I've come round to the view that we should tell SL/RFL to stuff it, and have the championship clubs break away and form our own league. Rugby League not Super League.

I really don't see why it is any fault of the new owner. He wasn't involved in the old company so why should he be liable for their debts?



Without some form of process to deal with the failure of a Limited Liability Company no-one would ever take a commercial risk (it all goes back the the South Sea Bubble).

Administration in itself is not perfect but it can be a good way of saving a business from the scrapheap, preserving jobs and returning some value to creditors. It has got a bad name over the years due to some very high profile cases involving "pre-packs" where the same people end up owning the assets after the process but with the debt removed, but that is a product of the behaviour of individuals rather than a failure of the principle. Chapter 11 in the USA has a similar problem and they are also looking to close loopholes.

I have contributed to various working parties looking into how to improve the management of a company's failure and it is constantly reviewed - the removal of Crown Privilege as recently as 2002 for example - but unfortunately there are always very clever people looking for ways to get an advantage by sharp practice.

For what it's worth I think the Bulls are just victims of bad management and incompetence by the previous regime and there are no shenanigans going on.

For me the issue isnt OK its the morals and competencies of the RFL and the franchise process.

BB have assets, its the players and the SL franchise - they have been bought for 150k

Will be a rush for Bateman then.

Apparently there is a "gentlemen's agreement" that no one will sign a Bulls player until their season is complete.

I understand that Whitehead and Bateman will be wearing some shade of blue and yellow next year

It's a joke.

The best way I can see fo Leigh to handle this would be to declare that they are willing to submit to the mini-licence, but only on the condition that, should it be accepted, we should be guaranteed a full licence in 2014.
Obviously SL will never allow this, but it would make us look an ambitious and forward looking club.
If we stay out of it then we have to admit to not having any ambition at all.

I seem to recall our administrator was keen to sell Street, Hansen, Collier etc - how times have changed.

Love the gentleman's agreement not to buy players. So now instead of paying for the likes of bateman the SL clubs could have their pick for free?

If Leigh want to get into SL and I believe they mostly do, then Leigh should apply under the rules set. Even if the rules are daft and Bulls are nailed on to get it. Play the RFL silly games and admin processes. apply for the mini franchise. It gives us more practise and gets us dealing with the people who make the decisions so that they see that we are people that they like doing business with.

They don't need us and we and they know that. We have to change their minds that SL would be enhanced by having us in. WE wont convince them by being awkward. We tried it and it didn't work.

Play the game.

I agree with everything you say however pre pack admin is just a cop out. Sounds awful but if you can't get fair value (and I GENUINELY believe some administrators are brought in as yes men, who hired this particular administrator?) then the company should be liquidated and Bradford should start again.
I simply cannot understand how Wakefield have a scenario in which all their best players are sold, and left with the bare bones to start again and Bradford get off relatively scot free.. lets be honest, it could feasibly be a strong bulls team next year.

The creditors in this scenario will be left with absolutely diddly squat due to criminally bad management and bad faith while the club suffers a whopping 6 point deduction and carries on as normal. Pre packs absolutely stink.

Totally agree.

We must expose this for the farce that it is by applying and participating. When it comes to finance all we need are a series of business's willing to back the proposal with quoted amounts of cash. This is all the RFL need, its viability/availability is not required as per the BB and others.

If SL/RFL are going to do it we have to be in it.

We've already made it clear as per Keith Freer's comments at the last fans form that we are willing to step up if Bradford either cannot do so or are deemed unfit to. Therefore for us not to get involved would surely put a question mark about our ability to step up next season when the normal round of franchising is carried out.

How would they work it though... lets say either Leigh, Fev or Fax get in ahead of Bradford, does this then mean that this club is ommitted from the franchising review next year thus getting 4 years to get it right or would they not go through the process at the end of next season?

Apologies if this has been answered as I haven't had time to read the entire thread.

Our next franchise farce is 2014.