Glad of Adey's reply here as I was about to clarify some of those matters myself.



The other point which has been made about HMRC being "really quick to serve winding-up petitions" is also a load of garbage. HMRC offer the most amount of lenience out of any of the creditors of an entity.



How many other creditors would stand by and give 120 days plus credit terms whilst others are broadly being paid on time (say, 30-60 days which is about average)? The fact is that there is no "Bank of HMRC" and there damn well shouldn't be.



Without knowing the exact ins and outs for Wakeys current situation it's difficult to make any solid comments here, but you can bet that the basis for the payment schedule agreed was that, at that time, it was confirmed that ongoing taxes would be paid on time. They haven't been by the look of it, albeit from the club statement there appears to be some arguments over the quantum of the liability.



At the end of the day, why should a sports club be treat any different to a retailer, manufacturer or other business if they don't meet their obligations to HMRC?



I do, however, hope that Wakey can work through this outside of a formal insolvency process and bring its tax payments up to date.

And that is pretty spot on - totally agree, including especially the last point.

Do RL clubs have the same rules regarding insolvency that football clubs have? The rule where football debts get paid first and in full? Or is that just something which was agreed for football clubs many years ago and is now crying out for reform? Testimonials should be looked at as well. Some sort of cap where if you have earned less than - say £2m in your sporting career (probably everyone except footballers) then it remains tax free, otherwise tax it.

No, not everyone, just teams with inadequate stadiums. Were meant to be an elite European competition, not Billy's Hotdogs Regional Division 3. Teams have been ploughing money into their first team squads for years and spending diddly squat on their facilities, only when the RFL started making stadiums part of licensing criteria have teams actually started making a concerted effort to improve their facilities. Do you really think Saints and Salford would be this far along with their new stadiums if the RFL had said 'forget about the stadiums, your alight for another 10 years'? If Wakey or Cas can't build new stadia then there are teams in the Championship with better facilities and potentially equal fan bases that can take their place. Teams who can spend their income on their playing squads AND have the 21st century stadium's too.

I completely agree that clubs have an obligation to the tax man and to manage their finances the same as any business. However...



Part of the problem is the perceived wealth in sport. If a business goes under and lays off a few hundred people you hear about how bad this is and how it effects the community. If a football or RL club goes/were to go under the number of jobs lost may not be as large but the impact on the local community could be massive because of the role they play, not only on what they offer on the field but also what they give back to their communities. I can't help but feel sorry for the supporters of clubs who have gone under through no fault of the fans. This isn't like woolies closing down or other businesses closing where you always have the option to go elsewhere... this is about heart and passion, and you can't simply move to another club if yours ceases to exist. Could you ever imagine a Cas fan deciding to support Wakie or Leeds?



What do you do? Just stop watching RL? You have to wonder whether something needs to be done at government level to look at the way sporting clubs are run that would ensure they are forced to be responsible. Naive? Possibly. But I don't want to be a cynic all my life.



I've said in a previous thread that the pressure to have stadiums that, in many cases are much more than the clubs actually need, is going to lead to problems. The fact is that we're recovering from a worldwide slump and unless you have big bucks from the sale of an old ground or a big money investor you're going to struggle to finance it. Whether we like it or not, the support for most SL teams is no more than a lower league football club and they're been forced to spend money they don't have due to snobbery within the RFL. That isn't to say that money shouldn't be invested into improving the grounds, but it has to be within reason.