North West Evening Mail
Raiders relegated - Johnston banned from RL for eight years
Last updated at 23:50, Thursday, 06 October 2011


BARROW Raiders have been relegated from the Championship and chairman Des Johnston banned from any involvement in rugby league for eight years by an RFL tribunal in Leeds.



The operational rules tribunal met behind closed doors to discuss salary cap breaches and illegal player payments at Craven Park between 2007 and 2011.

The club confirmed in a brief statement issued just before midnight that they had been deducted 29 points - their entire total from the 2011 season, meaning immediate demotion to Championship One.

Johnston, who testified before the tribunal, was in addition banned from any involvement in rugby league for eight years,

The statement said: “Barrow Raiders were deducted 29 (twenty nine) points and Mr Des Johnston banned from involvement with the game of rugby league for a period of 8 (eight) years at an Operational Rules Tribunal held on Thursday 6th October, 2011.

“Both the club and Mr. Johnston have taken further legal advice and been advised to make no comment until such time as the written adjudication giving the reasons for the tariffs imposed has been received and considered.”

A statement from the RFL on the judgement is expected on Friday morning.

No wonder Despot was beside himself when we beat them in the P;ay-Offs last year. Needed then money badly.

Ive been saying for years that theres no way that team fitted under the salary cap. Its the fans i now feel sorry for.

Good, it needed to happen, although it makes a mockery out of the league again, bad press and no one actually got relegated for finishing in the relegation zone.

Thats the problem when owned by one person and it's so easy for them to walkaway,take there money out etc,It's the fans that get left having to pick up the pieces,Really sad,A chairman who pumped up the hopes off fans then dashed them as quick,Hope Barrow recover and soldier on,Helped us out on the vote etc,Wish them all the best.

Very sad but the best thing that can come out of it is that other clubs will think twice about cheating the salary cap.

On the plus side, Dewsbury is a damn sight closer than Barrow.

That's one the reasons why Rugby League hasn't expanded as it should. People too lazy to travel a few miles.



I like long trips.

Depends how expensive they are

Not a problem for ESO, brummie.



And worth pointing out that we'll only have two games outside Yorkshire next season, both at Leigh - if we play each other once (which admittedly is a big [size=150if[/size). Not exactly globe-trotting, is it ?

Good, I like long journeys as long as it's somewhere I haven't been before. That's the annoying thing about rugby, I feel like I've been to every ground about a million times, always somewhere new to go with football. I can't wait for my first ever trip to Adams Park in Wycombe at the end of the month, not because I think it will be a spectacular ground in an exciting town, simply because it's a part of the Earth I've never visited.

I'd love to get South Wales Scorpions in one of the cups. Only ground outside SL that needs ticking off.

Have a chat with Martin.

He's been to about two million grounds, all on public transport.

No chauffeur driven limo for him.....

Part of a competitive league system is the travelling to home or away grounds and the negativity of some about travelling is so disappointing. I love travelling to all the home games (320 mile round trip) and the away games of eg 10 min walk. It is such a shame that so often RL CEO/Chairmen just go using their business acumen in very detrimentable ways, which harm the name of the sport, the town and the supporters, and often as ego trips for themselves. It happens far too often.

Claims of not getting business's support for their team must surely (and only supposition here) have something to do with business not being entirely convinced of the claims made to them. The gazing through rose-tinted specs at what the club/team can achieve by manipulation of finance, broken promises and the occasional journeymen out for a fast buck make a mockery of the situation and then the "honest" chairman/directors get all the flack for their endeavors with tight budgets.

Some fans are blaming the RFL for the points deduction and thus "killing" the club, er the Chairman killed the club first with his apalling mismanagement and fiddles , oh sorry, illegal betting. The RFL are not guilty.

Sympathy for the club is the important aspect, sympathy for the screwed supporters and a good riddance to the manipulative management who have killed a sport they supposed love.

Good luck to Raiders. The fans deserve a decent deal after this debacle and I hope that as a resident of the town we continue to have a team to support, no matter what level it is at.

Is the way forward a single league ? No. With the way the RFL pander to SL there would be even less chance of getting a club "promoted " under even franchise arrangements.