We shouldn't think that will be so easy, as rangers are proving its very difficult to subsidise a team playing far below its level. If Ranger stutter again, the spfl is absolutely screwed

Diskin is hardly an independent voice. He's not going to call the prospective owners a basket case.

The game did not dig this hole. The hole has been dug by a catalogue of owners and prospective owners, the game being fans, clubs and the RFL have tried to help the Bulls, I'm sure had the game bent over and changed the rules for the Bradford team we would be looking at War between the clubs.

Changing the rules for one team would be undoubted bias.

They were shares in Gateshead, representing £250k's worth of investment when that club was formed. Gateshead, of course, became Hull and therefore SLE (who held the shares) ended up with a stake in Hull instead. They were "realised at an amount less than cost" in 2004 (according to the Leeds accounts where they appeared due to Leeds holding a 1/12 of the investment).

Had Moore and co actually taken control of the club or were they "in effect" just office staff running the club in the hope that they would be taking over at some point?

The administrator seems to still be having a big say in whats going on

Actually Bradford have dug themselves a very deep hole with a spade provided by the RFL, who should have kept well clear once their initial loan was swallowed by the Club's financial black hole. Since the start of this mess Bradford have had ample opportunity to try resolve things by 'cutting their cloth' but have merely bumbled along believing the hype of their 'iconicity'.

his comment was about the players attitude, I'm not sure an independant voice is better than his in this instance.

The game has dug itself a hole, it put in place the rules it made its decisions.

It is the RFL who passed a club, having spent weeks working with it, as fit and proper to start a season, two weeks in that same RFL declares the club to be undercapitalised and that it has no faith in the submitted business plans.

One of two things have happened here, either the RFL have put off a prospective owner who could have put Bradford back on track,

Or

They have allowed a club which they had no faith in, which had no money, which they knew needed more money to continue to operate to start a season the RFL weren't convinced they would finish.

If the RFL's statement is a clear and accurate representation of their view point and the facts of the matter, it is inconceivable that they have been allowed to start the season.

About as comprehensive evidence of what an awful idea it would be as you could hope for

the fact that if Bradford were playing in Champ 1 they'd get more on the gate than Fev in SL should highlight to every numpty wanting Fev in SL why it's a totally moronic idea.

Nobody. They are being made redundant and if the company has no funds with which to pay them, they won't get paid. Life sucks sometimes.
Probably not, but then they were TUPE'd to help facilitate an earlier attempt to paper of the cracks.
I very much doubt he has that much cash lying around.
It seems everyone wants Bradford for nothing, with no points deduction and could the RFL please hurry up with the Sky cash?....

Ask the fans at Clubs who have made the hard choices. London will get buried under a mountain of points this year and Wakefield won't be far ahead of us, but at least we've accepted the fact that living beyond your means can't continue indefinitely.

As for the competition as a whole? If Bradford do go into liquidation, then the clubs they have played up to that point have their results taken away (not everyone can be placated here), we have 26 rounds and Magic weekend is a 9's tournament.

I still say Bradford can see out this season, but they need to shed everything they don't need now and if that means players taking a wage cut or being shown the door, then so be it. As for the back office employees of the club....it sucks, but life isn't always fair.

And how would you define "cutting their cloth"?

Would it involve losing players so that they now have the smallest squad in the league?

Or perhaps cutting back on the number of staff?

Both of those things HAVE been done by Bradford, I fail to see where else those scissors can be applied.

And players are just going to accept that are they? That they won't be paid? Other players are going to sign for the new co for a massive wage cut and no guarantee that they will even be paid that?

And then we accept one club gets a loss wiped from its record and one club gets a win wiped off?

Tell me, if Wakefield stay up in place of say Widnes, do they just accept this change when they have a good case that the competition rules weren't followed?

Are Sky going to accept a round of the competition being lost? The change of the magic weekend to a 9's?

When Bradford get rid of the back room staff who is going to do the jobs they were doing? Who selling the tickets, cleaning up, doing the admin, HR, etc etc

'Bradford need to cut their coat according their cloth, so they can achieve financial stability in the long run'

'We need P&R back so teams that don't have such good teams don't compete in SL'

Do any of the snipers see the problem?

Cut coat, get relegated, lose sky money = screwed

Pay players to stay up, go into admin = screwed

A Bradford on handouts is better for SL than the nowhere clubs like Leigh & Featherstone that will never, ever be competitive. Where do you imagine Fev are going to get the money to pay full time salaries on gates of 2.5k?

I'm sure it will only benefit the credibility of our game to see a village team get walloped by 60 points or more week in, week out.

The rfl deserve praise for acting with the utmost integrity and professionalism.

Too long, have the bulls shirked their financial responsbilities.

Too long, have they spent beyond their means on the field whilst other clubs have cut their cloth.

Too long.

It would have been easy for the RFL to bottle it on the ''iconic status'' get out clause. But they retained the integrity of the competition.

Bravo!

This is the real world. Companies go bust and people don't get paid. If players want to play, be seen in the shop window and have a chance of being picked up next season, they will take the cut...if they don't, then they can find a job elsewhere. Bradford do not have the money to pay them.


A Small inconvenience to create symmetry and rescue the season. Castleford can whine, Wakefield can cheer....nothing changes in real terms!

The Adjustment would have to be agreed by the remaining SL chairmen. No doubt, Knock down Nigel will find another 100k to sweeten the deal (Bradfords much debated TV cash)




I'd suggest that SKY will probably want something in return for losing the rights to broadcast 7 games over 2 days at Magic....maybe the rights to broadcast a 9's comp? The loss of a round won't bother them.....the RFL will juggle some fixtures and the lost weekend will get it's 2 games.


Part time staff. There may well be some who are willing to volunteer to help out....seems to have been well received across the way at Wakefield. If these "FANS" want their club, then it's time to roll up their sleeves and stop bitching about conspiracy theories and injustices.

I've suggested a way Bradford could survive this year....you can carry in whining if you want!

What an embarrassing state of affairs for Rugby League in this country.

A flagship club of the S.L era has crashed & burned twice in a couple of years, and whilst their demise could be traced back long before the recent shenanigans, the ruling body must take as much blame as the various owners.

The initial “secret” loan was a catalyst to this whole debacle, it wasn’t just a couple of hundred grand to tide them over. It should never have been agreed by the RFL therefore they are as culpable as the procession of pseudo saviours that followed.

But looking at the current squad at Bradford I don’t understand why the newco is using the points deduction as a death sentence, the club is only four points behind, not twenty FFS!

That team are quite capable of finishing above London & Wakefield, unfortunately for Bradford they can’t afford the said team.

If you've got to play kids to survive financially, that's what you do. If you can't afford the team you have, therein lies the problem. London have done it. Wakefield have done it.

What you mean is how can we make further cutbacks without harming the team we put out on the park. Unfortunately, that's what every other club has to do.

Spot on.
Unfortunately, when dealing with the Bradford Bulls apologetics, it's a very long river in Egypt!

all nonsense that I'm pretty confident even you don't believe.

Integrity!!?? Have you seen the headlines?? There is no integrity! ANY club going bust from Bradford, Wakefield, To Gateshead, and Blackpool harms the sport.

The people that have run the club for the last few years are to blame for the mess. absolutely shocking inept management. But the RFL have some questions to answer. Like if we asked for an advance of £500k then why did they ratify the ownership.

It's amazing isn't it.
We are being told that Bradford shouldn't have to do what we were told HKR should have done on their first SL season. (Play the kids, Use Championship players etc.)

The administrator ratified the takeover, not the RFL.

The RFL did aswell

Moore and co have never had the pleasure of an rfl fit and proper persons test. I wonder if this had got further how they would of fared...

What damages the sport is the unnecessary sniping after people dont get their way. Lenaghan, now Moore, what are the rfl going to do? Ignore the majority and the rules?

We've been calling for years for the rfl to have a backbone. Over the last couple of months that's precisely what we've got.

Quote ="SmokeyTA"The RFL did aswell'" Link? I can find, "confident of ratification" (www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ification/ ) 4 days ago, but nothing since

Quote ="SmokeyTA"The RFL did aswell'" Link? I can find, "confident of ratification" (www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... ification/ ) 4 days ago, but nothing since

Hopefully the Administrator will make player redundancies / cut player salaries to no more than £30k so that Mr Lamb gets a sustainable business when he buys the Club for whatever the Administrator's fees are (£30k?)

Then hopefully Mr Lamb will restore the Bradford Northern name.