Bradford will be allowed to continue in the 2017 Kingstone Press Championship despite going into liquidation, the Rugby Football League has announced.

The Bulls officially ceased trading on Tuesday and the club's players were told they are now free agents after the administrators failed to find a new buyer.

However, the four-time Super League champions will be given the go-ahead to compete in the Championship, which kicks off in a month's time, under new owners, albeit with a 12-point deduction as punishment for breaching the game's insolvency regulations.

A statement the RFL said: “While a number of alternatives were considered the board were most mindful of the planning already undertaken by all other clubs in the competition structure, the season tickets already purchased and the players and staff who will now be seeking employment in and around the sport in 2017.

“Accordingly the board has agreed that the wider interests of the sport is best satisfied if it offers a place in the Kingstone Press Championship to any new club in Bradford and that such a club start the 2017 season on minus 12 points.”



An RFL spokesman said that, while the news was “terribly disappointing and sad”, the governing body was not entirely surprised by the development given the scale of debt incurred by the previous management of the club and the debilitating level of financial commitment already entered into for 2017.

Joint administrator Gary Pettit, of Northampton-based PBC Business Recovery, spoke before last weekend of his hopes for a positive outcome to last-ditch talks, but it is thought the one remaining bidder withdrew his interest on Monday night after discovering the true extent of the club's financial woes.

Bradford, crowned world club champions in 2006, are thought to have had debts of around £1million and had committed themselves to spending a similar amount in 2017.

In a statement issued through the club, Pettit said: “Several parties engaged in a process to acquire the Bradford Bulls, but that has ultimately proven to be an unsuccessful exercise.

“As I have said throughout, the situation is much more complex and complicated than any of the parties, including the RFL and the administrators, envisaged when this process commenced.

“There was fundamental uncertainty over a series of topics, including the quality of the management information available.

“Bradford Bulls entered administration for the third time in five years. This highlights that there is something fundamentally wrong with the business. The problems facing the Bradford Bulls are not unique. Rationally, the days where a sports club operates at a loss and is underwritten by a patron should be gone.

“I am very disappointed to say that the last potential purchaser confirmed last night that it will not be acquiring the Bradford Bulls. This is largely because time does not allow the complex issues to be resolved. The administrators are under statutory constraints as to how they must proceed.”