The company i work for owes $20m to the parent company. A fraction of that is from trading losses. Much of it is from exchange losses on a loan stretching back to 1994 and some is debt transfer from the US parents' own books when they bought the company. "Published" figures don't always tell the whole story.

Rugby League has to be a hobby for these backers. Ken Davy at Huddersfield and before him, Tony Gartland at Halifax are two examples i know of. These men are heroes in my book, as are the other backers who plough money into the game, without much thanks.

It has gone from players losing cars, houses, mobile phones and in the not too distant future I can see rumours of John Dixon busking in Cardiff City centre to earn a few pence.

Can the people coming up with this tripe please keep it somewhere else other than our forum as it is getting ridiculous now.

Right I'm off to the game but hear we've had to sell our shorts to pay Kevin Ellis this weeks wages so will be sporting black shirts, black shorts and jock straps.

Should get some female fans in if nothing else.

Agreed these people are the lifeblood of the game and no doubt "lose" money by their involvement.

A concern/niggle is that, to some, running a RL club is seen as a "hobby" and not as a business and unfortunately this has caused a lot of clubs, including Keighley several times, to go to the wall.

I know that the people involved do have the game at heart otherwise why would they bother but sometimes basic financial sense needs to rule the roost.

What I do "know" is that several " top sides" as well as co-op teams, are probably trading "illegally" as are many soccer clubs, even more so the premier league.

The nature of the beast though is that do survive or like the phoenix arise renewed from the ashes but then go through the same process all over again.

I suppose, deep down, we all should be greatful that the game at a "professional" exists at all in some areas thanks to the involvment of these backers because if not, and the the full weight of businees law applied, there would, I suggest, be very few "professional" RL clubs left and soccer would probably cease to exist in places, (although that would be no bad thing. )

I couldn't give a rats a$$ about celtics problems, well ok maybe I do a little because they have a core of fans which may end up in a situation like ours not so long back, Widnes fans main focus is the Final tomorrow and the league we are in there after

you how ever are a 1st prizehttps://gamesnet.vo.llnwd.net/o1/gamestar/objects/103240_main.jpg" >

Exactley, we dont know if they would have gone bust, all we know is that they would have been losing money, but i could have told you that without any figures, its the same for any team relegated to the nl's that still have there sl infrastructure in place and a top playing squad.

Correct. It's really not rocket science is it?

But you need hard evidence to prove these things around here.