[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/london/8952050.stm[/url



Didn't know things were quite so bad! Last chance to make it work?

I think the RFL should help them. We do need a club in london, As importantly we need the Skolars to stay in a strong position also.

But what the RFL need to do now is clean the club up, it's been run by idiots for such a long time its crazy. The RFL can help them out all they want but what the club needs more than anything is new people steering the ship.

They have been the worst run club in Rugby league for a great many years, and the people there dont seem to learn from their mistakes. Help them yes, but help the club not the idiots in the backroom who are not capable of doing what needs to be done.

The RFL could do two things to help:

Quins should not have to produce a Franchise Application document. There's a saving of a few sheets of A4 paper for a start and the RFL have their own rubber stamp which has already been bought and paid for.

The RFL should use their almighty powers to immediately appoint Steve O'Connor as the new CEO of Harlequins. That bloke has generated a £1m profit from a £2.5m turnover in the ass end of a rugby league competition during the worst economic recession known to man. Can that man crap gold or what? Get him installed at the Stoop ASAP.

No coach. Players departing left, right and centre. Majority shareholder who is chairman of another club and still hasn't sold up. 35% stake shareholder running out of money to keep financing them. Poor crowds for over a decade. A brand name that everyone thinks is a rugby union club.

Yes, they have a great youth system underpinning them. And a nice stadium. But that's it. This club needs winding up and starting again from scratch. If they need to start in the Championship to settle down, then so be it. Next year is going to be embarrassing for them at this rate. They could be worse than Halifax.

How many times should they be bailed out. Give the franchise to a cumbrian club instead.

Bin it and start again from scratch. Perhaps use the money to push for a high level team in the Birmingham area

Oh yes and what about these then [url=http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/haven/whitehaven-rl-club-set-to-go-into-administration-within-days-1.751415?referrerPath=newsWHITEHAVEN[/url are they not worthy of a helping hand, maybe its time to dump London and try Cumbria

Isn’t it just an urban myth that they have been bailed out by the RFL before?

I thought, a couple of years ago, they basically went bust, changed their name & ground & started again. But didn’t Lewis threaten to quit if the other SL clubs didn’t tow the Red Hall line?

I’m sure the RFL could give some help regarding the development of the game in the South, however, they surely cannot do what their Sugar Daddy has done, servicing a Money Pit, that is Harlequins RL.

The RFL and SKY should basically take ownership of the London SL franchise , a time scale should be set and the club financed for that period , more importantly , and this is where SKY need to be involved , the club needs to be heavily marketed to get it to the stage were it is primarily self sustaining , if after this period , it still isn't working , then that will be the time to pull the plug as far as a SL club is concerned

Where has it been written anywhere that David Hughes is running out of money?? I think he has asked that the situation with Ian lenaghan(Wigans Chairman) is sorted out once and for all.

Why should they, why are they more deserving than other clubs that are struggling

great that it is out in the open that the club have been talking to the governing body for some time now, about overcoming some of the costs and difficulties of developing the game in the south.

I see the term bail out already, brilliant, good to see some people can't read, let alone read between the lines.

I've said it elsewhere, but it shouldn't be up to the Quins to fund expansion in the south. That should be the RFL's job. Let Quins just get on with running a rugby club. If the RFL limit their input to that, I'm okay with it, but if they go beyond, then there are clearly two sets of rules. Given how much Quins add to the game, which isn't a great deal, that would be grossly unfair.

My opinion , or am I not allowed one ?

I never knew Quins had to fund the game down south.

I can understand them having to run their own academy systems and pay their own way towards that but it would seem crazy to expect the Quins to fund development of RL across the city of London.

I'm a Quins fan and I can see it both ways. We should develop the game in the South, but if we can only afford to run a squad, then only run a squad, scrap the development. Melbourne Storm get few players if any locally, but they are underpinned by News Ltd. The other side is that it would be an awful waste of 5 years of development throughout the ages 5-20 to say, go away and play union. It is tough for one club to develop the game for so many people. The message from Quins is that we are happy contributing in the same way that every club does in its local area, it just doesn't want to do it for the South of England.

The easy answer to that is well don't, don't develop. The PTB in London see London youngsters as the future and will not run up an unaffordable debt on player wages that don't correlate to attendances to win over fans. Without the RFL taking over the development of the game in the South Quins will continue, but development in the South will stop. From that Quins in their present model will struggle on for a while after that.

Quins are asking the RFL to run the development of the game outside their immediate area; they are not asking for money to pay first team wages for next season.

I didn't either, but the BBC article suggests otherwise.

Maybe the answer is they are spreading themselves too thin. It is London and beyond. David Hughes is happy to do what every other club does, but at the minute the club is making up for 25 years of very little development in the South East.

If true its plain stupidity.

I wouldnt expect the Crusaders to Fund the game in all of wales, or any other club to do anything similar.

All clubs should fund their own academy set ups and thats it, for all other development the RFL should be the ones funding and running them. If it is not directly helping the Quins club they should not be funding it.

Also then should the Quins and Skolars be given Equal support from the southern development officers and Equal rights to any talent they find and nurture.



And they shouldnt be, the Quins should be developing their club. The best way to get people interested in the game down there is by giving them something to support and aspire to. At the moment Quins are failing on that front. They shouldnt be asking the RFL for help, they should be telling the RFL to sort it's own development out, the Quins need to put the Quins first in that instance.

Its very simple the RFL grab Mr Lennigan by whatever part of the anatomy is closest and FORCE him to sell his 65% in the next 3 months and if he doesn't he cant be chairman of Wigan - god knows every other sport doesnt allow chairmen to own 2 clubs!

After that its up to quins...

how do you force someone to sell somthing no one wants to buy?

the rfl should have made lennigan dispose of his quins shares before allowing him to take control of wigan, not after

It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it (until 2009), and, if you're the proprietor of a pie club, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry on owning it (until 2009), but that doesn't really matter 'cause -- get a load of this -- if you get stopped by the cops in the RFL, it's illegal for them to enforce their own rules. I mean, that's a right… the cops in RFL don't have.

In that case you have my sympathy because you are s*****d.

The RFL have NO balls its their fault because they allowed Lennigan to do one on you guys.

Lenagan apprarently also wants a £2m club loan paid back to him for the money he put in up until he left in exchange for the shares. No-one wants to pay £2m for a loss making club, let alone only 2/3 of it.

What I find amazingly astounding is the the amount of criticism Chairman Mo has received despite doing so much for RL. Yet IL has pillaged one club he currently controls and continues to do so has no interest in developing new "wigan developed" players yet seems obsessed with rescruitment of nondescript NRL players, despite Wigan being blessed with the best RL school system in UK outside Hull.

Why is Lenegan beyond critiscism ?