Crusaders pull out of Super League licence for games until 2014
Rod Findlay, the Chief Executive of Crusaders, has confirmed on July 26 that a Super League licence for the next three years will not be renewed by the club because of the financial constraints on the club.
Findlay’s announcement regarding this unexpected withdrawal from the Super League licence process said, “This has not been an easy decision but after a lengthy and exhaustive examination of the club’s finances, our view is that Crusaders is not sustainable
as a Super League club at this stage."
While discussing this move, he indicated that players' future plans in North Wales, where two years ago no rugby league was played at all, should be carried forward because that is one of the strengths of the Crusaders.
This news was broken by the Crusaders along with the announcement made by the Rugby Football League (RFL) of 14 successful clubs, participating in the Super Rugby League for the next three seasons, at Old Trafford.
Richard Lewis, the RFL Chairman, who announced the fourteen winners of the future the Super League games, confirmed that Crusaders pulled themselves out of the process on Monday, after being part of the “licensing process” for last several months.
With this decision reached, club’s management will discuss with RFL the prospects of playing rugby league in Wrexham and North Wales after the end of this year
It was told that the club will explore the future options with RFL for 2012 onwards but for the time being it will only concentrate on wrapping up the ongoing super League season with commendable performance.
While commenting on their withdrawal from Super League, Findlay stated, “It would not have been fair to the players, the supporters, the other clubs or the engage Super League competition for us to proceed with our application.”
Findlay also congratulated the clubs who successfully made through the Super League licensing process and hopes that the Welsh outfit will manage to finish off their present Super League season with class, under their coach, Iestyn Harris.
Currently, after winning only four games out of twenty two, the Crusaders are floating at the bottom of the Super League tables.
It was further mentioned by the chief executive of Crusaders that by not being part of the licensing process, they acknowledged that the club could not tread into Super League. Even if they did avail the Super League option, it would have been unfair to
the players, fans, contending clubs and the Engage Super League, as the application was not worthy of passing through the system successfully.
Along with that Findlay also took up the opportunity to thank RFL and club owners for their full support to the Welsh club.
Tags: