Rugby league's First and Second Division clubs - including York Rugby League Club - were today embarking on a brave bid to secure their own television deal.

The First and Second Division Association (FASDA) were granted the freedom to negotiate their own deal after voting in a revised £56.8 million BSkyB contract.

The Evening Press understands FASDA are planning negotiations with Granada and Yorkshire television, with a view to screening a weekly hour-long highlights programme. The compromise deal struck at yesterday's special general meeting of all 31 clubs allows FASDA members to receive the £10.8 million due to them under the original deal struck with News Corporation.

However, the lower division sides will then be cut free from the Sky deal, while Super League clubs have signed up for five more years.A thorny issue in the revised Sky offer was promotion between the First Division and the top flight.

FASDA have now accepted that there will be no automatic promotion for this season's Grand Final champions, who will instead have to satisfy a set of minimum standards.

Agreement on promotion to Super League finally cleared the way for ratification of the revised offer, which had been on the table since April. "We had let two deadlines pass and we were getting to the point where there would have been little time left for us to continue our negotiations," admitted RFL chairman Sir Rodney Walker.

Sky are set to screen the First Division Grand Final in September after which FASDA will be free to negotiate their own television deal and are believed to have lined up talks with other TV companies.

The Wasps, represented at the meeting by general manager Mick Scaife and director Pete Warters, voted in favour of the new deal, claiming a 'no' vote would be "cutting off our nose to spite our face".

Yesterday's meeting in Leeds also agreed to reduce the age group for the Academy League next season from under-19 to under-18 and introduce a new under-21 competition. It was also decided that clubs should devote more resources to the grass roots of the game by spending at least ten per cent of their gross earnings on coaching and development but that Super League clubs can continue to employ up to five overseas players.

The latter move reverses an earlier decision to reduce the quota to three, although FASDA clubs agreed to bring down the number of overseas players to three next season and two in 2000.

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