Christ, what a shambles.

I detest modern sport. I hate it. Every year for the past 10 has been one financial crisis after another for the teams I seem to support. Maybe I'm cursed? I honestly thought that sport couldn't get more surreal than transfer deadline day at Elland Road but the goings on at Odsal always seem to try and go a step further.

RL, just like half the other sports out there, have sold their souls to television to the point that half the clubs are unsustainable without the money they receive which just isn't healthy. Even then it looks like you can only be really financially secure if you have someone stupid enough to pump their own hard earned money into the club.

I dare say there are other clubs out there who would struggle without the Sky money, but unfortunately it seems that we're the only ones who they choose to punish in this way. Whoever comes in (if anyone) will essentially have their hands tied from the start. It's easy to say that we don't have to pay the creditors now, but surely it's not that simple both morally (ha ha ha!... morals! But in all seriousness, they have employees and people depending on them too) and also due to the fact that we will still need services and products to operate as a club that we will have to source from either the current creditors or someone else?

Meanwhile, the people who (on both occasions) have taken the club into administration trot off over the horizon. What punishment do they receive?

What a stupid way of running a sport.

Maybe we'd be better off joining the RFU instead, after all I hear they allow broken time payments now...!

I seem to recall that, when in Special Measures, you have to pay HMRC on a monthly basis.

Its a vicious circle though.

Special measures = can't sign new players to help improve perfromances and therefore income to get the club OUT opf special measures.

Along with the scandalous £2/3m Sky money confiscation.

With an already very small squad.

Add in the points deduction, and the only way to get out of the hole is for owners to put in a shedload of cash.

And no such potential oweners have been forthcoming. Caisley sought them out; they were not there. Hood sought them out; they were not there. Caisley and co again then allegedly sought them out, and said they HAD such funding; but they and it were not there. Khan sought them out; but only wanted small-scale investors and, in the end, even they were not there. And again we seek them out; and again they are not there.

I've put £2 on the Euromillions tonight.

£170k sound like maybe 3 months PAYE to me. Yes, that's right. At the most.

Which would be the PAYE payable 22/12, 22/1 and 22/2 (from the Jan payroll) I presume?

Now, given that the club ownership went out of the window just before Xmas, it is hardly surprising that the 22/12 payment was likely not paid then? And the ongoing failure to resolve the ownership, with the club being technically insolvent, makes it hardly surprising that it was not paid in January? Or that the payment due 22/1 will not have been paid when due? Given the risks of fraudulent preference. And of course, the payment due 22/2 was not even DUE when the administrator was appointed end January.

I was pleasantly surprised that the amount owing to HMRC was as comparatively low, and short term, as this. Compare and contrast £500k owed by Bulls last time (albeit a lot of back-claimed VAT in there), £500k by London a few years ealier, and £750 by Wakefield.

The Sky money confiscation is the body blow we haven't recovered from, which, in all likelihood was the penalty for the RFL thinking/having the wool pulled over their eyes over the sale of the lease. It is true that like other clubs, we have been appallingly managed for a number of years, and like other clubs we have been punished when the reality occurred with points deductions, but we are the only club to be doubly punished. Before others comment that we were supported with the lease sale, the RFL, this was secured against an asset, not a gift as others insinuate.

A cynic might think that the RL would prefer it if the Bulls are punished to the point that they either go out of business or get relegated due to either a points deduction or losing games due to a weak squad or losing players.

That would then mean only one team needs to be relegated at the end of the season so there's less chance of them losing both London and Catalan. After all, better to lose one of the pesky teams that insist on being based around the M62 rather than one of the expansion teams that the RFL crave success for.

A cynic might think that.

Without reading the entire thread...

Firstly..... to todays events.

Secondly, apologies if someones mentioned it, but isnt the points deductions and sanctions as a result of the way we exit administration in terms of creditors and business plan? With BB2014 walking away, are we not still in Admin? Indeed, did we ever leave? If so how can we have a points deduction applied yet? Are we not now back in the hands of the administrator? And if a new deal is struck with someone else, would the points deduction and sanctions not need to be re-assessed against the actual exit from administration?

Even the RFL aren't so stupid to drive us out of business and see the asset they bought overnight become worthless are they? It look that way, but.........

Really good point, in case Ken Morrison or his family are reading this.

Adey I maybe wrong but prior to admin wasn't there a HMRC petition for £170,000 I maybe mistaken having seen so many winding up orders over the past 12 months at Wakey