The Keighley Cougars have been taken over by a new consortium. The new owners have agreed to a 12pt deduction to start the new season ,which has been imposed by the RFL.Mick O Neil who was the chairman at the time of Cougarmania is the new chairman.

not sure I follow the logic of the 12 point deduction. They havent been in admin just changed holding company. must be fact they've changed from one owner to another (possibly with direct RFL intervention). Seems a bit harsh to deduct points as well but we know from experience that RFL like to be seen to be putting the boot in.

Spencer did mention before that he wouldn't sell the club, could it be that RFL have taken membership off Spencer and given it to new owners who have formed a new club?. Leaving the debts of the old club behind?

The only logic is that the change of ownership has in some way wiped out the debts of the previous club/owner. That would effectively be the same as the punishment for administration.

At least for Keighley it is only a death sentence for one season, as they won't get relegated as a result of it. So they only really write off 2019 and then they're back on the same ground they were previously. When it happened at Bradford, it took two seasons to recover as it forced relegation in 2017 and then the club had to win promotion in 2018 to get back to the same position.

The logic is simple. The club is the RFL member, so if the owner of the club suffers an insolvency event and not paying players wages is surely from the RFL point of view top of the list as such an event, then the club gets penalised not the company. Consequently a new owner therefore buys a club with 12 penalty points, although if they offered to pay off all the debts those points should not be deducted, and not the case here.


The RFL articles of association List of Members lists first of all each club eg Bradford Bulls and then alongside the owning Company, Bradford Bulls Holdings Ltd in the example I am looking at. Take a fixture, and you will see that it is Bradford Bulls versus Leeds Rhinos, not Bradford Bulls Holdings Ltd versus Leeds Cricket Football and Athletic Company Ltd.