I don't know how anyone can stay mad at Batley anyway - they're everyone's favourite away day, it seems!

So, you fall out with the RFL, because they won’t allow you to register players due to owing money to the taxman, and you lash out at Steve O’Connor and pretty much accuse him of cooking the books in order to gain advantage over other Championship clubs submitting licence bids, and think this is reasonable?

In other words, SOC has achieved nothing other than cheating by using his own wealth in order to show that Widnes has made a profit on a turnover of £2Million. This is a slur on the integrity of Steve O’Connor and was a completely unwarranted attack on a man and his club that has nothing whatsoever to do with the situation you find yourself in with the taxman and the RFL.

What you have done is an absolute, bloody, disgrace, and it is actually quite pathetic. It is also utter bullsh*t!

Here’s the reality, put forward by an accountant on the Widnes board.


The RFL should have been doing this years ago, and maybe we wouldn’t have lost so many old clubs, including mine, folding due to owing money to the taxman. This has been a constant embarrassment to the game. It both brings the sport in to general disrepute and makes it difficult to attract top name sponsors. I agree that it should be applied across the board to every club, and the RFL have said they intend to do so.

May I suggest, instead of skulking around message boards, you remove what you have said from the Batley Bulldogs website and make your apologies to Steve O’Connor.

You were saying Matt



Don't know what to make of the Chairmans post.

On the one hand he may be offering a clearer picture of his words, on the other he may be worrying about how many Widnii come through his clubs turnstiles next season and dependant on where you come from, if you have another hand, it might not have even been him who posted

.

It’s simple.

He hasn’t actually retracted a single word he said about SOC, he’s merely apologised to Widnes fans if it caused offence – this is not the same thing. So I would assume he’s merely on “damage limitation” exercise, in order to convince the Widnes fans that they should turn up to Mount Pleasant and help him pay his taxes.

Until he removes what he said from the Batley Bulldogs website, and openly apologizes to SOC, this post is nothing more that a load of worthless flannel.

Don’t fall for it!

Work the ribs Pepe





If hadn't guessed I'm still at the no comment stage... I think the fact a lot of us had a lot of respect for Batley made it more of a shock comment. However as you say no retraction and Batley profit is through 'hard work of fans' Widnes is through owner pumping money in??? Huge respect for Batley turning in a profit but just (as it seems) Because the RFL have used Widnes as an example to others doesn't mean it's Widnes' issue!

You make a very good point.

At Championship Awards Night Widnes won Club of Year and SOS in his acceptance speech in a jokey manner said that you had made a million pounds profit after he had put 2million in.He may have exaggerated the position as a joke i know not but i certainly would not have thought i have offended him in any way and my post was complimentary as to how he had invested his money.I am sure the next time i see him he will tell me if i have offended him and if i have i will be man enough to apologise to him face to face.If you think i have not been genuine or only apologised for ulterior motives so be it and only you can decide whether or not to come to Batley but if you do you will be welcome and i promise we will not put our beer prices up!! This is your website and i have now made the point i wanted to make so iwill not post again on here so good luck for season apart from when you play us

Just realised put SOS by error instead of SOC but sure you knew who i meant.

I think the beer prices thing was just a coincidence that we liked to joke about on the whole. Will always say Batley is my favourite away day for various reasons, have an old uni mate up there too. Just hoping we get another summer encounter this year rather than a blistery cold night (though I'd take both)

He will be talking about the investment he has put into the club since taking over. He invested £1.2Million in his first year here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that figure he was joking about has now grown to £2Million. This was investment in infrastructure, debt payment from the old board, the academies, &c.

He would not have been referring to simply adding £2Million to the balance sheet in 2009, in order to show a profit in 2010. This, as I have shown, isn’t a plausible way of doing it, as it will be added to the balance sheet as either a creditor (to be repaid later) or regarded as additional capital. It will not show up as turnover or profit.

So, you have used something SOC said as a joke, and you turned it into something which makes him look like he’s cheating by fabricating the clubs accounts. Now we have to face other fans pointing their grubby, little, fingers of accusation, in our direction. (See the original poster for details)

What you have written, even if it was in innocence, could be easily misconstrued and used against our club. This is why I asked you to remove, or amend, the article on your website.

I once had a lot of respect for Batley. It is, as people on here have already stated, one of the best away trips in the game. There would have been no other club that I would have been happy to be beaten by in the NRC final – but for Batley I was. We often get fans of Super League clubs coming on here taking the out of us for where we are and their little jibe is “enjoy going to Batley”. This is how stupid they are. We always tell them that we certainly will on this board. But, over the last few months, with anti-Widnes and incredibly biased match results on the Batley website, and now this, your clubs’ reputation has been somewhat sullied, in my eyes.

Did I read somewhere that he created a 'charitable trust' with £1.8 million in, which was called on by the club? You spent 800,000, with the 1 million remaining as 'income' on the books and thus profit? Might be gonads I know

This was written by a Batley fan.

SOC said, when he took over the club that if he left the club he would set up a trust fund to ensure it will always have funds available to survive.

As far a I know this is not yet in place and no actual amount was ever mentioned. We’ll have to wait until the clubs’ accounts are made public before making any judgments on this. Any further speculation on this is likely to be wrong.

ermm no its not demon uk is a warrington fan , thats why it says still the newest stadium in rl , as his signature , ours is the oldest

Leigh fan... ps best get onto Wakey they are claiming theres as the oldest

ahh a leigh fan from warrington

then not batley tho , we dont dislike you , as you lot seem to think



wakey are the oldest , were the 2nd , but there moving out , into a brand new purpose built facility

Now that is funny

love the way these clubs now getting grounds keep getting high praise when this time on last franchices they kept saying how important it was to own their own ground and others should be 'punished' in terms of criteria for not, how they already had funding in place fo for their own yet nothing actually happenes until someone offers to pay for it and then rent it to them

it's a funny old world.

Don't worry we know you don't (mostly) and will enjoy next season i'm sure. It's just with all the franchise nonsense Widnes seem to be copping a lot of stick from various Championship sources and we fail to see how it's our fault

He wasn't saying I was from Batley, I wasn't sure where the quote had come from so he was telling me it was a Batley fan that posted it somewhere......I think. Either way my post had nothing to do with club loyalties etc.

FFS get over yourself!

You are so defensive yet assertive on this subject while remaining spectacularly ignorant.

Your accounts for the period in question are already in the public domain. Steve O'Connor DID set up a charitable trust for £1.8M and you took the lot as income. Theres no shame in receiving such a windfall or even criticism levelled from other parties, you are acting like a spoilt child who has decided to take offense for reasons known only to yourself and is now demanding to be apologised to when its absosolutley F*&^ ALL to do with you!

If SO'C had an issue with anything said by the Batley Chairman, I am sure he would have addressed the matter, the fact that he hasn't publically refuted the claims of a large investment should give you an indication of how things are or at least demonstrated a level of dignity in the face of implied criticism that you are clear incapable of demonstrating.

Finally, if you are attempting to tell us that funds were not provided by the SO'C charitable trust and that Widnes made a £1M pound profit in the year 2008-2009 (in the Championship!) while posting a £700k loss the year before, your clubs Finance and Marketing staff should be snapped up by the government to address the national debt!.

How many times does the loss to profit thing have to be explained it's not frigging rocket science! One year includes paying debt off and a full restructure the 2nd is debt free with about 10 extra sponsors and also a cup win



I presume you bought the accounts from companies house? If you don't mind publishing them, that would be cracking!

5 pages of non-rugby stuff - to go with the other 24,596 pages elsewhere on these boards.

I remember when we used to talk about how good a team was, who was going to win the league, that sort of thing. I know it's the off season but the crap doesn't stop when the season starts. Do "fans" really like this nonsense cos that's all they ever seem to talk about. I hope they shut the door and make it a closed shop because i can't take this crap every three years.

Red Hall - I fart in your general direction.

Here Here Littlerich and I raise your fart to a follow through

I don't have a set of accounts to hand, but I have read them (back in september when filed) and i don't recall any mention of what you have discribed being mentioned in them. would you be so kind as to provide a link (other than companies house) to back up your claims as in my sad accountant way i'd be interested to read it.

However what has been pretty much revealed this week is that the Club appears to have taken over the opperation of the Stadium that it holds a lease for and all the turnover and expenditure that goes with it. Its not been said outright but it has certainly been implied.

I didn’t know the accounts had been published. Perhaps you’d be so kind as to post them for us here, and give us the benefit of your degree in accountancy in explaining to us how SOC putting money into a trust fund and then drawing on it, in order to put it onto the balance sheet, is any different to simply transferring money from his own account?

Surely, both would just show up as capital, rather than turnover or profit?


Perhaps he has/will do so in private. If he did it in public, idiots like you would be on here lambasting him for bullying poor little Batley.



I don’t know how they did it, and care even less. What I don’t like to see is a chairman of another club attacking our own chairman over an issue which has nothing to do with the Widnes Vikings.

This, as a fan of the club, has everything to do with me. The day it doesn’t, will be the day I have given up watching the game.

Every time anyone dares have a pop at your chairman, you go off like a bottle of pop – you hypocritical little creep!

And that would be typical of the man.Dignified,diplomatic and professional.Unlike some.