www.superleaguefans.com/bradford ... ction.html

www.superleaguefans.com/bradford ... ction.html

Well now, here is a tricky problem. If a club goes into admin., they get some form of penalty, and it has been a points deduction in the recent past. But this year we have P&R, and if the business men behind Bradford's refinancing decide that a points deduction will leave them in the Championship with a much poorer business plan, can you blame them for withdrawing their offer ?

It's difficult when you are on the outside and not privy to the discussions, but surely they made the RFL aware of this decision if they imposed a substantial points deduction ?

I assume we now have the embarrassing possibility of Bradford folding and / or, unable to fulfil their SL games due to cash-flow problems ? Not to mention further misery for their long suffering supporters.

Another mess, and no easy way out.

Sounds like a right mess and all washing dirty linen in public.

WE ARE STAYIN' UP
SAY, WE ARE STAYIN' UP

I feel for there fans,what id like to know is what happened to all the money they must have been making when in their pomp winning everything and 20,000 crowds.MEGA poor management no point having ago at the RFL we already know its run by buffoons

Maybe not as bad as it seems for Bradford.
They are now -4 on the League Table after their win at Wakefield.
This weekend they play London at Odsal. I can't see anything but two league points for the Bulls. So with three games gone, by Monday they may only be -2 on the League table. If they beat London, the Broncos will have 0 points as will Wakefield if they lose at Wigan.
Sorting out their finances appears may be their real problem.
For their fans sake I hope they come out of this. Should they survive this season then they will be on full central funding from 2015.

I feel for the fans for they are a good bunch. It is the club itself that sucks.
Whilst we were watching drivel because we couldn't afford anything else Brattfurt were spending money they hadn't got and basking in the glory of GF success

In some respects they deserve to go down and serve their pennance

The RFL have somewhat made a rod for their own backs by imposing point deductions on other clubs entering admin, so they have little choice but to do the same for Bradford; problem is, as had been commented, the stakes are higher this year.

As for their mismanagement in looking after today and ignoring tomorrow during the glory days, well our game is littered with similar stories and it's still happening. It all comes back to the point that too many RL clubs are ran by people who if they were given the keys to the Bank of England would drop them down a drain.

I'm astounding at a) the RFL's position in this matter; b) the fact that there are any clubs left who have faith left in Wood et al.

The mismanagement of various key matters in the past few seasons is there for all to see, and the only 'success' they can point to is the World Cup-where I think their major achievement was in expectation management, getting people to buy into the fact it was a success. In reality all they did was apply basic common sense commercial ideas-price tickets cheap and stage as many games as possible in the heartlands.

The farcical new SL structure was the last straw for me; this is merely confirmation that the people running the RFL simply don't have a clue. Sad to see, and feel really sorry for the Bulls fans.

I do wonder though: how many clubs in SL would take their SL/cup titles and subsequent woes in exchange for their own positions in the past 18 years...

Why are the RFL to blame? Surely Bradford should have secured their future during their glory years, this is the clubs fault.

The RFL are an easy scapegoat but every team knows the rules about administration and you should play by the rules.

our game is far too small to let a club like Bradford wither. Personally I don't think it is a done deal that they will be relegated either.

And therein lies part of the Rfl's supposed annoyance, no money coming in, asked for an advance again on this year's income but they've not tried to reduce the playing roster at all.

Having watched the bulls board and v t discussions, they point out they lost whitehead and Bateman, but the first went due to unrest iirc, and they sold him begrudgingly, and Bateman sold shadily by the scumbag they had running things in the off season, unbeknownst to other board members, all done very quickly.

Think back to the two times wakey have been in the Shit recently, I know I've looked at their squad and though jebus, how can they continue, players going left right and centre, Bradford haven't done dick in this regard.

Reading between the lines, I think the RFL knew what the response of the new board was going to be ( to a 6 point penalty) and decided they wanted rid of them.

Agree with this regarding the club itself, but docking money aswell as points is that not being punished twice for the same offence.

but its not docking, it was offered up, by the owners at that point.

Can't make an exception based on the history of the club... the rules are the rules.

We're constantly told that the game is in good health, so another club will step up and fill the void if Bradford fold. The fanbase is still there and they will be back in time.

Looks like Mike Moore and his backers were trying to force the RFL to accept a offer for the Bulls without any points deduction. If they were taking over the club for its long term future they wouldn't let a six point deduction put them off to the point where they walk away. Hopefully Richard Lamb has a different view to business and the game.

I think Mike Moore and his backers have made a ridiculous decision dropping this. They have basically come out and said that with the deduction, relegation is a certaintly. I'm sure the fans won't be happy about that and I'm sure the players certainly won't be happy.

Hopefully someone else comes along and makes an offer for the club because Super League needs Bradford.

The guys name is Mark Moore. No idea why I remember that.

Did Gareth Carvell know more than the rest of us ?

Two key points here it seems. Firstly is the matter at hand here: points deduction for going into administration. This admin seems different to the others we've seen recently, in that it is more to do with a technicality, rather than inability to pay creditors. It seems the RFL played a part in the situation leading to that, yet they want to enforce a penalty. The RFL are very happy to play the 'it's the club's responsibility to run their affairs' card when it suits, yet when they're apparently unhappy with who might become new owners they suddenly seem to want to interfere, and influence the outcome of events. They can't have it both ways.

Secondly, the decision to give the Bulls half their money, and split the rest between the other clubs-whilst this
might have been 'offered up' by the previous owners, it was only under duress, in order to keep their licence. This proves the governance structure of the game is broken (clubs with self-interested views get to decide such matters), yet the RFL are happy for this status quo to continue as it gives Woood and co the power they crave.

All the time whilst these issues remain unresolved, and whilst the RFL seems unable to show even a basic level of commercial acumen, the focus is on a farcical league structure invented by the RFL/Wood because they either too proud or too weak to face into the issues over P&R that the licence system brings.

This will not end here, it will not be pretty and it will not be good for the game. I reckon within 5 years we'll be back to a traditional league structure, with a new RFL board, and a different governance structure. However, before then we'll see a power battle played out in public. I just hope too many clubs don't endure what London, Bradford and Wakey have recently before it's all resolved.

I wonder what will be said if Koukash turns out to be a rogue owner (as many have predicted) and Salford end up in this mess.....will it be a case of "Salford are too big to fail, the RFL are a disgrace for letting them go to the wall" or will it be a case of "tough, its your own fault"

Also if the RFL steps in to bail out Bradford it will have to cut its funding for other purposes.

We could cut grass roots spending and funding for junior development to divert money in to bailing out Super League clubs.

The government made cuts to lots of services to fund the costs of bail outs.

It would also be good if they drew up a list of which clubs were too big or too traditional to fail:

I would say, in order of priority

Wigan
Leeds
St Helens
Bradford
Warrington
Hull
Huddersfield

below that I would say let them fail

Trouble is, if Bradford fail, SL will see two games less this year. Income will be down for clubs, and how will that affect the Sky contract ? Will they dock some of their money ? Also a game less for Magic Weekend.

And how will potential sponsors view the failure ? Will international companies wish to be associated with a game that has clubs that drop out of their premier league because of financial distress ? Have the RFL failed to find sponsors in the recent past because of our poor track record in financial management ?

How will the press view the issue, and what publicity will the game get ? It's important to understand that the game got a big lift from the success of the World Cup, and probably resulted in a much better offer from Sky for the new contract.

What will junior players think about the stability of their careers ?, will they still see it as a good bet ?

How will the club officials and team get on with their mortgage payments and finances in general if Bradford fold ?


As supporters we see the Bradford problem as an iceberg with only the tip of the problem showing - the other four fifths are hidden, until you start to think a little harder about the implications. SL is a business and as such you can say that it should be subject to the same principles as Woolies was on the high St. But I don't think there are any easy answers in this case.

Think back 12 months and Salford were in a big mess. Without a new owner the club was not viable. I dont recall a huge amount of interest in taking over the club. If Koukash does turn out to be a 'rogue' (only time will tell) then Salford will be back to where they was last season, on the verge of administration. If Koukash isnt the real deal we may go out with a big bang rather than a slow death!

One thing that needs to happen is that it gets sorted quickly. If Bradford go (and TBH, in my opinion as a franchise/licensee they have proven they dont deserve to be in SL any more) they the backup plan over fixtures need resolving. Will teams who have yet to play them get an automatic 2 points ? Will the results so far be voided and teams who have lost against them get 2 points. Will teams who have beaten them have their points taken away if the decision is nobody gets points/

For SKY its not an issues. They DONT have two less games to show, they will just pick two other games instead. Magic weekend doesnt have to suffer. Given time (hence the need to sort it now) the RFL have time to sort an alternative. Give two championship teams a shot at the big time, put on a representative match, introduce a mini-comp.

Part of RLs problem in relation to sorting these kind of issues have always been the "ohhh, we dont want to be rash, we need to give ##### a chance". In simpler terms.....cut out the dead wood and the tree will come back stronger.