No Derek Beaumont at Leigh next year. Hope they come through it, enjoyed our battles in the championship (even if at times it boiled over between the clubs owners) The championship will be a very interesting league, and hard to judge next year. Hopefully we're taking note and continue to build SLOWLY.

Leigh Centurions owner Derek Beaumont has issued the following statement:

It was with a heavy heart and tear in my eye that the realisation sunk in that we would not make the Qualifiers. I have said publicly on numerous occasion and privately to the group that my position as owner of the Club would become untenable should that happen.

The Club will receive circa £200k in 2019 from £1.25m this year and circa £1.7m in 2017 and that is a drop too far to sustain the Club in its current form. To that end I must act in the best interests of the Club’s ability to survive going forward and in the short term to fulfil this season’s fixtures and also to reduce its commitments to make it more attractive to any party that may express an interest in taking it forward.

This week is deadline week and therefore an ideal opportunity for players to be able to secure their futures elsewhere and at the same time reduce the Club’s obligations. I can confirm there will be a large number of exits and that may bring some opportunities for others but that will be ongoing this week right up until deadline.

I am committed to ensuring the Club reaches the end of the season and hope during that time a new investor or group of investors can be attracted to take the Club forward. I will be making a more detailed statement at the beginning of next week and until then will not be in a position to comment further. I apologise to our loyal fans and sponsors for this failing which ultimately has to rest with me.

It's been quite a journey for Leigh. While they were on their way up under Rowley there was a fair bit of arrogance though that was quickly tempered when they discovered just how hard it is in SL.

Not making the top 4 did for us in 2016. They're lucky DB is covering the losses and will make sure they're on an even keel before he goes. Respect to him for that.

Leigh could do worse than build some solid foundation with an academy and reserves set up.

A very open and painfully honest statement from DB. It brings back some terrible memories of our club being stripped of its prized assets and left for dead when we went belly up. At least it appears Derek is attempting to leave them in a fit state and giving the new owners a clean slate.

Perhaps Leigh need to go and see a Dr?

They need a backer that's not going into it to feed their own ego.

Don't we all.

Do we want / can we get any of the Leigh squad, if so, who? Basically, Beaumont is saying the more that leave, the better and with a £1m funding hole that is honest and frank cold hard logic. It isn't really asset stripping, as sadly most of them can't stay there, at anything like their current wage, even if they want to. OTOH any who went in and offered to take a 90% pay cut and play on, could stay. Kevin Larroyer?

This league structure was always going to send some clubs to the wall in this way, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
How on earth are you supposed to plan for the future when you have no idea of future income?
Clubs are tempted with the chance of promotion but just look at that disparity in central funding between the top 4 and 5th/6th. It is absolute madness.

Well they have shown that they will get crowds with a successful team unlike Salford. And wasn't he frenemies with DB.

Unfortunately the message seems to have got lost under the sheer weight of 'Oh it's Bradford and their usual financial mismanagement'.

Degsy seems to have realised very early and is making changes to mitigate.

Maybe the lower SL chairmen have clocked it too and are literally pooping their pants because they know they get one shot to recover and if you fail to hit top 4 you are part time and the dream is gone...

And it goes without saying that although Derek did come out with a few daft statements it's soul destroying to see another team who we had a great relationship with the fans and great, tense games against heading the same way as us.

Fingers crossed for Leigh.

I agree. There will be a handful of players getting fixed up this week with clubs but a lot of them will now be extremely worried about their future. It’s a horrible position to be in, my lad was in the same boat at Sheffield 2 year ago, I know how much worry that caused him, and me.
I hope they can find a new investor and salvage something. I can’t understand how some people, on Facebook, can take any pleasure out of this. It’s the fans and the players that suffer

People are idiots. All this schadenfreude going about online portrays the sport in such a negative light. It comes across as though some fans of the sport revel in the demise of another pro club. Some of the people posting these comments should remember that we were in a similar state not too long ago.

Facebook for you. Full of total tits. You've only got to take one glance at those "banter" groups and it makes you wonder why these people haven't been taken out by natural selection.

Sure there were some Leigh fans who took delight in Bradford suffering. And for those, I don't feel sorry one bit. But there's plenty of really good Leigh fans. I met loads visiting the LSV in the last few years, even though we had a rivalry going, I never met a single idiot. And there's a couple that have regularly come on this board and never wished us anything but well (Bent&Bongser for example). They'll be really worried about the future of their club right now and don't need people laughing in their faces. We know better than anyone how it feels.

Regardless of the cause of the problems (overspending, crap structure, lack of funding etc.), here's just hoping they don't end up in too much trouble and can get things sorted out.

Frying pan and fire ......

Spot on.

Talking on Leigh,,, what ever happened to Lachlan burr

I wasn’t a fun of DB during our verbal battles with him but there’s no doubt he loved his club and was held in adoration by the supporters of Leigh.

This just proves what a poor financial state our sport is in that “sugar daddies” of the sport are now withdrawing their support.

The RFL need to get their finger out or RL as we know it will die, particularly anybody outside SL.

Good luck to Leigh and the people it effects the most, players and supporters, wouldn’t wish this on anybody, look forward to seeing you all at Odsal next year.

He’s no koukash money wise. He’s a relatively successful business man but can’t afford to continually lose £££££ without feeling it

From memory think he signed back for reserve grade at Canterbury. He is one I was very disappointed we didn't get to see in a Bulls shirt. Leigh fans couldn't understand at times when he wasn't getting a game

I don't agree with negativity towards Leigh, but I do understand where it came from. It's clearly because people like Beaumont get people's backs up. I seem to remember the entire Leigh fan base thinking they would whup every SL team in the 8s in the first year it came into effect, and that level of arrogance filtered down from him. I think that probably irritated a few people back then and they haven't got over it. I didn't have have a positive opinion of Leigh for some time for those reasons, even though the standard of rugby they were producing under Rowley was brilliant.

It's a shame things have come to this for Leigh, but I have to question what the RFL were doing for so long, watching him get the club into a deeper financial hole. When they signed Bodene Thompson and Peter Mata'utia I gasped at the quality of signing, but wondered how on earth they could afford such players. I didn't expect them to stick around at Leigh when they got relegated; alas they did and this has surely contributed to the situation they're in. Did nobody from the RFL start questioning the level of investment in the playing squad and question its sustainability at any point? Christ, I'd hope that some idiot in the rugby league world could learn a lesson from us.

Any chance of us borrowing that cloth you kept cutting accordingly, you guys dont need it anymore.

I fear we shall be needing it.

Don't think we are in any position to ask why the RFL let them get in the state they did. Perhaps if the RFL had got involved Leigh would have had 2 administrations and a liquidation.

but seriously yeah. The further the RFL stay away from Leigh the better they'll be.

I wonder what Steve Ferres is up to now? Sat by the phone expecting that RFL phone call no doubt....

Got away with murder in my opinion. Was hugely responsible for ££££££££££ of money wasted

Latest Statement from Beaumont. Hope they get it sorted. It will be interesting how the championship shapes up next year depending on what happens at Leigh and who comes down.


I won't be at the game today or the Barrow game; not by choice but because I am away on holiday. I was very nervous about attending the Sheffield game after the emotional week of realising we wouldn't make the four and having to dismantle what had taken five years and seven figures of time, money and effort. I don't use or look at social media these days which has been a massive improvement to my life but I could imagine that it was pretty volatile after my short statement and I was nervous of attending with my family and there being any kinds of scenes like I experienced at the Toulouse game earlier in the year.

I needn't have been nervous as the fans were absolutely fantastic to the boys with the way they welcomed them onto the field and stayed right behind them even when we went two scores down to a spirited Sheffield side that smelled blood. It would have been easy for the lads to chuck up some white flags at that point given the week they had had, especially given we had a couple of debutants in there, but to the contrary they fought on gallantly to a much deserved win. It felt surreal and somewhat hollow but it was all that any of us could really achieve that day and they answered my challenge to finish the regular season with a win to set the platform to win the Shield at the end of the season.

Losing the Million Pound Game in October and dealing with the aftermath of that, seeing people's contracts terminated, was one of, if not the hardest, thing I have had to do. This is much harder than that as the emotion of doing this whilst realising that everything had been in vain took its toll. I would like to thank the players and staff that have torn up their contracts and moved on, some at their own expense and one individual in particular who has torn up a three-year contract and gone with nothing to go to in order to enable the Club to have a chance to survive in the short term. I would also like to thank the backroom staff who have collectively agreed to pool the resources and all stay on to the end of the fight before also walking away to enable the Club to have a chance of survival. It is a mark of their respect for me as a person and what I have tried to do and invested into the Club and the community and I feel so sorry for these guys as ultimately it isn't their lack of effort that has seen this happen to them.

I was hoping to have conducted enough player movement before the transfer deadline to have ensured the short term future of the Club was safe without any additional funding from me as I wasn't comfortable putting money into something that had no future. Unfortunately I was unable to achieve that fully although I am committed to ensuring the Club can fulfil its last fixtures of the season; however, this will unfortunately accumulate more losses within that period that will now worsen the Club's position. It was important to me to maintain a squad that could compete to win the Shield but I am disappointed that a small number of players asked to move on didn't do so and take alternatives presented to them which would have ensured the short term future of the Club without increasing liabilities. What is vitally important is that we can get the remaining players who are contracted beyond this year to find alternative clubs and accept some responsibility for the failings on the field in order that the Club isn't left with liabilities it cannot fulfil which ultimately would be catastrophic.

If this happens then the Club will not be in danger and will be able to re-structure a part-time squad based on the new level of central funding and income it can generate with no further involvement from me. I hope when the season is over this is achieved so that the Club is in a better position than when I had to write personal cheques to all the players part way through the season when the Club couldn't pay them and was facing a winding up petition from HMRC. Ultimately that will be decided by the players who have contracts as to what they choose to do but the harsh reality is that if they attempt to stay then the Club won't be able to survive and then they would have to go anyway so I am confident common sense will prevail and the Club's history and place in the community will be respected. Should the worse happen and the contractual liabilities force the Club into liquidation then I give my word I will ensure that a community Club is formed and give it a cash injection to ensure it can operate and establish itself going forward with no liabilities and no involvement from me whatsoever.

I haven't made a further statement which I had initially intended to do as I don't think it is appropriate yet given what I have to say so I will keep it in reserve until everything has been resolved. However, I do think it is necessary to respond to two comments I saw in last week's trade press. The first of those were Ralph Rimmer's comments in response to comments from Ian Lenagan in the League Weekly. Ian was very respectful to our Club in his comments for which I thank him. He was pointing to our plight as evidence that the current structure doesn't work. Ralph responded that it was down to the fact that clubs are "locally managed" that is more the issue. Well given Ralph is an intelligent man I would like to know what he would have done managing our Club "locally" in this structure.

You see we were given £750k central funding and a parachute payment of £500k which was strictly on the terms that we spent the full £1.25M of central funding on players' contracts to remain strong and have a squad to challenge to return to Super League. So how do you therefore comply with that stipulation but at the same time protect your business in case you don't make the top four and lose another £1M of funding Ralph?

The obvious answer would be only sign one year deals so if it doesn't work out you are free from contracts but you wouldn't be able to compete for signatures offering one year deals and therefore wouldn't have a strong squad nor spend the £1.25M. That suggestion is like saying that all Super League clubs should only commit to £750k despite getting £1.8M potentially so that if they get relegated they aren't at risk of administration.

This doesn't happen but the sport recognises this and has a clause in the playing contracts which enables contracts to be terminated if a club is relegated, something we were able to do last year. Indeed even with a parachute payment of £500k this is allowed as you are still potentially losing £500k central funding plus whatever commercial and season ticket reductions follow.

So Ralph it is my contention that the structure does have a serious issue here, rather than the local management of the club, because we have failed to make the four and suffer far bigger consequences than being relegated from Super League. We lose £1.05M of central funding but have no protection in the contracts to terminate to protect the business as you do suffering less of a drop by being relegated from Super League. And that, Ralph, is where the problem lies.

I didn't plan for not making the four; in all honesty it never crossed my mind but if it had what could I have done? Refused to take the parachute and fielded a squad with minimum risk should we not make the four? That's all I could have done "locally managing the club" and that would have been nonsense. In the end you don't need a Super League team in the Championship. It actually works against you with the pace of the game and the constant stops in play while people get their breath back but you do need a Super League team when it comes to the play-offs to beat those teams to take their place and that's where the conundrum is.

I tried to contact Ralph and got a text saying he was overseas and would contact me soonest but I haven't heard from him. I also called Karen Moorhouse but haven't heard back there either. Perhaps they have what they want with me having no choice but to leave the sport or maybe I am just becoming paranoid. Either way I certainly feel a little isolated right now but that is something I will speak more about at the appropriate time.

The second comment I saw was from Andy Burnham, someone for whom I have the upmost respect. He made a statement in conjunction with Lord Peter Smith the leader of the council and Jo Platt our local MP.

The statement which was on the GMCA website read: "We know this is a worrying time for all Leigh fans so we wanted to provide reassurance that we stand behind the club and are ready to support it in any way we can through this coming period.

"The success Leigh Centurions have seen in recent years will live long in the memory and is due in no small part to the energy and finance invested by Derek Beaumont. We thank him for his efforts on the club's behalf.

"Leigh Centurions now needs to begin a new era which could bring real opportunities to build on our traditions. This club has some of the best facilities in Rugby League, a loyal fanbase and neighbouring amateur clubs which are a production line for top players. All of the fundamentals for success are firmly in place and we make a direct appeal to potential investors in Leigh to step forward and write the next chapter in this great club's proud history."

Andy was respectful to my position for which I thank him. However, I must respond to the comment stating that "we stand behind the club and are ready to support it in any way we can through this coming period."

I have contacted Andy to discuss this with me which I look forward to doing when he has the opportunity. The harsh reality that I won't go into full detail of yet is that the Council and LSV have been anything but supportive and we have been at loggerheads with them all year with them declining my many requests for assistance since being relegated. In actual fact we are being charged more in the Championship this year than we were in Super League last year. The Council and LSV were happy to reap the rewards of my investment and the success it brought the club and the town. Higher attendances and secondary spend increased their income dramatically, whilst the social and economical benefits it brought to the local community and businesses was undoubtedly significant. It's disappointing that when the tide turned, they weren't prepared to assist us.

There will be a lot more to come out about the situation at LSV which isn't appropriate at this stage but I don't think it is right that people are given a false impression of the actual situation. I haven't had any contact from (LSV Chief Executive) Simon Toon, Jo Platt or Lord Peter Smith to either see how I am, how the Club is or if there is anything they can do to help the situation.

I have supported them all year against my personal judgement concerning restricting items being brought into the stadium etc but unfortunately haven't been supported in return. The statement is certainly right in respect of LSV being a fantastic facility, something I have always championed, but it's no good living in a house in which you can't afford to pay the bills and that unfortunately is the case and will become even more so as the Club returns to a part time status. With regards to wanting to attract investors I think that is rather more a decision for me to make than them.

This week's example of LSV 's willingness to "stand behind the club and (being) ready to support it in any way we can through this coming period" is me learning that we are not permitted to do the team run on the main pitch on the Saturday before this weekend's game as normal, due to its usage for football.

I have also found out from the circulated LSV calendar that Manchester United Ladies team have been given use of LSV on two occasions in February and March next year on a Sunday without any consultation or notification to ourselves, which given the Stadium's primary use is supposed to be for the town's rugby team I find appalling.

I always say everything happens for a reason and you don't always know the reason at the time. Something good always comes from something bad and good things happen to good people so I have no doubt that the good people of Leigh will in time enjoy good times and be able to make sense of the reason behind what has happened down the line. I have used my own money to give the Club some great times and will happily write that off to the right people should they come forward to be able to invest in the Club to get it back to Super League, where I still genuinely believe it belongs.

I will always be a fan and a supporter I would like to think when it is all over that I will in time be able to come to games as a sponsor and enjoy watching the Club that I feel is very much part of me. I hope that will soon enough be in Super League. I have been part of it twice and I never say never so who knows maybe down the line it could be third time lucky but for now I think with the uncertainty of the sport and all the issues I have with it, coupled with our current plight, it's time for a new era and one I genuinely hope can be more successful than I was.

Three Championship League Leaders Shields and a promotion to Super League with three quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup are topped only by our first ever Super League away win and that memorable night scoring 50 at home against Wigan. I have no issues with Wigan; they are a remarkable Club, something I would always aspire to achieve but the local rivalry over the years puts that at the top of my memories.

So before I go we have the chance to win one last thing, something we have never won before, and it would be great if we could go out on a high from such a low position and get that final to be at LSV and lift the Shield for our outstanding fans whom I applaud and am desperately sorry towards!

Yours in sport

Derek

God damn those players for accepting someone offering them lots of money and actually expecting to receive it! What a set of money grabbers. Nobody else would ever do that except greedy RL players. And that's probably money from Derek's own pocket, just in case there was a paragraph he didn't mention that in.


I have a lot of sympathy for Leigh's plight (admittedly most of my sympathy is for the fans), but that statement is just "blame everyone but me, I'm the saint". There's plenty of blame to go around, and no doubt some of the people in the statement should accept their portion, but there's blame on the likes of Beaumont, Cunningham and the coaching staff too who chose those players and offered them that money.

You can blame players for underperforming, but you can't blame them for accepting a large contract and expecting to be paid it. And guilt tripping them into giving it up is very poor form IMO.