Bradford MP warns of Super League problem

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe says that Bradford’s demise signals a big problem for Super League.

The Bulls made 16 redundancies on Monday, prompting the RFL to demand administrator Brendan Guilfoyle to attend an emergency meeting and explain the club’s current situation.

The former Sports Minister told talkSPORT: “I think it’s not only a problem for the club, I think it’s a problem for Super League rugby. If a club of this size and this magnitude can have problems then what do you say about the rest of the league?

“With another Rugby League World Cup coming up next year, you don’t want this sort of thing to happen. But clubs don’t run on their name. You’ve got to have a sound financial background and obviously that’s what we want to see.”

“The irony is we’re doing well on the pitch but the problem is we haven’t got any big hitters who can help us out of the financial mess that the club is in. We’ve been trying but we’ve only got til the end of the week.

“I’ve been involved with the club over many years. I was on the council that served it in 1985. It has a great tradition, a great history but it’s looking pretty bleak, trying to get investors to come in.”

Bradford’s problems come little over 12 months since Crusaders and Wakefield both went in to administration, ultimately resulting in the former going out of business, although they have since been replaced by a new club bearing the Crusaders name in the shape of North Wales in Championship.