Crisis club Bradford Bulls enter administration

FOUR-TIMES Super League champions Bradford Bulls are 10 days from liquidation after being placed into administration.

The club’s directors have failed in their bid to secure the £1.2m to see out the end of the season and, faced with a winding-up order, see no other option but the drastic course of action.

Brendan Guilfoyle and Chris White from The P&A Partnership have been appointed joint-administrators.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We now have just 10 working days to save the club from liquidation because there are no funds to carry on longer,” said Guilfoyle.

“If there is anyone interested in buying the Bulls then we need to hear from them right now because this is famous club is now on the brink of extinction.”

Guilfoyle, who was at the club’s Odsal Park stadium to give the news of the administration to employees, added: “The directors made every effort to try to save the club within the 14 day timescale issued by the courts but the moratorium ended yesterday without any potential buyer coming forward.”

Bradford are the third Super League club to enter administration in the last two years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wrexham-based Crusaders went into administration in November 2010 after struggling to pay off inherited debt and, although they were readmitted to the league a month later, they were liquidated at the end of the 2011 season.

Wakefield spent a week in the hands of an administrator on the eve of last season - and saw three players sold to pay off debts in that time - before local businessman Andrew Glover completed a successful takeover.

Both clubs started the season on minus four points as their punishment for breaching the RFL’s rules on insolvency, a fate that now looks to await Bradford.

Fans rallied around the Bulls earlier this year, responding to a plea from former chairman Peter Hood by raising around £500,000 in a fortnight to pay bills after the bank cut the club’s overdraft facilities, but Guilfoyle revealed recently that a further £1.2million was still needed to safeguard the club’s future until the end of the season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is understood Bradford currently owes £98,000 in PAYE tax from May and the same amount for June, plus an outstanding VAT bill of £250,000 from the sale of the Odsal lease to the RFL, while the monthly wage bill is over £200,000.

Guilfoyle, who has been involved in the administrations of Leeds United plc, Luton Town, Crystal Palace and Plymouth Argyle, was brought in by the Bradford board to conduct an independent financial review following the departure of Hood and co-director Andrew Bennett.

He was due to meet the Rugby Football League later today to discuss the Bulls’ plight and a spokesman for the governing body said: “We are happy to offer what support we can to help the club find new buyers.”