Quote: His Bobness "Every single Super League club received a COVID loan and every single club has to pay it back.'"
I believe Wakefield declined the offer, on the grounds the then owners didn't want to saddle the club with the debt. They found alternate funding, so I gather, to keep the club going through 2020/21. Wakefield were being run almost on a shoestring compared to the other clubs and, as such, their financial parameters were slightly different. Ultimately this still lead to them running a first team squad in 2023 which was palpably underfunded and unable to compete at a significant level last year.
Catalans and Toronto were ineligible for the loan, for obvious reasons!
I'm not sure what the situation was regarding the Championship clubs, including Leigh and London, and whether those clubs are still having to repay any such loans.
But the other nine SL clubs all received a loan and are, therefore, all required to pay back as necessary. So it's hardly a unique situation for Fc. Think it's our (in)ability to repay the debt which is now having a knock-on effect in 2024.