Former Super League and world club champions Bradford Bulls have gone into liquidation, seven weeks after they went into administration for the third time in four years.
Players and staff have had their contracts terminated and the rugby league club has ceased trading, reports the Bradford Telegraph & Argus.
Administrators had hoped to agree a deal to save the Bulls by Christmas, but turned down a bid from a consortium led by former New Zealand Rugby League chairman Andrew Chalmers on 29 December. Interest from a second consortium fell through on Monday night, says The Guardian.
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However, there is a good chance that the club, who were relegated from the Super League in 2014, will be able to continue.
"The Rugby Football League are hopeful of a reformed club being put together within the next seven days, with the hope that they could begin the season as planned in the 2017 Championship," reports the Guardian. "Bradford are due to begin their campaign against Hull Kingston Rovers on 5 February but several parties have already expressed an interest in reforming the four-time Super League champions."
Bradford Bulls were one of the "most iconic" clubs in British rugby league, "having led the way when the sport switched to summer in 1996", says the BBC.
But the broadcaster adds that their "downfall has been swift": after winning four Super League finals between 1997 and 2003, they went into administration in 2012 and again in 2014, when they lost their top flight status.
They were in the hunt for promotion in 2015 but did not make the play-offs in 2016.
"It's an incredibly sad day for the sport both locally, and nationally, with the news of the Bulls' downfall," says James Deighton of BBC Radio Leeds. "We can only hope that there's a will and a way, to attempt to reform the club as happened in the 1960s.
"Having said that, when you consider that the recent administration is the club's third in four years, today's news may be an inevitable consequence of the instability at Odsal [Stadium] of late."
