Naughty Boys at York...

Statement from the Club
Friday 3 July 2009

Following comments from a number of Knights fans the club would like to release the following statement regarding last Friday's events which resulted in five players and our Director of Rugby been suspended. As reported in the Press the incident took place in the Executive Suite at Headingley on Friday night prior to, during and following the Rhinos match against Bradford. As a key partner of the Rhinos the Knights have been given a table of corporate hospitality at all Leeds Rhinos home games for the next three seasons. As a reward for the players we allocated this game to them and allowed them to raise money for the players fund by running a competition for supporters, hence the six Knights fans that attended with the players and staff. The Rhinos charge more than £1,000 per match for a table in this category of hospitality and have hundreds of groups of people attending their matches every year. Four different corporate guests complained about the behaviour and conduct of the Knights table as well as the lady doing the after match speeches. In addition to this the derogatory comments written on the table cloth and comments during the game itself are also completely out of order and unacceptable. The Rhinos have only ever had two complaints about the conduct of their guests of which the Knights are one of them. The Knights partnership with the Rhinos is worth tens of thousands of pounds every year and is one that the club cannot afford to loose. The players and staff were complimentary guests of the Rhinos the behaviour of the Knights table was extremely unprofessional, even more so when the party included senior players and coaching staff. The players and staff have let the club down, team mates and supporters and we had no alternative but to take action. The club now consider this matter closed and will not make any further comment.