Good question.

Get ready for the RFL to bend the rules for some, yet not others...yet again!!

With such a financial black cloud, sadly but fairly.....their SL license should be revoked!! We are barely into the new season, and debts of this size don't just pop up overnight. So either their accounts as presented for last years license application process were bent!....or their business plan for this franchise period was absolute BS which the RFL either bought into....or selectively ignored!

Frankly speaking it stinks!!!


I will add......I genuinely feel sorry for the Bulls fans!! keep your chins up guys!!

The RFL are in a bad position here with the money they they owe them, if they dont help them out and they go in to Admin then the will be paid pennies in the pound, if they do help them where does that leave every other team - you would either need to give them a similar lump sum or just allow them to be run badly as they would have to bail you out as they set a precedent with Bradford. Last year they did not help out Wakey so will be interesting to see what the RFL decide this year!

Consider some clubs got panned cos their financial predictions were speculative..................

The articles are pretty clear, and contain enough information to answer most of the questions.

It's stated that Bradford haven't any revenue from the sale of Odsall as they had to use it to pay the RFL back. They've been living off their overdraft for goodness knows how long. The bank has cut off their cash supply and they're not able to pay their bills this month.

Now all that's easily understood, and can be easily rectified by the RFL by coming to a new agreement for either reversing their decision to wan all their money repaid and coming up with a new payment plan. However the questions come when you start to question the information given by the Chairman.

It's quoted that Bradford turnover £3-4M and their operating costs are £2.5M. Where does the difference go ? How have they got into that position ? The sale of Odsall was to secure their future.

Clearly the board (especially the Chairman) have been fibbing to the RFL, their sponsors and the supporters. Any deal outside the begging bowl should come with open access to all the facts, and the resignation of their Chairman.

The most alarming part is that the only time you would expect a club to ask the fans to bail them out is when all approached to the banks, RFL, sponsors, and any other avenue has been refused as too big a risk.

As has been said on the Bradford board by others I'm starting to think that the RFL saw the books and wanted their money back unfortunatly odsal was all Bradford had so a deal was rushed though giving the RFL odsal instead of them getting their loan back.

It is also then possible that the bank expecting a large deposit into the bulls account from the sale have got rather twitchy when no monies appeared.

Another thing is how much of this did the players know about it?
I cannot see Whitehead signing for a new deal if he though this was in the offing as on example.
I cannot see Sammut deciding to go from one bankrupt club to another one as another.

Mismanagement by the board and disappointing that was not picked up earlier by the RFL

I'm sure they will survive in some form or other but heads should roll for this and Directors should be struck off due to their incompetence

Disappointing ! , are you being serious ? , it was ignored , plain and simple , either incompetance or corruption , take your pick

I will take option B

Stinks of it!

I mean I'm disappointed. In terms of ignored, corruption, etc etc you are right on all counts

Will this debacle see the return of Bradford Northern?

If this were football this would be debated to death on the radio and in the press and we'd get to the bottom of it. Being so small and un-newsworthy, the RFL and Bradford will no doubt escape being pushed for answers as to how this has happened.

This mess throws the franchise system even further into farce. If Bradford's accounts and cashflows were so bad at the time of the franchise decision, why was it ignored? It also raises the question that if Bradford were allowed in with such an unsustainable business plan and commercial performance, perhaps other clubs were as well. How certain are we that the likes of Wakefield, London, Castleford, Hull KR and St Helens aren't also at death's door?

its such a shame our game is run by bafoons and now they seem to be less than honest bafoons which is even sadder

I can see the same happening for Bradford. WHo in the right mind would lend a bust company money? They need that £1m for the next month, but what happens after that? Another £1m, then another...?

If the company goes into administration, chances are another company will come in, and the fans will not notice the difference, except of course for the 10 or so points they will be docked. OK, maybe a few players will need to leave, and that will weaken the team, but sometimes you need to take a step back in order to be able to move forward.