McBully has gone on record acknowledging the faults of Bradford in the past and I am happy to do so too. But that surely does that mean we are not allowed to mention what's going on right now? Rovers have earned their place in SL, but I think the gripe is with Hudgell not Hull KR. His distasteful spat with Chalmers, was partly about a clash of personalities (Chalmers is a gobe admittedly), but also because Chalmers publicly and persistently sought to stand up for the championship and C1 clubs in the face of the levels of self-interest we've never seen before.

I won't give an exhaustive account of the demise of Bradford but you are of course correct that those who were at the club itself are not blameless. The money raised by the whole game for Bradford many years ago under Peter Hood was a wonderful thing and I'm sure we all remain very grateful for it. He did indeed monumentally eff that up and we went bust anyway. That's a case of our own failings.

On the flip side, as I'm afraid I'll say ad nauseum, we had backers actively wanting to take control at Bradford worth millions, and each time they were rejected. That helped install a cycle of failure.

The very last part of your post really is interesting.
If these backers were willing and as wealthy as you suggest, why on earth were they "rejected" ?

Exactly! These were people who the administrator were willing to accept but the RFL weren't. One consortia featuring people involved with Wasps RFC were really advanced, had met all the players to get them on board rather than looking for other clubs, had registered bulls companies at companies house etc. They absolutely knew they had the best bid and had no inkling the RFL would instead opt to bring in someone they'd used as a "fix-it" man in the past, and that man was Andrew Chalmers. No money but a traditional RFL loyalist. That didn't work out great as he went completely renegade.

Its all fishy if you ask me and gives the impression that the RFL have had a specific vision for Bradford for quite a while, I just haven't a clue what it is.

Aside from the off-field dealings the RFL did with prospective owners (like they have been mentioned above regarding the Wasps consortium and putting Chalmers in place of actual money men) what on field help did the RFL give us?

After liquidation a team is normally relegated immediately and start the season in the league below. We were forced to stay in the Championship even though at the time the majority were 'happy' to go into League 1. But we were forced to stay, given an unprecedented 12 point deduction (no team had ever had this before) and was not allowed to sign players in time for the 2017 season so we were forced to go with kids and had the 2016 squad stripped apart during this time. Even though we should have been in League 1 with 0 point deduction as relegation would have been punishment enough. Thankfully the likes of Leeds helped us out by loaning us 4 players (Jordan-Roberts, Hallas, Lilley and Oledzki) just so we could field a team. Where was this 'help' from the RFL.

In addition to this there have been numerous times where we have been in administration (full fault goes to the owners) but then punished by not receiving a fair share of the TV money. I'm sure Omar Khan was told by the RFL that in order to takeover he had to sacrifice a portion of the central funding (why would you punish a club with financial problems by denying them money that is rightfully theirs? makes no sense). I would have been happy if this central money got reinvested into grassroots rugby as would most Bulls fans, but instead the greedy owners of SL voted to share that money between themselves, putting Bradford at an even bigger disadvantage. Again I ask what 'help' did we get?

The only viable thing the RFL have essentially 'helped' in is taking over the Odsal lease. However in recent years it's been shown that although the cash injection at the time was good, the overall long term repercussions of this have been bad for both the Bulls and the RFL.

I just wish other fans would take their rose tinted glasses off for two minutes and actually look at all this. If you change the words Bradford Bulls to a Wakefield/Hull KR/Salford etc I don't think fans would be too quick to state the RFL 'helped' them.

It's just like this supposed 12th team. Regardless of who it is (London, Leigh or Fev deserve it) they will have the financial disadvantage that Bradford had except this time the governing body is SL rather than RFL. They would operate on less central money (why? every club should get an equal share), no doubt the money they miss out on would be redistributed to the other 11 teams causing more financial disadvantage. Plus a lesser time to build an SL squad, putting them at a disadvantage on the field. It's why I don't really want Bradford to get the 12th spot. It is a poison chalice. The 12th club is destined to fail or be whipping boys.

Sorry for the rant. It's just really frustrating seeing other teams fans having a go at Bradford when the governing body at the time had a huge hand in who took over and in essence the financial problems that occurred after. Not exactly a 'help'.

Just a shame because in my opinion we have the best sport in the world. And a proper governing body with the sports interest at heart would be ideal for the game, not having SL clubs run the show as it inevitable ends in self preservation rather than the benefit of the sport. For what it's worth I'd have a 14 team Super League including Leigh, Toulouse and York/Bradford. With plans to expand to 16 (like the NRL) within 5 years (York/Bradford, Newcastle etc). I don't think having all 3 of Wakefield, Castleford and Featherstone would be viable, would be great if it was but not sure it would work.

Anyway, back on topic. If the Sky deal is reduced, Elstone has failed massively and in my opinion it's a disgrace that the lower league gets less money whilst SL's stays the same (depending on the worth of the Sky deal). £400k down the drain. We need a unified governing body which will initially consolidate the sport to ensure we survive, then can try to take us forward.

I envisage Bulls getting in SL in the first announcement next month and a couple of months later another announcement that there will be no relegation in 2021, despite Robert Elstone's recent quote stating otherwise. The sport needs some form of stabilization after Covid and we could even see promotion to SL in 2022 and 2023 (with no relegation) taking the league to 14. Magic fixture plus 13 home and 13 away games totaling 27 rounds which would certainly be the fans preferred choice.

There won't be a "poisoned chalice" and my guess would be that Leigh (2022) followed by London or York (2023) will make the step up.

But then why not come out and say that? It would make sense to make that public. It would allow the lower SL clubs to rest easier and maybe even spend less next season knowing there would be no relegation so could sure up finances.

It would allow the 12th club to recruit shrewdly over this off season and not spend wildly to stay up before being told there's no relegation.

It would allow the other Championship clubs to build over the next two years to see who gets spots 13 and 14 so they know what they are aiming for.

And for those clubs that aren't anywhere near such as Whitehaven, Sheffield, Dewsbury, Batley etc could consolidate their finances over the next 3 seasons knowing they ain't going up and can then build towards 2024 where promotion/relegation may take place again. If promotion/relegation didn't take place in 2024 and SL became an NRL like closed shop then at least the Championship/League 1 clubs could use the next 4 years to consolidate and build a really good Championship league in it's own right.

The dictatorship of SLY rides again. Lets throw a lifeline to the Bulls. What happened to expansion? The M62 corridor? SL just killed the game...…………..

Can't see how SKY was involved in the whole 2017 season scandal in the post you quoted considering SKY don't care about the Championship or League 1. Or how SKY was involved in the SL club vote to take our funding and distribute amongst themselves? Or how SKY was involved in the vetting process for our owners which prevented people with money taking over in favour of Marc Green and later in Andrew Chalmers? Honestly can't even see SKY being involved in the potential return of Bradford. If the Bulls do get the 12th spot it's entirely to the benefit of the other SL teams as we do take a very good away following and with the 'return' to SL I can see us taking a fair few. The big teams will all have 10-15k gates against us at home, and the likes of Hull and Wakefield would benefit from a Bradford away following. But people forget we aren't the massive club we once was. It won't be like the good old days of 20k crowds and sell outs. It will still be a better following that most but not mega. As I said, Toulouse, Leigh or Featherstone deserve that 12th spot.

I'm an expansionist, I want the game to grow. I was gutted that Toronto failed like it did, but genuine expansion I'm all for. Catalans for a while did it well. Had a core of French players then rounded the squad out with Aussies. However that's flipped in more recent times. At the moment for me, Toulouse, York, Newcastle are the best 'expansion' clubs. But I'm liking the work West Wales are doing, squad pretty much full of Welsh players and trying to do it properly albeit a few spankings on the way.

M62 corridor does need fortifying and building at the moment especially in the current climate. Financially clubs are struggling (except the big money backed clubs) and if that means we sacrifice expansion for the short term in order to consolidate and build then so be it.

SL by appointing Elstone is killing the game. What has he done in his time (assuming the new SKY deal is less) which effectively kills the lower leagues. Wasn't it Elstone who took the Magic Weekend to Liverpool which was considered a failure. Hence why it's back at Newcastle? I'm happy to be proved wrong but everything Elstone was paid to do, he's failed or is failing on?

Forgive me as it's been a long day but I can't understand what your point was or at least what you meant by it?

I for one do not want Bradford in SL, fake team nowadays, awful ground, even more awful village near Leeds.

This idea that the money raised came from the whole game is utter nonsense. The vast majority came from the 'pledge' scheme with some notable contributions from the Chairman at Widnes. The buckets were a total embarrassment whose contribution was tiny. During a similar situation at Wakefield the fans point blank refused to contribute to the saving of their own club let alone the Bulls.

I enjoyed all your Bradford posts and analysis, very interesting indeed very informative and of course your analysis of SKY that they are not in any way controlling the game was also bang on. The promotion of the club in order for it to bring a large paying fanbase back into Superleague is understandable when crowds have gone down in recent years, however all the indications are and all the bets are Bulls would be likely to just go straight back down.

I cannot see this for one second. To ride roughshod over so called "more deserving clubs" to place Bulls in SL for their large fan base, on reduced SKY money that may well help a bottom place finish and relegation then allow them to dissapear back to the Championship has no logic, and is probably an insult to the Superleague chairmen who simply are not stupid. Nor are those who are running the Bulls at this present time.

There is a regular assumption that the current set up will just go on and on despite the Elephant in the room of the new SKY deal. It's a fact that a new format of a 2x10 club SL was not just suggested but voted on. It's a fact that so called expansion was tried but the final analysis of this by people engaged to look at the validity of overseas clubs decided that such clubs add nothing to the game here, but certainly take away players and erm.......

Provide no away fans.

So it's fairly easy to stand back and see that a new SKY deal will lead to a new set up and that may continue the work of dismantling the geographical expansion of the game (for thats all it was no new players or new TV deals came in), it may change the line up of Superleague 2022, and above all it may include Bradford Bulls exemption from relegation at the end of 2021. I don't think for a second that Nigel Wood is organising for Bradford to boost crowds in Superleague 2021 and then just slide back to Championship oblivion......

peddling the Bradford myth, again?

Just to correct you, the collections/ donations at Wakefield were deliberately kept away from the club and put in trust for the incoming administration, if not it would have been spaffed away by the doomed previous owners.
I think many suggested that Bradford should have done the same but, IIRC they chose to try and use the monies to try and plug some holes in the sinking ship - a HUGE mistake, which cost Bradford a huge amount of good will.

one of the rare occurrences where we agree, Wakefield have a planning submission in to extend Belle Vue, Bradford want promoting because the RFL own their ground. I would rather see York added to SL than Bradford, they gave us sponge fingers and a remote control car for the kicking tee... more crass than class!