FA your two alternatives are subsets of one alternative, which is that membership continues. This has to be seen in the light of the second alternative, that nobody wants to apply for membership and so membership discontinues. clearly when membership had not been continued then the phrase "membership shall be deemed to have subsisted as if it had not ceased to be a member at all" cannot apply. My interpretation of continuing is in that context.

you still refer to owners, when there is only club, controlling person and membership. Obviously I stand to be corrected, but in the bits relevant to this discussion I cannot find any reference to owner. and this has to be the case, surely you have heard the term shadow director, someone who controls a company if they were a director, whether or not they are appointed or have shares in the company.

OKB controlled the club as members of the RFL etc that club were penalised for an insolvency event. a new controlling person was found, (eventually as you say) who applied to the RFL for membership of the same club to the RFL etc. That was continuing membership, and so the club was allowed to appeal the penalty as if the club had never had its membership withdrawn. No owners, no shares, just membership (or not). Which is why the member club gets deducted points, not the controlling person.

Guys - I think we have more members here than would be found at one of Messalina's parties - could we withdraw a few of them?

The RFL was clearly sick of tintervening in Bulls financial underwriting by August 2012.
Ok was "given" the remains of the club.
The private nature of the agreement with him at August/September is finally been released into the public domain.
The RFL are sick of the games name at government level been tarnished with non payment of Tax Business rates et al.

So they gave Ok this.
A message from the outset.
Run it solvently.

For t5he last time I will tell forum members Bradford Bulls paid up to the salary cap in season 2012 -2013.
And contracts in place by December of 2013 show this would also have been the case this season.
Three big earners have departed.
So the club are currently paying under cap.

If creditors are £1.2 million (and that figure will vary with the latest revelation)it strikes me the RFL were attempting to ensure the Bulls did not hide behind "limited Liabilty" of shareholders in insolvency.

Ok will have to pay.
He knew what the "costs" of running the club were.
And completely failed in 12 months to correct haemoraging losses.

The creditors may live to see something?
I doubt it.
The lawyers will.

I know personally how angry Nigel Wood and the RFL were after the 2012 fiasco.

Some of the thuings that went on at the Bulls in OK"s tenure are simply unbelievable.

I see Adeybull has gone very quiet in recent months.
He knows a lot.

The concept of "limited liability" sits uncomfortably where 58 per cent of top professional sports clubs operate at a loss.

Well Done the RFL I say for making OK personally liable for his pathetic attempt to run the club solvently

The difference in reality is that Carter put his house on the line in order to run the club solvently. OK put his cahoots on the line but carried on running it as chaotically as before, which is what the RFL are clearly unhappy about.

The RFL desire is for clubs to run themselves solvently, not for chairman to make promises they then dispute once the guarantee is called in.

On a more positive note, the timing might benefit you, because it tarnishes the previous owner, not the current, so they might give the new owner a bit more leeway.

Do any of the points raised via all the typing involved to generate the questions, answers and debate actually matter anymore?

Whatever problems OK is saddled with now are squarely down to his own actions (or lack of them). He came seeking publicity and adulation, he briefly got that and now we know more about him than we did. What was his name again?

Omar Khant I think

I did have a bit of a laugh myself before pressing the submit button at the number of members and their incontinuence. But its up to FA to work out that its down to those that control the members to withdraw them, not the members owners.

After weeks of trying to work it out I'm now convinced you are Stuart Duffy

Can't be. He's not slated the fans for not going to games

You need to look at the definition of ‘club’ in the RFL articles of association which is the holding company holding the RFL share that entitles it to RFL membership. The member, owner and the club here are interchangeable BUT the member owner, club and the team on the field are not.

OKB held the RFL share and membership, they were the ‘club’(i.e member/owner) this was then sold to BB2014 who were granted some sort of temporary share and such they became ‘the club’ however they never completed that purchase so it seems that the share and assets went back to OKBulls and as such they became ‘the club’ again. Marc Green then purchased the assets of OKB from the administrator, and applied to the RFL for an RFL share, when he was granted this BBNL became ‘the club’ and OKB and BB2014 were liquidated.

So whilst the stadium, players, kit, name, badge, brand etc all stayed the same, a new company BBNL was granted the share and became a new member.

Could be the rfl angle - either Solly/Rimmer or their secretary

Roger I am but one of you.
But without the rose tinted.
On a happier note I did say somewhere I thought it would be good if the Bulls won the cup this year.

Two games from Wembley of course that is possible.
Anything is on the day.
Supporters need to be there in their bucketful.

Even if Marc Green IS a Leeds fan I think he will know whats needed.
So will Ferres.

What is not needed is a shedload of overpaid players that finish 8th 9th or 10th every year that take the club by virtue of the ridiculous salaries given, to the point of no longer existing.
Freedom of Speech does not make me Stuart Duffey.
Any more than it makes me "The Man From Uncle" or Peter Brady.
Now you see it now you don't.

That's how close the Bulls were.
Twice in 17 months