this just shows what a farce last season was - Gateshead paying unsustainable wages to players, they stay up and then it all goes down the tube shortly thereafter.

Looks like the salary cap really works eh?

I feel sorry for the fans of the team that they have to go through this again - but have to ask where the club thought the amount of money required to keep the momentum up was going to come from....surely they would be better to grow slowly over 5 or 10 years rather than expand too quickly..

On the other hand I have no sympathy for the RFL, who once again are left with egg on their faces..

You're all just a bunch of flatcappers

I take that as a compliment..thank you very much..

Under the new regime at Donny we will be paying match terms only, building from the bottom and strengthening links with the local amateur scene. Maybe a lesson for Gateshead here. Or we culd just stick them in SL in two years instead !

special dispensation as they are a "development" area

bet my bottom dollar on it

well that was a stipulation put on the next round of 'bids' we shall see

Even if Gateshead went bust they wouldn't put us back in Championship. Better to leave it as a 10-10 setup than create an 11-9. I do think though at some point we will have to merge the two leagues into one of say 16 teams. I fear a couple of clubs will go to the wall sooner than later.

Considering we were relegated on points difference behind Gateshead, if it is proven they were incurring debts which they were not in a position to honour in their financial position then they should not be allowed to remain in the Championship.
Should it be the case that they enter administration then they MUST be relegated - and the directors prosecuted for wrongful trading.
Whilst we cut our cloth according to our means they were manipulating the rules to stay up.

Technically the RFL were/are and will continue to manipulate the rules

It looks to me that an agreement between the shareholders has been reneged on. I dont think they have over spent but the person who was supposed to part fund the club has got cold feet or has a money problem his or her self had not divulged. Your man is right to be tetchy about carrying on because I bet other shareholders in the club are getting cold feet. How can you sit in a ground with hardly anyone in there and think you are going to the top , even if you are winning? It looks to me that his co sharehlders dont share his dream of SL supremacy. It would be a pity because I think the north is the place to expand our game more. I dont want Gateshead to go belly up because I love a weekend up there.

Sorry mate - they cheated.
No company I am involved in would incur costs which were to be "funded" by non committed means.
Whilst they were strengthening their team towards the end of the season we were doing only what we could afford.
They should be down.
Its corrupt, but then again this is Rugby League!!!!

Not basing this on any fact in terms of our own situation, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if ours is a similar arrangement with AWT.

So you think Arthur aint committed, no similarities whatsoever.

Maybe your man (who usd to be in the RFL know) has learned that the rules are about to change again. It's a lot of money to loose £570,000.

Proof??????

Oh sorry, its the internet.... say what you want.

How do you know what bills are outstanding at Gateshead, or Leigh for that matter?

Are you sure?.....we have had commited people that have been and gone at the club before. A club depending on 1 person is not healthy (just like lots of other clubs), and I'm sure if it got to a point where the town didn't seem to want to support the club he would be off too because what would be the point ?

So what Happensa if a company you were dealing with refused to pay its bill or worse went bankrupt owing you bundles. It's one and the same.

If it happens and they do keep it at 10 per league ,will it still be 2 up 2 down?2 down from 9 is not going to sit well is it ,we did'nt like 2 from 10 so i say put Leigh back up

in that event it would probably be one up and one down - trouble with that is, if they want to keep a meaningful grand final they could not promote the top team (us) automatically - so we would have to go through the play off process!

What i was thinking ,dont like the sound of that ,it only takes a bad 80 and bang goes the championship

Garbage. A clubs future has been hit by what looks like it could be dodgy means. If you take Widnes a couple of years ago they didnt cause a club to be relegated, this could be interesting if not resolved.

How have Gateshead caused another club to be relegated? If your talking about us I think our results were the cause. Also relegation wasn't really the point of the post. A club going out of business was.

If they had spent within their means then it is highly likely we would have finished above them.....not hard is it.....as bad as our results were

There people go again. The club is not officially in dept. It is being said that they might not carry on because the people who have said that they will bankroll the club may have pulled out. Gateshead could cease to function without even owing a penny. I still say that it would be sad to loose Gateshead completely.

Never said they were. Either way pray tell how they afford 3/4 NRL players. Batley's playing field is even compared to Championship rugby rules