Nowhere.

The proposed plan is a terrible indictment for all the people involved. You could weep if you weren’t so angry. I believe the whole unnecessary mess has already damaged our sports credibility, club relationships, self-respect and crucially our commercial prospects.

Rugby League, for all its faults and challenges has always prided itself on looking after and respecting the whole family and the sport.This proposal deviates profoundly from these values and qualities. This change is not for the good of the game.

It’s actually not even good for the misguided Super League clubs who will not be forgiven for such selfishness by commercial partners and supporters. The lack of respect for others will be telling on the sport.