Recentlly was it? I didn't not recall reading about it tbh.

It is but it's a logical one in a very strange situation.

£4k of CCJs ... lots of confirmation that other clubs have them but no other clubs named.

The special measures mentioned by one of said twitter-rats referred to the RFL not sanctioning a contract when Bradford were 'trying to sign a Super League player' (note the leak specified no name) but that categorically didn't happen according to their chosen one Chalmers himself. Their chosen one...The RFL's man. Handpicked by Rimmer if we are to believe Chalmers latest column. As far as I can recall it was not referred to as 'Special Measures' at the time.

What we know is that recruitment for 2020 was complete in early July but strangely Bradford said they wouldn't make any announcements until mid Aug. That to me suggests that Chalmers saw this coming and knew full well what the RFL would do when he confirmed he'd walk away from Odsal. The RFL's man goes rogue and suddenly August is international smoke everywhere day....

Unfortunately, these would be journos won't ask the RFL outright because they'll lose their access to the 'scoops' but there is a lot of questions THEY need to answer before tuning on Bradford.

Start with 'Why did you contact Chalmers and ask him and Lowe to take the club?' then follow with 'Why did you make the club restart in the Championship on -12 and not start from scratch in League 1' and take it from there probably ending with 'If as you say Bradford are financially unstable, and we've no reason to question your judgement, why are you not endorsing a move to Dewsbury that will save them roughly £500k per annum?'

At this point, I wouldn't trust Rimmer as far as I could throw his predecessor....Everything, from the first intervention of the RFL has been down to them.

They spouted about the precious lease and preserving the dump for RL (and we all swallowed that BS - really, who'd want the place?).

They choose Khan then shafted him to the tune of half the funding, then when he failed (big shock that one - no RL knowledge and financially one hand tied behind his back) they shafted him again (though he took his case to court and won)

They picked Green, that went well... but perhaps not well enough for their liking so this time they hand picked their chairman using their veto to over rule the administrator and stop Thorne buying the club out of administration.

Meanwhile they have steadfastly refused to sell the lease - thereby stopping any serious interest in the club, have borrowed against it and then devalued it. Now they are left with a hole in the ground, no income and council tax to pay and they will need to keep it up to 'standard' to keep up their stated aim of preserving it for Rugby League.

I am not saying Chalmers is the messiah or even a naughty boy...but the constant Bradford, Bradford, Bradford whilst the RFL pontificate about finances and people who usually pillory the RFL for their loses suddenly sit and nod sagely in agreement is utterly bewildering.

I'll try dig out. But IIRC it was in one of the first announcements of us leaving.

It wasn't a direct consequence "Sign the lease and Special measures will go away" - The RFL aren't that daft to say that. It was more "We need clarity on projected income & expenditure for the next year in order to officially lift Special measures and have evidence to justify it to any other member clubs. Signing the lease would give clarity, therefore..." I would assume AC's answer was short & sweet.

Joe Brown and Jordan Lilley signed at the end of May and I believe the club as been in special measures since then.Milnes and Storton signed contract extensions a few days later and these deals have been refused by the RL.There have been no other signings since.

I don't think it's our of spite (though the statement they released was frankly amateurish and did come across as full of bitterness and should have been handled behind closed doors professionally.

The special measures needs resolving as a matter of urgency.

It's being reported that the RFL changed the locks on the stadium Sunday night. Still don't think they're acting out of spite?

Interesting. Thought the lease ran until 30th of September.

Didn't realise the RFL had taken out a big loan against the Odsal lease. That cheered me up.

Unless by leaving now we save a months rent I suppose

Changing the locks seems an absurd and petty waste of RFL cash. When a tenant leaves, they simply hand the keys back to the landlord. Unless the FRL suspect that we would have cut spare keys to sneak back in, how can they justify this? Bizarre.

I'm looking forward to them sneaking back in and holding 'commando' rugby matches that the RFL doesn't know about.

When Chalmers was appointed, can anyone remember whether he said how long he would commit? Specifically I'm trying to remember if he said a 3yr plan? Of course, that was when Lowe was fit and that must have been a blow. Or am I confusing it with the RFL? Did they ask for a 3yr bond at the time?

I think they just put new padlocks on the gates, as no one could confirm how many copies of keys had been made over the years.

I think the only way I can see of them getting it off AC is liquidation II. Someone has covered the costs of running the club, paying the players involved in the dispute etc and Companies House says that's the director. There is only 1 director and that's AC so if you assume there's about £900k of debt to him he's not going to walk.

If the club are put up for sale and they pull the lease stunt again we know where that ends and if they do add in the lease you'd assume Uncle Marwan would come hurtling over the hill which they would not stomach (though you could assume that now they are staring down the trunk of a big, white elephant shaped money pit they could swallow their pride).

So it stays with AC until it goes bang, no lease sale, no interest AC loses his money. The RFL's p155ing pot if even smaller than ours, they can't do anything.

Looks like we have El Macho at 6 next year...

The RFL have proved to be able to interfere in an administration process and dictate to the administrator who they would accept. Can they interfere in a private sale if AC finds a buyer? If they went down the "fit & proper" route to block it, the new buyer could take them to the cleaners.

That sounds about right I thought he had said he would do 3 years

This appeared to come out after offers appeared to have started - [url=https://www.rugby-league.com/article/39145/rfl-statement-professional-rugby-league-club-in-bradfordRFL Conditions[/url

That's what I remembered, thanks

If the RFL are in the mire financially as they are rumoured to be they may be willing to throw in the lease in order to extricate themselves.

The way I see it, the Council is strapped for cash, but Odsal would be worth a decent amount of money to various developers. It would be enough to build a community stadium. I don't see how anyone could complain if the Council took that route; especially as the site (Richard Dunn) is already earmarked for clearance (which won't be cheap) and so far as I know, there's no plan for what to do with the site later.

In my mind I have written off us ever returning to Odsal, because it is simply impossible that anyone will come up with the necessary money to upgrade it.

My only questions would be to the RFL; they loudly proclaimed they were acquiring the lease to save the iconic Odsal for posterity, but it already needed a major upgrade, and you weren't saving anything for anyone unless part of your plan was to finance the upgrade. If there was such a plan I'd be amazed. If there was no such plan, then the RFL have pointlessly acquired a lease which is now a millstone, as they posed as saviours for rugby league, but it seems obvious that won't happen, and that Odsal will never see RL played there again.

I see that Widnes have been told by the RFL that they are now out of special measures.

Short piece in the T&A about Kear and recruitment the other day. Pretty much just he can’t recruit so there’s nothing to say.
Only thing is, again the reason quoted by the T&A for special measures is due to the move to Dewsbury.

Guarantee we’ll be out of special measure just in time for all our out of contract players to be signed for other clubs

You’d expect we might not be the only club in special measures before too long given Swinton have just applied to be rebranded and some of their supporters are less than happy about it and intend to set-up another Swinton RL club.

Somehow I doubt RFL will be quite as interested in Swinton as they are in us. Cant imagine why they are so interested in our move.