I am aware that there is a consortium of 10 local businessmen / Fax Fans who have been trying to negotiate to takeover Halifax RLFC with the view to pumping significant fresh investment into the club (a significant figure).

In their opinion the club needs running correctly and they want to really get the club back where it belongs. They are all willing to invest their own personal monies (as well as other potential full price sponsorship from their companies) for a minimum of the next 5 years, giving the club a potential extra income of c200k per year for the next 5 years or 1 million quid!

As well as also having very serious plans to buy the stadium.....

Now knowing several of these guys personally, for me it was a no brainer, especially when none of the current shareholders or BOD are looking to pump any money. I know a shareholder was in favour but sadly the major shareholder has now decided suddenly that he does not feel that the club needs this fresh input of cash or long term stability. I'd like to know why??

The current Directors have also been invited to sit and hear their plans and be involved but have not had the decency to even respond back to these guys in spite of emails being sent (and ignored)... Pretty poor in my opinion...

I dont understand why as long as the figures stack up and the guys are genuine why anyone wouldn't want Halifax to move forward? Our club has had no vision, no ambition and no platform to move forward for a very long time and the way they are conducting themselves now is likely to ensure these guys walk away fullstop.

In my opinion that would be a disgrace and I'd like to know what the shareholders plans are for extra investment to drive the club forward themselves as they dont think the club needs it. I assume are pumping some money in (Well no they arent) Had we not had the Cup run the club had a very serious commercial shortfall to battle with, believe you me!

It makes sense to pass the baton on if the old guard cant pump any money in and aren't getting any younger. I think they owe it to the fans to explain why they dont think this investment is required and why they wouldn't want the club to progress....?

Putting money into a rugby league club is not an "investment".

It's a "donation".

who is making the decisions at the club these days?
can we have some names to put to this consortium by any chance?

In time, but needless to say the question you pose is why I've posted it.... As long as it's for the good of the club long term, why wouldn't you want it to happen, if you truly care for the club. This is potentially the biggest potential "donation" to the club in a generation with several local businessmen running £100m+ T/O companies getting involved... Its a no brainer but a certain individual is doing his damndest to prevent this from happening....

interesting. any chance of that rearranged fans forum fax?

Hearing some of the names that have been bandied around regarding this ‘takeover’ bid one has to question why they are doing it? If they have genuine intentions of putting serious investment into the club then all well and good, but if they are doing it - as some of them have done previously - to give them the right to swan around the dining area posing in their club ties on match days falsely accusing people of being crooked, then I would fully understand why the current shareholders would dismiss it out of hand. Some of the names mentioned have previously been found wanting the club to fail, withdrawing crucial large amounts of sponsorship at the last minute. Are these really the people we want running the club??

Things do need shaking up at the club yes, and at least one member of the board is completely out of his depth. But as the saying goes - be careful what you wish for, you might just get it

Falsely accused...? So who do you get your info from and who are you? "Swanning around in club ties"...?? Clearly you're someone who listens to idle gossip.... What I'd like to know is with 10 local businessmen formally requesting to talk to the club why it's been blatantly ignored... Irrespective of whether the people involved are friends, enemies etc who cares if they have real intent and will invest money into the club and can prove there is no hidden agenda and just want what's best for their club (just as I do)...

Weve allowed people like Mr Reactiv get involved who wasnt great for the club and is close to one of the shareholders and still a shareholder himself but desperate to get rid of them... I dont understand (personal feelings aside) why the club shareholders, who wont invest (or cant) wouldn't listen to someone (a group) who are wanting to push the club forward....

Here we go again.

Whatever happens, I hope it doesn't cause a negative affect on the playing and coach staff. We seem to be getting somewhere on the field at the moment and I would hate this to disrupt the progress that Simon, his staff and players are making. The trouble with the initial post (and I am not saying it is not true) is that it can start fake news, mindless attacks (verbal or physical) on board members or potential board members. Certain member of our community cant accept change or see past there short slightness. Anyway I'm off to Keighley tomorrow to show my I support our club.

I would trust Mr Steele's judgement.
Its up to him to whom and when he may wish to dispose of his majority shareholding to.

Maybe if he'd spoken in detail to them and decided for whatever reason that it wasnt right, I'd have zero argument...

However he hasnt and like the current Directors is instead choosing to simply ignore what could potentially be a superb way forward for the club... Why would you not want to at least listen to what the plan is, the financial input etc.... Hes sadly been influenced by someone who for personal reasons doesn't like some of those involved. Personal reasons should not come into this, it should merely be whats right for the long term good of the club, whatever that is.

Why would you not want Halifax RLFC to prosper?

Bang on. Please god tell me its not some of the same people. You have to ask anyone who is willing to put the club at risk in the past, should they be allowed anywhere near the club again?

Just a couple of questions though. First one is whats in it for them? As griff mentions, any money pumped in to a rugby club is not an investment but rather money that will never be seen again. Also if I had a multim million compnany and had some spare cash that I wanted to "invest" in a rugby club then I would just put that money in be it through gifts or sponsorship. Roger Harvey has been a great example of this in the past.

The second question is how does it work having 10 people, who you would presume have decent sized egos, all putting their money in to the same pot. In my opinion that would be a recipe for disaster and again look at Leigh and look how that turned out. At some point that 10 will be whittled down through in fighting to 2 or 3 people at most and could end up tearing the club apart.

May as well add a 3rd question, as it is the club is sustainable as a top 5 team and will be going forward but an investment of 200k a year is nowhere near enough to get us anywhere near to been a SL club so again what is the point? An investment of 4 maybe even 5 times that amount a season may get us to the point of competing with both Toulouse and London next season and then from that point with the expansion teams coming in we would be pouring money in to a bottomless pit with little hope of making SL. Again what is in it for them?

I think it rather obvious as to who some of these people are due to then posting the links to this forum on social media. Not the way to go about things in my opinion and trying to get fans to put pressure on the club. If Michael steele is majority shareholder and doesn’t want to sell them to this group of people then that’s his prerogative.

You're assuming there that Michael Steele has been approached to sell... thought it was the board who won't meet them, hence the post. Michael's not on the board.

I thought Dad and daughter would agree....

Instead of trying to be derogatory and making assumptions around the consortium perhaps it would be better to understand what the plan is, what they bring etc....

Still I expected nothing more from you as the lead brownstuff stirrer

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

Funniest thing I have read on here in years.

I would be grateful if someone could do two things and I think others would as well:-

- Confirm who owns what shares.
- Advise who the "gang of ten" are, or who they think they are. I have heard at least fifteen names, a number of whom don't even buy a round let alone a rugby club.

ta

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/docu ... f78396c492

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/docu ... f78396c492

Look at the confirmation statement here... [urlhttps://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06190029/filing-history[/url Shows shareholders as at 4th April.

I think you might just edge me in that department lately.



What is the plan and what do they bring? I do think they should be interacted with but maybe the problem is the people that are involved and their history with the club? As mentioned I don't think 200k per season is anywhere near enough investment to give control of the club to 10 people(The reality is that it is more like 5). If we were talking more like 1m per season then you could see there should be a rush to talk to them as that sort of money could at a push make us in a position to think SL could be a possibility. 200k is still a long way short of even taking us full time.

I would presume a couple of people on there are already part of this takeover bid. Id also presume that Tony Abbott is not going to just give up his shares and will want quite a bit of money in return for them and thats before even starting on some of the other high shareholders.

It's 200k more than we'd have otherwise GFB.

Not sure how the distribution works for next year but we won't be up there in the big pay-out slots so there'll be a smaller budget than last year... and it pains me to say it but there are no pots being broken in other income generating activities at the moment are there?

There is also the question of what the £200k would be used for? Purely the playing squad (short term vision)? Investing in the infrastructure (long term vision)? A bit of both?

Yeah I totally agree especially regarding the commercial side of the club and how it has been run this season but hopefully steps are been taken to improve that but only time will tell with that one. It still begs the question of is 200k per season enough to hand control over to 10 people. We all know what happened at Leigh when similar happened but the difference would be when it all breaks down(obviously been a bit presumptious but 10 people with egos and money could be a recipe for disaster) would we be left with one person with the capacity to pump in a couple of million or so.