Here's a thought:

A Superleague club is in the middle of a financial wrangle with a former owner and the main shareholder. In order to bring this matter to a head they purposefully fail to pay HMRC knowing that they will threaten to wind the club thus forcing administration and therefore allow them to move the sports club into a new limited company.

But....a spanner in the works....a new TV deal is announced and the club are party to the financials of the deal and in particular a £300,000 payment payable almost immediately. This would cause a major problem to said clubs plan as such a payment would immediately be swallowed by the former owner and be lost, so in a bid to isolate it they ask their tame creditor to apply for administration of the club with the promise they'll get their full money from the new company. The new company then buys the club for the exact value of the HMRC debt which is immediately satisfied by the Administrator.

30th January: TV deal announced with the club aware it will receive £300,000 in a weeks time.
31st January: Club goes into administration to avoid £300,000 going into the wrong company's hands.

Obviously this is purely speculation as if this were true then it would be illegal.

Oh deary me the RFL trying to defraud HMRC. Heard it all now

Oh no, I don't have those figures therefore I must be imagining your club making no effort to trim their squad.
I suppose I could look at whether any players actually left and weren't replaced but to be honest I can't really be d.

I know what I believe, I can guess what you believe and the 2 are never going to be in agreement so I'll leave you alone and wait for your club to go pop again later in the season after they have run a squad they still can't afford.

Where did I say RFL were trying to defraud HMRC? A club were being issued with a winding up order by HMRC. That doesn't happen if they are being paid.

There's an easy way to disprove that conspiracy too! that plan would require a modicum of communication, planning and skill to pull off which Bradford have shown they're incapable of ...

Except...the administrator would not be allowed to settle only the HMRC debt. And the "tame creditor" would probably hold a floating charge, to be in a position to appoint an administrator, so would get paid first anyway. After the administrator, of course. And it is unclear in what way the owner (sorry...you said former owner, right? My mistake...) could access, let alone "swallow" the £300k. And in any case, other than the administrator breaking the law regarding order of settling creditors, that hypothetical scenario would otherwise break no laws.

In other words, you have no evidence whatsoever to back up your argument.

And I see that, in desperation, you now refer to trimming (the number of bodies in) the squad, whereas your original assertion was about the cost of the squad. You clearly don't have THOSE numbers to hand either, though, since the 2012 squad was considerably larger than the squad is now.

Now, last time I checked, there was no rule to insist that every player was paid exactly the same. So, you could have the same number of players in squad B as in squad A, but at an average much lower cost.

Never mind chuck, better luck next time, eh?

Very true

You don't need the numbers to make an observation

You don't need facts to make up an argument either ...

(I don't necessarily disagree with the view that Bradford could/ should of cut more from there playing budget - but saying the above isn't going to win any argument!)

One thing I have noticed regarding this thread and many others is that what happens on the field isn't seen as very important.
I always believed that what happened on the field was the key part of Rugby League.
Reading all these posts and other threads seems to show the game is not the key part.
Very strange.

And very disappointing. And demoralising. And distracting. And a load of other "disses" and dees".

All the off-field waknerage put my missus off the game...for good. And I am sure she was far from the only one.

Its all down to there simply not being enough money in the game. Those slagging off the new Sky deal are maybe missing a very impoertant point. Lets say we hung on for two more years, to see what BT might do? How many clubs we have now would still BE here in two years time? With no certainty of ongoing TV income after the end of the present deal. And how attractive would the competition look THEN to a broadcaster? I think this TV deal is the last chance for professional RL to get its act together financially, and start to make the game the key part once again. Before it is too late.

And I am bloody sick of Bradford being the ongoing tragic comedy that it has become.

But, without the numbers, that observation can in reality be nothing more than a total, subjective guess.

What always amazes me about these sort of arguments - and it affects fans of every club, at one time or another: how it is that the fans of other clubs know SO much more about the situation at a club than the fans of that club know? Even though the latter are collectively far nearer to the action, and talk to far more people close to the action?

Welcome to the Super League era where off-the-field financial and political machinations have become far more important than the game itself. When was the last time someone like an Adeybull for instance discussed anything about an actual game of RL? Way too busy positioning himself ad nauseam as an apologist for latest set of newco barrow boys in charge at Bradford.

Maybe about the same time YOU did, given how few of your own posts have much to do with what happens on the field?

I probably have more experience and expertise in the financial/legals arena than the majority who post on these forums - which, given it is what I have done for a living for the last 40 years, I really ought to have? Which is why I tend to post on matters where I think I can add something to the debate.

I assuredly have LESS experience and expertise in the game itself than the large majority who post on these forums. Which is why, in game-related matters, I am more than happy to read and learn from those who are better-qualified to add to the debate.

In any case, I was absent from these forums from early April till late November, so that did sort of restrict opportunities for discussing games...

hth.

It was till 1996.

Now now Billy......everything is going to be OK at the Bulls from now on



































(again)

I thought the whole point was that nothing will be OK at the Bulls from now on.

In truth it is only the internet that has brought the information and discussion to the fore, 20 years ago fans just didnt discuss anything other than players and matches

great innit

That really IS rather good!! So I'll echo the

and raise you a

Yep 20 years ago, it would have been an expensive phone call at best, more likely an air mail letter between us, would have made your ' discussions ' with smokey a lot slower than now

I resemble that remark. My excuse is that hardly any games in SL or the Championship these days warrant much attention or debate due to being rendered structurally meaningless. Hopefully, things are about to change with the end of licensed mediocrity and the re-introduction of P&R. The next 5 years or so is the last chance saloon for the game at a full-time professional level IMO.


Fair enough. It just seems like all those problems, machinations and ruses being played out at boardroom level at Bradford are like catnip to you, and even more appealing than something as beautiful as [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqg66GNNSoTHIS[/url.

It's not me who needs luck, CHUCK!!

I don't have the numbers and the detailed knowledge that you so clearly have. I am going purely on instinct but as I said I know what I believe, I know what you think, the 2 are not going to meet so I'm done with the discussion.
I have no more comments to make on the situation at Bradford until we see what the RFL decide to do.

I'll leave you and Smokey to snuggle back up together in your big blanket of oblivion.