BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Toulouse Olympique’s director of sport Cedric Garcia says his club is seeking only three or four new players for its Super League squad for 2026.
Today, it was confirmed that Toulouse will be joining the expanded 14-team competition next season.
Garcia has said the club is happy with the players it has now, who won the Championship grand final this year, and only wants to add a handful of new players.
“We’re really happy with our squad,” he said.
“We’re looking at three or four quality additions, not anymore. We’ll stick with our spine and what has been our motto for the past season, which has been to be one of the fittest teams on the park.
“You can’t build a team in three months. It’s virtually impossible. We are already full-time. The goal is to be competitive every weekend.
“We’ll take it step by step. The main focus is to have a good start to the season. We’ll learn from the past.”
Toulouse were in Super League in 2022, but finished bottom and only won five of 27 matches. They were relegated straight back to the Championship.
Garcia said his club can learn from Catalans Dragons, who have spent the past two decades in the top flight.
“There’s many things to learn from Catalans,” he said.
“[But] we are two different regions of France, not the same size of city, not the same type of city, so we’ll do it our way. We will take on board some things.
“For now, our goal is to grow our attendance, grow our fanbase.”
Garcia said they will continue to offer low-cost tickets and target students to attend their games.
“We want them to be able to come and money is not an issue,” he said.
Toulouse will only receive £650,000 in central distribution next year, half of what the 12 Super League clubs get, the same as York, and will also have to pay all the travel costs. That could cost the club around £800,000 to £1 million.
Yes, we will pay the travel costs, it’s a high figure,” Garcia admitted.
“We’ll do our maximum to increase our budget. From the starting line, we are behind all the other clubs. We accept it. We’ll do our best to be smart and to be competitive.
“We’re a French club, it’s the deal and we accept it.”