Bradford Enter Administration

[cow yeds]

On the news tonight....Bradford will complete their fixtures this season even if they go into liquidation.
But will have a 4 or 6 point deduction.

[highland convert]

This is still provided they get the money. The players won't play for nothing. No money, no players. Someone has to pick up the tab, jim

[markill]

This is still provided they get the money. The players won't play for nothing. No money, no players. Someone has to pick up the tab, jim

I assume any player who can get another club will just go but the others might want to play on for nothing to put themselves in the shop window.

One thing about the whole story that baffled me is a large chunk of the debt to HMRC is apparently VAT owed from the sale of Odsal to RFL - i think i read about £200k. The deal that was supposed to save them might end up being the last nail. They were clearly even more poorly managed than the RFL could realise if even when they try and help, the Bulls make a mess of it.

[southernpie]

If Bradford dont make it past this week and all games and points were expunged, the current table would look like this:

Played Points Point Diff
Wigan 17 28 +363
Wolves 17 25 +258
Cats 16 22 +122
Stains 16 20 +160
Giants 17 20 +144
KR 17 19 +72
Leeds 16 18 +44
Hull 16 18 +42
Wakey 16 12 -122
Reds 16 10 -130
Cas 16 10 -222
London 17 6 -226
Widnes 17 6 -505

For the rest of the season who ever is due to play Bulls gets a bye. Leeds would end up one game short of everyone else but if the Magic weekend result stands (Leeds winning 37-22) that would give them 20 points and a +59 points difference elevating them above KR into 6th place on the current table. (the top 8 wouldn't change)

[Mike]

I guess that the RFL wil pay the wages until the end of the season to avoid the embarrasment of a club not fullfilling its fixtures

[El Bobbers]

One thing about the whole story that baffled me is a large chunk of the debt to HMRC is apparently VAT owed from the sale of Odsal to RFL - i think i read about £200k. The deal that was supposed to save them might end up being the last nail. They were clearly even more poorly managed than the RFL could realise if even when they try and help, the Bulls make a mess of it.

If you think that is bad either Carney or Wells (can't remember which) said that the clubs overdraft was secured against the ground so when they sold the ground they lost their overdraft! Why on earth would they not consider that?

[Kiwiseddon]

One thing about the whole story that baffled me is a large chunk of the debt to HMRC is apparently VAT owed from the sale of Odsal to RFL - i think i read about £200k. The deal that was supposed to save them might end up being the last nail. They were clearly even more poorly managed than the RFL could realise if even when they try and help, the Bulls make a mess of it.

If you think that is bad either Carney or Wells (can't remember which) said that the clubs overdraft was secured against the ground so when they sold the ground they lost their overdraft! Why on earth would they not consider that?

Don't you think that this just smacks of the incompetence with which the Bulls have been run though? I'm no business person but can't believe that issues like this weren't raised prior to the sale of the ground that you elude to.
And as usual the businessmen involved in this are more likely to come out of this unscathed and the club itself, the staff and players, fans etc will get nothing.
It's a shocking state of affairs.

[Kittwazzer]

One thing about the whole story that baffled me is a large chunk of the debt to HMRC is apparently VAT owed from the sale of Odsal to RFL - i think i read about £200k. The deal that was supposed to save them might end up being the last nail. They were clearly even more poorly managed than the RFL could realise if even when they try and help, the Bulls make a mess of it.

If you think that is bad either Carney or Wells (can't remember which) said that the clubs overdraft was secured against the ground so when they sold the ground they lost their overdraft! Why on earth would they not consider that?

If the stadium secured the club's borrowing facility, it could not have been sold without the bank's permission. This would obviously have involved a review of their overall facilities and would have been discussed by both parties at the time. The club knew exactly what the new arrangements would be!

[El Bobbers]

If the stadium secured the club's borrowing facility, it could not have been sold without the bank's permission. This would obviously have involved a review of their overall facilities and would have been discussed by both parties at the time. The club knew exactly what the new arrangements would be!

Thats even worse. How can the directors of the club be allowed to get away with this behaviour? They have a limited liability as far as debt but there must be some other course of punishment.

[Kittwazzer]

If the stadium secured the club's borrowing facility, it could not have been sold without the bank's permission. This would obviously have involved a review of their overall facilities and would have been discussed by both parties at the time. The club knew exactly what the new arrangements would be!

Thats even worse. How can the directors of the club be allowed to get away with this behaviour? They have a limited liability as far as debt but there must be some other course of punishment.

There is. For some years now it has been a criminal offence for directors of a limited company to continue trading in the knowledge that the company is insolvent. It can carry a prison sentence of up to 5 years. That said, I have yet to hear of a case where this has happened!