RFL have just confirmed numerous charges brought against Barrow for cap breaches since 2007 and confirmed relegation is a possibility.

Via Gareth Walker twitter...

Barrow have been charged with misconduct and a series of breaches of RFL operational rules and will appear before a tribunal in October.

Barrow's breaches span a four-year period between 2007 and 2011 and emerged during a two-month RFL investigation.

Barrow could be relegated this year as RFL rules allow unlimited points deduction for breaching "operational rules".

Not surprising. Not surprising at all

We knew it was going on, those players weren't playing for nothing. I do feel sorry for any honest fan who is going through this. We've all felt the sting of bad management here and Des Johnson is amongst the worst. A complete charlatan and a bad character from the things we've read about him.

We've got a low salary cap to benefit the likes of Barrow and they're cheating to give themselves a better position to boot. And it's going to cost them big.

We had a lot of people thinking that they could afford a risk on Barrow for a license too, based on them representing the whole county of Cumbria. The thing is, before their fall from grace, Whitehaven were in arguably a better position and hopefully they will be again. And Barrow too. Get rid of Des and come back with a real businessman with a long term plan. And then maybe Cumbria can have their super league team.

Des should have been putting these resources into the stadium and youth setup and facilities but instead his brown envelopes came out and they brought in players they couldn't and shouldn't have afforded and made a mockery of the league system in the process. And in the long term look what it's got them.

The year they won the Grand Final they had 46 players on their books. Half of them would have slipped into any Championship team and all but a few had quality in this league. It was pretty clear what was going on up there.

This should incur a massive fine, demotion and all titles over the last 3 years expunged from the record. They did not deserve to lift that trophy and Halifax should now be pencilled in as the 2009 Champions.

This goes to show what I've always thought about Dessie Boy; he's not a lovable rogue, or one of those characters in the game that give all a story to talk about, he's nothing more than a cheat. The sooner he is out of the game the better.

By the sounds of it he's anything but lovable. The way his own players and coaches have been treated has been disgraceful at times. I agree about the titles. Not won fairly, ergo, not won at all.

I feel sorry for the Barrow fans, but the club has cheated (if proved) & has to be punished.

Agree with Pepe about Barrow losing the 2009 GF to Fax but how far back should it go?

Did they cheat to get promotion if so they should be relegated, but what about the team that finished second that year. If we go down this road where does it stop?

What annoys me is that all fans in our league were banging on about brown envelopes, so why couldn't the governing body see it?

This has taken 5 years to come to light, the RFL are full of crap,did they stay well away as they wanted a Cumbrian side in SL? It shows them up for what they are a bunch of self serving bumholes.

If found guilty regardless of what punishment they are given Des should never be allowed in RL again.

Tirade over

There is a list of the regulations allegedly breached on loverugbyleague. Don't know the exact web address and can't link as I'm on my phone. But Google should find the site.

Never mind, just realised its the one j20 linked on the VT.

As a fan of a club found guilty of cheating , I will not comment

Pepe

I am not going attempt to defend any proved breaches of RFL operational rules by Barrow, however...

You talk absolute blank, even other fans of your own club recognise it as demonstarted on another thread. You are a bitter, spiteful and vindictive, even regarding issue which have little bearing on your own club.

There was nowhere near 46 players on the books at Barrow in 2009, it was actually half that number, hence the signing of Allen, Ballard, Coyle, 2Bobs and Halliwell 2/3rds of the way through the season as we were struggling to field a team when the offer to sign them came. As for the quality of signings that year, Luisi was the first to arrive 4 games into the season, then Catic in May and finally Rooney and the players mentioned above in July. Rooney making only 9 appearances and Allen et al 6. in the 2009 season. The club finished the season with 27 contracted players.

I believe the breaches so for relate to payments to players for community works which they were not actually doing. That may not be as uncommon as you think, however when you have an individual willing to tell everything he can (real or not) to settle a score with the chairman the consequences must be faced.

There is no precedent anywhere in RL for awarding a title to a club by default when the title was stripped from the original winners.

And finally, do you think it the act of a responsible governing body to impose fines that could put clubs into adminstration? A points penalty in line with the offenses is expected and appropriate, applied both this season and next if warrented. However the current financial climate means any significant fines could see Barrow (or many other clubs) be heading for administration. Is this what the game needs?

Personally I will await the findings of the RFL investigations and outcome of the hearing with the comforting thought that your opinion is absolutely worthless regarding this matter



=#FF4000You're entitled to address this post but don't get around the swear filter. Chris.

I seem to recall your fans doing exactly the same thing and coming out with even more bizarre and bitter untruths about issues concering our club that had nothing to do with yours so it's a bit rich to have a go at Pepe when some of your own fans have said far worse.

Your fans rightly challenged and refuted those claims.

When its justified and correct I am happy to take it on the chin.

When its malicious gossip or sniping, I, like many Widnes fans feel the need to challenge it and set the record straight.

You're wrong about pepe though. He is well respected on these boards. Don't get personal like that. You can refute without bringing it to a personal level, you come across better.

There were indeed 46 players on Barrow’s books. They had them in the squad section on Barrow's official website, with all their pictures and everything. It was a simple process to count them, so I did, and there was 46.

I wouldn’t like to see Barrow go into administration but, if Dessie Boy is willing to get them into that situation in the first place, by stuffing envelopes full of money and handing them to players to avoid the cap, then he should pay the price and do it for the RFL too. This sort of thing devalues the sport, and is so blatantly unfair to every other club in this league that it could have cost them fans and money too. The fact that you actually won the Grand Final makes the situation far worse. If I were a Halifax fan I would be fecking fuming at this news. A massive fine must follow, in order to prevent other chairmen from attempting the same thing. Barrow can then re-group and lick their wounds in Championship 1 and try to gain promotion, and glory, honestly this time.

I don’t actually agree with the salary cap as it stands but, while it’s here, I will take a very dim view of those clubs that dodge it. I don’t care if there is no precedent for handing the title to the cheated club – because that is what Halifax are – I believe they should be awarded the title for 2009. At the very least, Barrow should lose that title. If they don’t, it would set a terrible precedent. As we know, because of the Melbourne Storm, this does happen.

I don’t care if you think I’m bitter, I stand by everything that I have said. Your clubs’ chairman is a complete joke and a disgrace.

Anyone got an update on this or know when the RFL will go public?

Quite sure i've read somewhere that the hearing is 1st October, i could be wrong though.

I have spent quite a lot of time on the Barrow board and on the whole they are a good lot of people. They love their RL and have managed to scrape together very decent sums of money to try and improve their club and ground. It is a crying shame that this prat has been allowed to do this to them. Admittedly they have had their head in the sand over the last couple of years but then who wants to think the worst of their club? Having said that they are facing a charge of Gross Misconduct so this isn't just putting a + where you need to put a -.

This whole saga could have been made a little more palatable if for example, Barrow had gone to these lengths to try and kick start some sort of a revolution up there. If they had put in place measures after 2009 to try and entice fans from surrounding areas to the club in droves by slashing ticket prices and brightening up their ground. Instead they upped ticket prices and said to hell with the stadium. It was nothing more than one man's pursuit of self aggrandisement. So he could be personally presented with trophies.

Time to strip them of their 2009 title. I can't see them handing the title over to someone else and don't believe that they should.

Interestingly enough also. At the time I was fully empathetic towards their disappointment at not being in a position to be promoted, but what a complete injustice and travesty that would have been if a team that had so blatantly cheated had been awarded such a big prize over those that played by the rules.

I think it's the 3rd mate, which is this coming Monday.

I've heard the 3rd, but also the 6th - so who knows. All I know is that the last 3 weeks have been a nightmare for the Barrow faithful.

Chin up mate... you deserve better than this and at least you'll have a club to support out the back of this (hopefully with someone that can realise the potential of the club).

The last few weeks have had a "waiting to go to the gallows" kind of feel. I'll be glad when it's all over - no matter what the verdict. I guess you've had a similar situation when a certain Mr Vaughan bestowed himself upon Widnes (although he had plenty of 'previous' - ironically some of which was at Barrow AFC).

I think we'll be relegated at best. We've already lost Thackray, Blackwood, James and Knowles - arguably our best 4 performers in 2011. I haven't a clue who'll be pulling on the jersey next season - if we don't go out of business that is.

Build for the future and bounce back, weve had our differences but i would never wish anything bad on any club.

All the best

Barrow deducted 29 points and disco dessie banned for 8 years.

Thus barrow relegated, I feel for the fans, what a mess.

were a proud club. Now their loyal fans have been let down very badly.

I don't feel too bad for their fans now.

As I see it the punishment they have got away with seems fair if not a little lenient. They are effectively back to where they started and the fans will still have a team on the park next year. The RFL could (and should) have gone further in my view and stripped them of their titles in the period in which they cheated. But I suppose that those victories are now tainted with the knowledge that they were gained with a distinct unfair advantage. Makes our NRC win a little more impressive knowing that Barrow were up to serious no good.

Des had the opportunity to build something up there. Something that he could have been proud of. It's no secret that a good percentage of the RL world would like to see a successful side up in that part of the world and I genuinely believe that he could have gone some way to making that happen.
Instead he did what he did for personal glory and in doing so has become infamous.