There's no evidence that the Bulls deliberately misrepresented their financial position during the last round of franchise applications - it's far more likely that they made some assumptions that simply weren't supported. And the only Championship club in a position to make a serious bid made a mess of it. Hardly the fault of anyone at the Bulls.

How else could they have phrased it? if they'd not highlighted those issues now but left it until after the RFL had approved the offer, they'd rightly be accused of attempting to mislead the RFL.

Can't understand this Fev or Fax showdown, the clubs who have already qualified to apply next time are Leigh, Fev and Sheffield. At this moment Fev's ground is nowhere near ready.
Having the showdown in September would give little chance for any Championship club to move up and create a FT structure to compete with the Bulls potential in 2013, if thats the deal maker then we may have another RFL smokescreen instead of doing what's right.

Would they have to get the aproval of the owners of the ground aswell?

Glad to see you agree with licensing rather than P&R.

Don't be daft

That isn't the same as P&R is it. Under P&R clubs started the season knowing that a team would be promoted if they won the GF. They expected it, they PREPARED for it all season if they had hopes to be promoted. That isn't the case this year. Until about 2/3 weeks ago when it became clear how much trouble Bradford were in nobody in the championship had even considered going to SL next year. 'Fev, 'Fax and Leigh have all recently launched campaigns for 'Destination Super League - 2014' or something similar.

All the aspiring Championship clubs are geared up for promotion under the licensing system, wether they like it or not. To say at the last minute that somebody will be promoted a year early is going to cause problems for the hopeful clubs. And using "Well I thought you WANTED promotion and relegation" as an argument to try and mollify the championship clubs who are caught flat footed is frankly ridiculous.

Just to point out the lease on Odsal the RFL own has a condition in it that should the Bulls not play their home matches there they owe Bradford Council a repayment of some of the money given to the club as part of the Odsal settlement when we returned there from Valley Parade. I think this clause runs until 2018.
This already provides a clear financial penalty to anyone buying the lease from the RFL then trying to shift the Bulls out. Of course Bradford Council could agree to a change of use for the land.

My thoughts are confirmed.

The reason why we all know that point is rubbish, is because if it were true, then the offer would have already failed, and the Bulls would be in liquidation. You just haven't thought it through; ABC won't sign unless the conditions are agreed, yet somehow the discussions are still going on. What are they discussing then? Ugandan relations?


On that we can agree. They should have got their assurances in private at the meetings they have had. They could have kept these details 'private' in which case it would not look in public so much like a gun pointed at the RFL's head. Offers in negotiations, and ultimatums, are pretty much the same thing, but appearances count for a lot.

Conspiracy theories, moral stances and rumours aside.....

The RFL will give their assurances to ABC, the SL clubs will (begrudgingly) agree and the Bulls will take a larger than normal points deduction this season.

They'll then be have a clean slate for the new multi-cultural Bradford Bulls next season.

I can't really see anything different from that. I'm guessing more than 4 points deduction because of the assurances they'll have to give and the length of time in Admin. Making a RL team more multi-cultural is also something that the RFL might like the look of.

Well, if the RFL decide to sell the lease to the ABC consortium I wonder if we’ll get to know how much for.

It took them long enough to admit to the £700k loan, then all the nonsense about ‘Iconic’ stadium status, complete with a further lump of cash.

I’m sure, whatever the financial loss to the RFL, it’ll have all been worth while.

We are family

This
You may have hit a nerve with this one.
Are the consortium really committed to RL at Odsal or, is there some other reason why they would want a huge, largely under develloped site in Bradford ?

They could have made enquiries in private before going public. They could have stated that they were interested in buying the club but would need [iclarification[/i on Bradford's SL status and the lease situation before finalising their plans. That's just off the top of my head.

I realise this is largely semantics, but these kind of things can scupper deals when badly-worded staments are made to the media.

Has the deal been agreed? No.

Not accepting a deal isn't the same as rejecting it out of hand. There are always options.


My guess would be they're discussing a way to agree a deal without appearing to accept a conditional offer.

I never said it was a deal killer, just that it's put an unnecessary hurdle in the way.

Fair enough, but as far as I know the consortium haven't made any public statements. All of the comments in the press appear to have been made by the Administrator.

Interestingly, and perhaps worryingly, he still hasn't made any comment on the nitty gritty of the offer. How much if anything they propose to pay creditors.