This is painful, the club may come out the other side of this, albeit with very little dignity, but if the unthinkable should happen then it's another lesson to be learned not just for Rugby League, but sport in general. We've all seen the Rangers debacle, there's other football clubs on the verge, county cricket sides are struggling, and this is the stark realisation that proffesional sport clubs can no longer take the mickey and chuck around other peoples cash with such gay abandon, and don't be fooled by recession and other recent excuses, the financial meltdown in proffesional sport has been coming for many years, and Bradford could end up being one of the many high profile casualties.

I'm afraid this is another nail in the coffin for professional sport for me. I've not commented as to be honest the whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. For my sins I support 3 professional clubs: York City, Leeds United and the Bulls (it's complicated) and all have suffered financial meltdown in the past few years and have been on the brink to varying degrees. Each time it's the fans and the poor sods who do normal day to day jobs within the club who seem to be the first to get the boot who suffer and have no control over what happens. /> Clubs are encouraged to strive beyond their means and seem to have boards that are unable or unwilling to manage their finances to ensure that long term stability of the club. I know their are those who may place some of the blame with the fans for having unrealistic expectations (especially for a club like the Bulls who've had great success in the relatively recent past) but... fans are fans... it's their part of the bargain that they aspire that the club win things... it isn't their job or in their power to choose how the club manages it's finances. /> The RFL as governing body have put policies in place to ensure that clubs don't overspend but they don't seem to work. Their ability to govern surely has to come under question when a club that was theoretically audited less than a year ago for a place in their premier competition is now on the brink of going to the wall. And what hell will they do with an empty stadium? The sport as a whole seems to be suffering from the same illnesses as some of the clubs... we strive to compete with Football or Rugby Union... we want to be a national sport and push through ill planned franchises without ensuring the infrastructure and support is their to make it a success (London... PSG... Gateshead... Crusaders...) which in turn damages the sport and gives outsiders the impression that it's mismanaged and contrived... we push the clubs to have 'stadium for 21st century sport' despite the fact that clubs are simply struggling to make ends meet as the country struggles to recover from financial meltdown (another example of not living within your means..?) As a sport we seem to have lost the ground we had at the beginning of the SL period as we have rule change after rule change and cock up after cock up. /> As for the whole conspiracy theory about CC wanting the club to get rid of staff and obligations before stepping in with an 'investor'... whilst there is a degree of vitriol about it (and if it's true and not just a theory it makes you question the morals of the person behind it despite the fact that it may make perfect [ibusiness [/isense... and the morals of the system that would allow the this to happen) the simple fact is... if it's takeover in this way or the club going out of business, which is worse? Of course... on a philosophical note, it the question is the former, do we in turn have to look at our own morals...?

I'm afraid this is another nail in the coffin for professional sport for me. I've not commented as to be honest the whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. For my sins I support 3 professional clubs: York City, Leeds United and the Bulls (it's complicated) and all have suffered financial meltdown in the past few years and have been on the brink to varying degrees. Each time it's the fans and the poor sods who do normal day to day jobs within the club who seem to be the first to get the boot who suffer and have no control over what happens. /> Clubs are encouraged to strive beyond their means and seem to have boards that are unable or unwilling to manage their finances to ensure that long term stability of the club. I know their are those who may place some of the blame with the fans for having unrealistic expectations (especially for a club like the Bulls who've had great success in the relatively recent past) but... fans are fans... it's their part of the bargain that they aspire that the club win things... it isn't their job or in their power to choose how the club manages it's finances. /> The RFL as governing body have put policies in place to ensure that clubs don't overspend but they don't seem to work. Their ability to govern surely has to come under question when a club that was theoretically audited less than a year ago for a place in their premier competition is now on the brink of going to the wall. And what hell will they do with an empty stadium? The sport as a whole seems to be suffering from the same illnesses as some of the clubs... we strive to compete with Football or Rugby Union... we want to be a national sport and push through ill planned franchises without ensuring the infrastructure and support is their to make it a success (London... PSG... Gateshead... Crusaders...) which in turn damages the sport and gives outsiders the impression that it's mismanaged and contrived... we push the clubs to have 'stadium for 21st century sport' despite the fact that clubs are simply struggling to make ends meet as the country struggles to recover from financial meltdown (another example of not living within your means..?) As a sport we seem to have lost the ground we had at the beginning of the SL period as we have rule change after rule change and cock up after cock up. /> As for the whole conspiracy theory about CC wanting the club to get rid of staff and obligations before stepping in with an 'investor'... whilst there is a degree of vitriol about it (and if it's true and not just a theory it makes you question the morals of the person behind it despite the fact that it may make perfect [ibusiness [/isense... and the morals of the system that would allow the this to happen) the simple fact is... if it's takeover in this way or the club going out of business, which is worse? Of course... on a philosophical note, it the question is the former, do we in turn have to look at our own morals...?

Bewaresheep - philosophy, morals, ethics and business all in one post. I fear however that in the modern world the first three do not enter into the world of business. /> Everyone seems to strive for objectives that are demonstrably beyond their resource and structure to support. Your comments above hit Red-Hall's wishful thinking right on the head and I suspect they way things are moving SL is going to be smaller next year but not quite in the way the RFL intended?

Bewaresheep - philosophy, morals, ethics and business all in one post. I fear however that in the modern world the first three do not enter into the world of business. /> Everyone seems to strive for objectives that are demonstrably beyond their resource and structure to support. Your comments above hit Red-Hall's wishful thinking right on the head and I suspect they way things are moving SL is going to be smaller next year but not quite in the way the RFL intended?

Quote ="martinwildbull"apologies bulliac, my estimate was purely settlement, which is given as £550k for compensation and costs. our costs are give as £79K. even then there is scope for ambiguity as Coulby says that this is for related legal costs paid out 2005-8. in 2005 we were ordered to pay an estimated £64K for Leeds costs for the original hearing that established the breach. Now is this included in those legal costs or has it been given another title eg "Compensation"? Anyway, my total cost estimate is £550K + £79K + £64K = £693K. plus the unquantifiable management time. Approaching your £1m mark, but even so a lot less than the £1.2M some claimed. ..'" <coughs> In terms of the overall financial impact, I believe (though do not actually know) that Mr. Harris did not come for nothing, and did not play for nothing, and that his agent did not work for nothing. If indeed there was an additional cost to the club, then it needs to be added to these figures. The judge mentioned a figure, but I suppose he could have made it up. That figure did not include image rights money. /> If Leeds's costs of the preliminary issue hearing itself were 64K then you can confidently say that their other costs of the whole litigation, as opposed to just one element of it, were a shedload more than 18K! I must say that the statement is breathtakingly partial. I am particularly annoyed by this: Quote The costs to the club had, however, been absorbed by the business prior to the settlement being reached, leaving £550K to be covered going forward, and the budget for 2009 was prepared on a break-even position and full salary cap spend after allowing for the first payment to Leeds.”'" /> No, the cost had NOT been bloody well "absorbed", if by that is meant we had somehow made it irrelevant, brushed it under a carpet or otherwise waved a magic wand to cause it to go away. It was a huge amount of CASH that went out of the door, and if we had not done it, then that cash would have been in our coffers going forward. Would an extra million in the bank have made any difference to our situation? Absorbed my arrse.

Quote ="martinwildbull"apologies bulliac, my estimate was purely settlement, which is given as £550k for compensation and costs. our costs are give as £79K. even then there is scope for ambiguity as Coulby says that this is for related legal costs paid out 2005-8. in 2005 we were ordered to pay an estimated £64K for Leeds costs for the original hearing that established the breach. Now is this included in those legal costs or has it been given another title eg "Compensation"? Anyway, my total cost estimate is £550K + £79K + £64K = £693K. plus the unquantifiable management time. Approaching your £1m mark, but even so a lot less than the £1.2M some claimed. ..'" <coughs> In terms of the overall financial impact, I believe (though do not actually know) that Mr. Harris did not come for nothing, and did not play for nothing, and that his agent did not work for nothing. If indeed there was an additional cost to the club, then it needs to be added to these figures. The judge mentioned a figure, but I suppose he could have made it up. That figure did not include image rights money. /> If Leeds's costs of the preliminary issue hearing itself were 64K then you can confidently say that their other costs of the whole litigation, as opposed to just one element of it, were a shedload more than 18K! I must say that the statement is breathtakingly partial. I am particularly annoyed by this: Quote The costs to the club had, however, been absorbed by the business prior to the settlement being reached, leaving £550K to be covered going forward, and the budget for 2009 was prepared on a break-even position and full salary cap spend after allowing for the first payment to Leeds.”'" /> No, the cost had NOT been bloody well "absorbed", if by that is meant we had somehow made it irrelevant, brushed it under a carpet or otherwise waved a magic wand to cause it to go away. It was a huge amount of CASH that went out of the door, and if we had not done it, then that cash would have been in our coffers going forward. Would an extra million in the bank have made any difference to our situation? Absorbed my arrse.

ël presidente"must be sure that HMRC Forensics Accounting dept Leeds is not going to take interest in seeing if there are "any off the books" monies that have evaded being Taxed! www.rlfans.com/images/smilies//icon_wink.gif" alt="icon_wink.gif" title="Wink" />

ël presidente"must be sure that HMRC Forensics Accounting dept Leeds is not going to take interest in seeing if there are "any off the books" monies that have evaded being Taxed! www.rlfans.com/images/smilies//icon_wink.gif" alt="icon_wink.gif" title="Wink" />