How have Widnes done it? Is it something they have in their club structure or simply down to O'Connor's money?

It was strong enough to compete against Widnes and on a level playing field, they beat you.

how have you come to the conclusion that it was just between us and Widnes, you werre involved in this too.

i have nothing against you as a club, the system is a joke

My read on this is that back in March, when it was announced that a club would be coming up, that right there was the contest and Widnes won it; keeping Fax in the mix after that was, in my view, a total cop-out - they never had a chance.

I agree with you by the way - the system is, to quote a poster from earlier, divisive and dysfunctional; for example, when they said a club would be coming up, they effectively said that one SL club would submit an application that failed to meet the SL criteria; how did they know that, given that at the time, they hadn't seen a single application?

The Shay is over 12,000.

9,000 capacity for the Bradford Cup game without the North Stand in use. The North stand holds 3,200 when it's open.

I will never criticise our Chairman for his comments, purely because he (and the club) have invested a large portion of their lives in putting together a strong submission and done all that the rfl asked, yet it turns out they have been led up the garden path by the rfl. Wakey pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute (or was it a pie for dear old nigel?) plus Cru's implosion helped. Timing is everything and Glover is obviously a real sweet talker.

Enjoy your moment and allow Fax to grieve before you get all .......... with us. We have every right I would like to believe we would be equally as considerate if the decision had gone the other way.

grow up

I have to say, that the attitude of some Wakey fans who have spent the past year bellyaching about the injustices of life, are a tad hypocritical in their replies to the Fax fans. One thing is certain, nobody on these Boards has the slightest idea on the relative merits of each clubs application, but I suspect that it will all come out in the wash eventually.

Even Glover was gobsmacked at the decision, and that very shifty and evasive interview that Rimmer gave on Look North last night, simply adds fuel to the fire.

Gawd knows how you did it, but if I was a Wakey fan I'd definitly be doing the Lottery this week

Ia it really. No we didn't expect it but we always thought we deserved it so try not to get muddled old lad.

With respect, that's bullshine - even the most eccentric posters on this board have been restrained and dignified since the decision was announced; in the face of some rather silly comments from a very few Fax fans and their Chairman though, some people have bitten back - understandably and with justification.

I think you'll find that going forward, WTW fans will be less ready to accept the whipping boys of SL tag; our application was judged against the rest and we achieved the same C grade licence as many other clubs - we're now a SL club with no debt, a progressive owner, the best community dept in the game and in 18 months, we'll be playing out of a stadium that far surpasses those of all our West Yorkshire rivals. We're back - get used to it.

[urlhttp://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_6025-chairman:-wakefield-in-on-own-merit.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter[/url

In on merit.

You trying to justify it to yourselves?

The RFL will manipulate the system to justify their actions.

The truth of the matter is that you are in and you need to make the best if it. You need to fulfil the promises you made to get the licence.

don't need to justify ourselves really !

you are becoming tiresome to say the least.

No need to justify anything. Our bid was deemed stronger than both yours and Crusaders. Feel for you guys for getting your hopes up, its the fault of the rfl for keeping you hanging on, they should have said better luck next time when Widnes were awarded a place. I agree our promises must be kept, so must Quins, Cas and Salford. Should they not then you and possibly Leigh and Fev will be banging on the door demanding entry, and rightly so. Its not the fault of Wakey or our chairman, we've done what we needed to do to get our license renewed. People believed the hype created by the media that we were gonners but in true wakey style we bounced back and proved the doubters wrong. You as a club need to carry on building and work on the areas where you failed in your application, remember a license can be revoked at any time and should a club fail to deliver you must be ready to take over their place at the top table. For me you should have come up anyway and the league should have expanded but thats one for another day.

The whole system needs a total overhaul though.
No club should have to put up with being virtually disabled from operating on a level playing field 2 out of the 3 year license period because of the favourite for losing a license tag that was put on them.
Also no club should have all it's members of staff living in fear of their livelihoods because of the process.Especially when the clubs (Cas incl) are seen to be working well within their community's.
No club should also have it's hopes raised (Halifax) because of the process. A quick point on Halifax they submitted their application and told it ticked the boxes before they were able to compare it against any SL's applications, because they had not been submitted at that time. Back to front or what.
It has got to count on the field as well.
Somehow the funding gap between Champ 1 and SL has to be closer than at present to make sustained growth possible.

I do not think Fax will ever comprehend that in the eyes of the RFL our application was better. This is just a bitter outburst, like a child not getting his own way.

I mentioned this before the license decision. The RFL should withhold £300K from the SL hand out to each SL club and give that to the Championship clubs to develop the club. That means the existing SL clubs would receive £900K which is still a decent amount. This leaves the SL clubs having to find approx. £700K to spend up to the full cap. This will be a struggle for the smaller clubs such as Trinity, but shouldn’t be an issue to the likes of Wigan, Leeds and the clubs with wealthy benefactors. A strong second tier is vital to the continued growth of RL as much as expansion.

I agree totally at present it's too great a drop.

Actually old bean, you owe your inclusion to the Crusaders on 2 counts.

If they hadn't gone bust last year, then the RFL wouldn't have changed their Solvency Ruling. and you would have been out!

And if the Crusaders hadn't withdrawn their application, (as an expansionist club their position was secure), you'd have been out!

So in gratitude, perhaps next years kit will reflect your unexpected good fortune, with a little motif of a dragon on the left chest..... in red obviously

Not quite right actually.

The insolvency rule covered the period 2008-2010. We were in administration in 2011.

It would have made a very strange situation in 3 years time though, when (if the rule had remained), the period would have been 2011-2013.

We could have been highly successful on and off the pitch, yet be barred from applying!

Had Crusaders not gone into Administration the HMRC would not have revoked Wakefields repayment schedule, our cash Flow problems wouldn't have happened and we wouldn't have entered Administration.

Blake Solly has revealed that Wakefield were awarded a franchise on merit and were not in the bottom 3 franchises.

Give up now son your really starting to look a bit sad.

I might add,

If Wakefield Trinity hadn't been denied Super League money in their first two seasons then Ted Richardson wouldn't have been forced to use his own money, raised against the Sainsburys deal.

The same £1M Sainsburys deal which ten years later went sour thus forcing Ted into an IVA and removing any room for movement In our business plan.

The same inflexibility which then forced the club into a series of bad financial decisions which were exposed by HMRCs decision to pull our tax repayment plan.

The rest is history.

Being a Bradford fan i enjoy going to Wakey, not as much as i enjoy going to Halifax but still enjoy it lol

Personally i think regardless of their withdrawl Crusaders should have gone followed closely by Harlequins who should then of been replaced by Halifax,

Quins have done nothing for the sport since the start of superleague really, and there attendances are one of the poorest if not the worst,

Although people are arguing that wakey should of gone down, the only reason being the administration other than that there is plenty of clubs that have done bugger all in recent years to warrant super league status, Bradford being one of them - it only their super league history that has possibly kept us a license !!

You're making a tit of yourself now Billy old chum.