Bradford Bulls have 10 days to avoid liquidation

 
26 June 2012

Bradford Bulls have gone into administration and have just 10 days to avoid being liquidated, it has been announced.

Brendan Guilfoyle and Chris White, from insolvency firm The P&A Partnership, have been appointed joint administrators of the Super League club after it failed to find new investment to pay off crippling debts.

Guilfoyle said: "We now have just 10 working days to save the club from liquidation because there are no funds to carry on longer.

"If there is anyone interested in buying the Bulls then we need to hear from them right now because this famous club is now on the brink of extinction."

The Bulls directors filed a notice of intention to enter administration on June 13 in order to buy them more time to find investment, with HM Revenue & Customs threatening to wind up the club over unpaid tax, and the moratorium ended yesterday.

Fans rallied around earlier this year, responding to a plea from former chairman Peter Hood by raising around £500,000 in a fortnight to pay bills after the bank cut the club's overdraft facilities, but Guilfoyle revealed recently that a further £1.2million was still needed to safeguard the club's future until the end of the season.

It is understood Bradford currently owes £98,000 in PAYE tax from May and the same amount for June, plus an outstanding VAT bill of £250,000 from the sale of the Odsal lease to the RFL, while the monthly wage bill is over £200,000.

Guilfoyle, who was at Odsal to break the news of the administration to employees, added: "The directors made every effort to try to save the club within the 14-day timescale issued by the courts but the moratorium ended yesterday without any potential buyer coming forward."

Guilfoyle, who has been involved in the administrations of Leeds United plc, Luton Town, Crystal Palace and Plymouth Argyle, was brought in by the Bradford board to conduct an independent financial review following the departure of Hood and co-director Andrew Bennett.

Bradford are the third Super League club to enter administration in the last two years.

Wrexham-based Crusaders went into administration in November 2010 after struggling to pay off inherited debt and, although they were readmitted to the league a month later, they were liquidated at the end of the 2011 season.

Wakefield spent a week in the hands of an administrator on the eve of last season - and saw three players sold to pay off debts in that time - before local businessman Andrew Glover completed a successful takeover.

Both clubs started the season on minus four points as their punishment for breaching the RFL's rules on insolvency, a fate that now looks to await Bradford.

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