Rugby league needs Bradford, say RFL as Bulls are liquidated

THE Rugby Football League say it is in the 'wider interests of the sport' that any new club in Bradford should controversially be retained in the Championship.
Odsal Stadium, home to Bradford Bulls who yesterday were liquidated after failing to attract a buyer (Picture: Bruce Rollinson).Odsal Stadium, home to Bradford Bulls who yesterday were liquidated after failing to attract a buyer (Picture: Bruce Rollinson).
Odsal Stadium, home to Bradford Bulls who yesterday were liquidated after failing to attract a buyer (Picture: Bruce Rollinson).

Bradford Bulls, one of the game’s most famous names, was placed into liquidation yesterday just 11 years after claiming the last of their three World Club Challenge titles.

The news came as a shock as, for all the West Yorkshire club had been in administration since November 14 – a third in five years – with debts of £1m and a similar estimated funding shortfall for 2017, indications were a new owner would be found.

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However, with one offer already turned down last week, the administrator failed to conclude a deal with the final unnamed bidder, and he pulled the plug on the Championship outfit yesterday lunchtime.

There are hopes a new club will emerge from the ashes, just as it did in 1964 when Bradford Northern were reformed, and that could happen as early as next week with the RFL now inviting offers.

Ordinarily, though, any such club would have to start life in the bottom tier, League 1.

However, in a move that has polarised opinion, the independent board of the RFL have decided to offer any new club in the city a place in the Championship, albeit on a minus 12 point start when the season begins next month.

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A statement read: “While a number of alternatives were considered the Board were most mindful of the planning already undertaken by all other clubs in the competition structure, the season tickets already purchased and the players and staff who will now be seeking employment in and around the sport in 2017.

“Accordingly the Board has agreed that the wider interests of the sport is best satisfied if it offers a place in the Kingstone Press Championship to any new club in Bradford and that such a club start the 2017 season on minus twelve points.

“The RFL believes that rugby league needs Bradford and that Bradford deserves a strong and stable professional club and will work with all interested parties to deliver that outcome.”

As the four-times Super League champions ceased trading, in a damning indictment of outgoing Bulls chairman Marc Green’s leadership, the RFL said: “While this is terribly disappointing and sad, it’s not an entirely surprising development given the scale of debt incurred by the previous management of the club and the debilitating level of financial commitment already entered into for 2017.”

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Stunned players and staff were instantly made redundant and the squad are now free agents.

The RFL, through their Rugby League Cares charity, have pledged to support them.

Stuart Duffy, the club’s long serving media, PR and football manager who has been acting general manager since both managing director Steve Ferres and chief executive Robbie Hunter-Paul left in August, said: “We were obviously surprised.

“Up until lunchtime we thought it’d be saved and then we were told this. The final bidder pulled out last night (Monday) at 10 past nine and that was it.

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“It’s dreadful. I’ve been here 18 years and realistically this could now be by last ever day of work.

“It’s a sad way for it to end although the administrator’s asked me to come in for the rest of the week and I’ll do that. Hopefully there will be new owners, but it’s going to be hard for whoever comes in.”

Bradford second-row Tom Olbison, the club’s longest-serving player having debuted in 2009, told The Yorkshire Post: “I never thought it’d have got to this stage.

“I thought it’d be like the last times and we’d come out of administration with new owners. It’d been talked up that way, but in the space of 24 hours it’s gone the other way and I’m not sure why.

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“Hopefully someone does come in, but I’d be daft saying I’m not looking elsewhere. I’d be naive to think I can do that. We’re all in survival mode now; we need to find some money to pay bills.

“For the RFL to keep us in the Championship is a bonus. I was expecting us to be relegated to League 1 if liquidated.”

There has been no “fire-sale” during this administration, but a number of players have prepared deals elsewhere including former Hull KR centre Kris Welham joining Salford Red Devils and ex-Castleford Tigers winger James Clare to Leigh Centurions.

Central to many of the discussions has been whether the RFL would be prepared to sell back the leasehold of Bradford’s Odsal Stadium – which they bought to help ease the club’s crippling debuts in 2012 – to the new owner.

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Bulls first went into administration in 2012 and, though bought out of it by Omar Khan, suffered the same fate two years later and, crucially, were relegated from Super League. Green was in charge then, but he, too, struggled to deal with their financial issues and has come under fire for his actions.

After losing the 2015 Million Pound Game, they did not even make the top four last season, missing out on the lucrative Qualifiers and another promotion tilt.

A consortium, led by former New Zealand Rugby League chairman Andrew Chalmers, saw an RFL-approved bid turned down last week, but Rotherham Titans CEO Richard Lamb and former Cronulla Sharks chairman Damian Irvine both renewed their interest last night.