This article was written at the time of the Bull's having 6 point's deducted and entering into administration for the second time and was published on the www.the18thman.com website in February 2014.
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I feel for the Bradford Bulls supporters, staff and players
– I really do – the latest setback in a turbulent couple of years has seen them
deducted 6 points by the Rugby Football League’s Board of Directors – the maximum
penalty for entering administration this month for the second time in 2 years.
To make matters worse, the decision has prompted the club’s
proposed new owners, The Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited, to remove their offer for
the club.
The offer has been withdrawn as they believe that the
sanctions imposed makes ‘’relegation almost a certainty.’’
All Rugby League fans will know that relegation has been
re-introduced this season after the scrapping of the Licensing system which
guaranteed a club Super League status for a minimum of 3 years if they achieved
certain criteria laid out by the RFL. The last club to be relegated was Salford
in 2007.
Bradford started the season with a home loss against
Castleford Tigers before showing real spirit and determination to overcome
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in their second league game – therefore, the 6 point
deduction leaves them on -4 points – 2 wins behind 5 teams who have yet to
record their first win of the season. Of those 5 teams London and Wakefield
will be the one’s that the Bulls will, probably, have the best chance of
catching.
 |
| Omar Khan |
When local businessman Omar Khan took the Bulls out of administration
in September 2012, it appeared the future of the club was bright and that the
new owners would be in a position to greatly improve the financial position of
the club.
It appears the opposite was actually the truth and when Mr.
Khan took the surprise decision to step down in September 2013 after just 12
months in charge the new consortium of Mark Moore, Andrew Calvert, Ian Watt and
Ryan Whitcut soon found that the club’s financial problems were far greater
than they believed.
In early December they announced that the club had to make
at least £400,000 worth of savings and immediately redundancies were made
across the club.
On Christmas Eve, the quartet resigned from the club over
Mr. Khan’s refusal to transfer the club’s shares but then returned within a
week.
On 31st January, the Bulls were placed into
administration for the second time in two years when it’s former holding company,
OK Bulls Limited, the company of Omar Khan, entered administration.
The new company, Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited, secured a 28
day Super League licence. |
| Garreth Carvell |
Immediately, they hit further problems with the change of
ownership allowing marquee signing Garreth Carvell to break his contract and
move to Hull FC and after the first game of the season star player Jarrod
Sammut was allowed to leave and join Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – it is galling
for any team to lose a star player but when they join a club in a similar
position to you it must be even worse – if Sammut had joined Wigan, Saints or
Leeds etc, it would have been easier to bear
However, last Friday the administrator accepted the Bradford
Bulls 2014 Ltd consortiums proposed takeover which meant that the next step was
to have the takeover ratified by the RFL.
This is where more problems appear to have raised there ugly
heads.
It seems that despite the new consortium having made cost
saving measures of nearly £1m over the past few months, they have been unable
to prove to the RFL that they have the funds in place to complete the takeover
and were, in fact, attempting to use the club’s own money to buy the club from
Omar Khan.
Put simply, it appears Mr. Moore and his fellow members of
the consortium do not have the cash to buy the club and honour the agreement
they made back in September and, therefore, have been unable to prove that they
have a workable business plan to the RFL, leaving the governing body with no
alternative but to refuse the takeover by Bradford Bulls 2014 Limited and
impose the 6 point penalty.
Add in the fact that part of the sanctions against the Bulls
has included them only being awarded 50% of the television money owed to them
with the other 50% split equally between the 13 other Super League clubs and it
all makes a very bad situation even worse.
Obviously, the Bradford Bulls 2014 consortium are not happy
and have been scathing of the RFL’s management of the situation and have
withdrawn their offer due, primarily, to the 6 point penalty – this seems
strange to me as they must have known that there was a very strong possibility
that some kind of points deduction would have been incurred due to the club
entering administration prior to them issuing their proposal.
 |
| Bulls CEO - Robbie Paul |
As Chief Executive Robbie Paul, a Bradford Bulls legend, tweeted earlier today ‘it’s now time to stand tall – BE PROUD AND STRONG.’
This was obviously aimed at the clubs supporters and it is
for their sakes, and obviously the players and staff, that it has to be hoped
that the RFL and the administrator can move on and find a new investor.
Local businessman Richard Lamb is reported to be still interested
in buying the club.
The club have a talented young coach in Francis Cummins and
made some good acquisitions in the summer although Carvell and Sammut have
since jumped ship and off half Lee Gaskell suffered a serious knee injury in
the win against Wakefield.
 |
| Iestyn Harris |
 |
| Brian Noble with James Lowes. |
This is all a far cry from the trophy laden days of the late 90s and early 2000’s when the Bulls, under first Matthew Elliott and then Brian Noble, swept all before them winning 4 Super League titles in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2005 and were Grand Final runners up in 1999, 2002 and 2004.
Add to those titles the Challenge Cup wins of 2000 and 2003
and three World Club Challenge victory’s in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and those were
heady days for the Bulls fans.
 |
| Leon Pryce |
The Bulls where at the forefront of the razzamatazz of the
new Super League era and set about revolutionising the concept of match day
entertainment which saw their attendances average over 15,000 at their peak in
1997 – over double what it had been in the last vestiges of winter rugby
league.
They have had some wonderful players such as Leon Pryce,
Stuart Fielden, Jamie Peacock, Paul Deacon, James Lowes, Iestyn Harris, Lesley
Vainokolo, Shontayne Hape, Tevita Vaikona and the Paul brothers, Henry and
Robbie, who have provided some wonderful memory’s in the Super League era.
 |
| Stuart Fielden |
Unfortunately for the Bradford club, this is not the first
time that there entire future has been in jeopardy – in fact Bradford Northern
went out of business on the 10th December 1963 after playing just 13
games that season in front of crowds as low as 324 against Barrow – a club
record low attendance.
Club legend Trevor Foster was one of the people who helped
resurrect the club in 1964. They went on to win their first trophy as the
reformed Bradford Northern in 1965-66 – a 17-8 Yorkshire Cup Final victory over
Hunslet.
It is to be hoped that the supporters, staff and players do
not suffer the same fate as those involved in 1963 and that Mr Lamb or some
other interested party can come in and save this famous rugby league club.
Hopefully, the next owner of Bradford Bulls will have a
sensible and workable business plan that can bring the club back to it’s former
glory days – for now it would be nice just to keep this club alive and kicking.
--------------------------------------------------
Businessman Marc Green took over the Bulls in March 2013.
He sacked coach Francis Cummins and replaced him with former Bull's player James Lowes.
An appeal against their 6 point deduction failed and, inevitably, the Bull's were relegated to the Championship for next season.
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