Whoooooooosh.

There’s nothing deranged about his passion for his club.

However, he must have a very snazzy pair of rose tinted spectacles.

I’ve no idea what the stipulations were of the loan, but if the RFL had lent £700k in January 2011 & Bradford hadn’t paid back a dime by the end of the year, contrary to the agreement, there’s no wonder they got twitchy bums, and went for Plan B.

Unfortunately as soon as the bank got wind that Bradford’s major asset had been sold off, they got twitchy as well, allegedly.

Not jealousy at all, and you seem better informed than to make such a crass assumption; the point I'm making is that the governing body shouldn't be endorsing *any* whip-round, regardless of the club involved - they didn't do it for WTW, rightly so, and they shouldn't do it for Bradford. Let's imagine for example, that this begging exercise results in a temporary stay of execution and allows the incumbent BoD to continue in situ, doing what they've always done - spending money they don't have whilst bemoaning their lack of a welathy benefactor. Then, in six months time, they hit another iceberg and the club goes down, taking a million quid of wellwishers money with it; will the RFL compensate the people who were persuaded to donate by their own endorsement? I very much doubt it.

Further, I still fail to see why people are so certain that Bradford wouldn't be resuced from admin; if perennial underachievers and unloved basket case WTW were, why not Bradford who, it seems, are essential to the future of SL?

That the sound of the bulls going down the pan?

I genuinely think people are wasting their money trying to rescue Bulls with £100 donations. It is peeing in the wind. They need a Sugar Daddy to sustain the club, the £1,000,000 will only pay off immediate debts. Whan they have paid the £100 is that the last they will see of it.

A tremendous gesture from Steve O'Connor - one of many from the RL family. Leon Pryce, Jamie Peacock and Stuart Fielden are to be applauded too for auctioning off some priceless personal memorabilia from the height of their careers. Twitter is flooded with events/messages of support for the Bradford cause. Brings a tear to the eye & reminds us all why RL is the greatest game.

Damn right, donate £10,000 like Steve 'Thor' O'connor

a proper chairman and a true rugby league man

Please - it was NOT the club's major asset!! It had pretty well no value in the event of insolvency.

You mean Steve's £10,000 deposit on the player of his choice.



Plus a whole load of positive publicity for him and Widnes. Shrewd businessman.

Can SOC possibly kiss any more RFL ass?

I'd guess the RFL will make up the difference if the Bulls miss the target, so he just saved them ten grand

There is that, yes

Im hoping for Ben jeffries myself.

I think you'd buy Ben Jefferies and his house for that

So what they going to do shortly after the 6th April when the £500k's gone? Ask for another half a million from the gulible?

Erm...well actually, yes!

This is just to operate beyond the next pay day.

I know, and many of the mugs who've coughed up this time will do so again (I would add 'and again' but it won't go on that long) just delaying the inevitable.

Gotta love the "loans" being handed out left right and centre by the RFL to Superleague clubs that don't have the word "London" in their names


The Flatearth Society are very quiet, I must say......

Totally fair call mate!

You deserve to make the most of this!

Alas, as a RL fan, I get lettle pleasure out of the potential demise of a great club. 2005's Vote aside, Bradford are an important club in a lot of ways to the sport. For the best RL Club in the world in 2006 to be close to the brink speaks volumes about how that game is being run and I don't just mean in the ESL era either.
For too long in the 70's and 80's, off field issues were ignored in favour of chasing trophies....then everyone who could afford to (an a lot who couldn't) went chasing Wigans coat tails....and the family silver was flogged off.

RL needs to remember where its roots are.....the fans make the club, not the stadium, the players of the BOD. Without the fans, even Uncle Ruperts advertisers wouldn't be interested.
RL is not soccer and never will be...the sooner the guys running the game see that and accept it the better.....IMO that is.

I'd just be satisfied to know what criteria the RFL work to, when deciding who to loan money to.

They must have a system. They can't just arbirtrarily pick and choose who and how they help...can they??

Im pretty sure they dont do it arbitrarily, though the conspiracy theorists do seem to have a problem separating arbitrary and subjective.

Hence, there must be a basis on which they gave a 700k loan to Bulls (which they failed to repay and instead contra'd for the stadium lease).

Just wondered what that basis is.

The RFL refusing an advance of the Sky TV money 15 months ago (note: no hand-out was asked for), put WTW on the road to recovery perversely.

Why are Bradford a "special case"?

Serious answers please.

because they had an asset which come armageddon could be taken in exchange for loan. The same reason Crusaders got a loan (which again was paid back through the sale of said asset) and the lack of which would be an obvious reason Wakefield werent.

It seems a perfectly justified decision not to advance Wakefield the Sky TV money as there is a strong possibility that WTW would have fallen over anyway and the new club would be about £1.2m less attractive to a potential buyer.

Odsal isn't worth a lot in a stable, happy and progressive world. It's all when Armageddon happens!

Bulls took a loan against an asset, yet couldn't repay it. WTW asked for an advance - which incidently had been given to more than 1 other SL club - yet were refused.

I am happy enough with the outcome i.e. the removal of the Richardsons - but there is a cloak and dagger, opaque nature to the RFL's way of dealing with different clubs.

That is wrong.

RBS dont agree with you. They seemed happy to value Odsal as an asset.

There is no cloak and dagger, you are just seeing what you want to see.

Bradford havent had an advance either.