I guess that most of you on this forum feel exactly like we, the Board of Directors do, in that not only did we not get a franchise, but that at least one team who's complete disregard of the "rules" set out by the RFL some three years ago, seems to have not mattered a jot to the powers that be at the RFL.

Halifax RLFC and to a large extent Calderdale Council took those "rules" as being important. Together with FC Halifax, we all have helped build a stadium in Halifax which not only meets those apparant RFL "rules" but in my view at least is a better facility than a number in Super League. Indeed the comments from those Super League teams who have played here this season support that view.

We told the RFL as part of our bid, that we were going to run our Club within the budgets we had, or that we might aspire to if we were given a franchise, and that we thought it financially imprudent to suggest that we could bring in a sugar daddy millionaire to inflate our financial standing(as some Clubs have done to the extent that a number of Club financial failures can be attributed to that one man sponsor having financial difficulties himself). For the last few years we have been running our Club to at least break even.

I have seen on TV tonight that Ralph Rimmer suggested that he had already spoken to Tony Abbott one of our Directors, who is currently out of the country on holiday. He did make such a short call. . . I dont think I can say just yet the supposed reason he gave why we were unsuccesful, but to say that I'm personally angry is an understatement

For a senior person at the RFL to say that our bid wasn't as good as some Clubs who bids dont seem to have even met the so called "rules" is not good enough

That we have spent the last three years aspiring to something that has been dismissed in this way is disappointing, not just for our Club but for any other Championship team who might have similar aspirations

Michael Steele our Chairman has put a statement on the Club's web site at
http://www.halifaxrlfc.co.uk/article.php?id=5473

I suggest its worth reading

Our Club has four Directors none of us are millionaires as perhaps the RFL might prefer, but we all work for nothing, indeed it obviously costs us all a good deal of money to help run the Club. On days like these I have to say that putting the bid together cost a good deal of time effort and money and it seems to me as if it was all a complete waste of those three resources.

Its difficult right now to believe that I personally would want to go through this exercise again in three years and to be honest its a view that seems shared by several other Championship teams' officials, judging by the phone calls we have received today.

However I am a Halifax fan first and foremost. so it is disappointing to read on other forums that many of our fans have now said they will stop supporting Fax as a gesture to the RFL.

I'd rather show the RFL a different gesture, by winning the Grand Final! and just letting them see what they've missed by this decision.

So disappointed as we all are, hopefully tomorrow we can think again get behind the team, and lets not make the RFLs decision seem justified

Mike R

I guess that most of you on this forum feel exactly like we, the Board of Directors do, in that not only did we not get a franchise, but that at least one team who's complete disregard of the "rules" set out by the RFL some three years ago, seems to have not mattered a jot to the powers that be at the RFL.

Halifax RLFC and to a large extent Calderdale Council took those "rules" as being important. Together with FC Halifax, we all have helped build a stadium in Halifax which not only meets those apparant RFL "rules" but in my view at least is a better facility than a number in Super League. Indeed the comments from those Super League teams who have played here this season support that view.

We told the RFL as part of our bid, that we were going to run our Club within the budgets we had, or that we might aspire to if we were given a franchise, and that we thought it financially imprudent to suggest that we could bring in a sugar daddy millionaire to inflate our financial standing(as some Clubs have done to the extent that a number of Club financial failures can be attributed to that one man sponsor having financial difficulties himself). For the last few years we have been running our Club to at least break even.

I have seen on TV tonight that Ralph Rimmer suggested that he had already spoken to Tony Abbott one of our Directors, who is currently out of the country on holiday. He did make such a short call. . . I dont think I can say just yet the supposed reason he gave why we were unsuccesful, but to say that I'm personally angry is an understatement

For a senior person at the RFL to say that our bid wasn't as good as some Clubs who bids dont seem to have even met the so called "rules" is not good enough

That we have spent the last three years aspiring to something that has been dismissed in this way is disappointing, not just for our Club but for any other Championship team who might have similar aspirations

Michael Steele our Chairman has put a statement on the Club's web site at
http://www.halifaxrlfc.co.uk/article.php?id=5473

I suggest its worth reading

Our Club has four Directors none of us are millionaires as perhaps the RFL might prefer, but we all work for nothing, indeed it obviously costs us all a good deal of money to help run the Club. On days like these I have to say that putting the bid together cost a good deal of time effort and money and it seems to me as if it was all a complete waste of those three resources.

Its difficult right now to believe that I personally would want to go through this exercise again in three years and to be honest its a view that seems shared by several other Championship teams' officials, judging by the phone calls we have received today.

However I am a Halifax fan first and foremost. so it is disappointing to read on other forums that many of our fans have now said they will stop supporting Fax as a gesture to the RFL.

I'd rather show the RFL a different gesture, by winning the Grand Final! and just letting them see what they've missed by this decision.

So disappointed as we all are, hopefully tomorrow we can think again get behind the team, and lets not make the RFLs decision seem justified

Mike R