{"id":409959,"date":"2026-01-13T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409959\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:56:09","slug":"paul-cooke-keen-to-help-resurrect-crisis-club-featherstone-rovers-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409959\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Cooke keen to help resurrect crisis club Featherstone Rovers \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PAUL COOKE, who coached Featherstone Rovers to last season\u2019s Championship play-offs and the 1895 Cup final at Wembley, says he would get involved in a consortium who can bring the stricken club back to the game.
Featherstone are in administration and will not compete in the new-look second-tier this year after the one group who submitted a takeover bid by the Friday, December 19 deadline subsequently failed to gain Rugby Football League membership.
That group involved former long-serving Rovers chairman Mark Campbell, director Colm Corran and Chris Hamilton, who was made chief executive in November as Featherstone, who had been continuously involved in professional Rugby League since 1921, tried to find solutions to their financial problems.
Facing an HMRC winding-up petition, the old club applied to go into administration on Monday, December 15, admitting there was no way out of their monetary issues due to the level of debt.
The Campbell consortium emerged and said they had plans in place to have a team ready for what have been Featherstone\u2019s opening league fixture at Batley on Sunday (January 18).
However last Friday (January 9) the governing body announced: \u201cThe one submission received to take ownership of the club have not met the required governance criteria and RFL membership has been denied.
\u201cThe RFL will continue to work with the administrator and remain committed to supporting a sustainable return of professional Rugby League in the town of Featherstone moving forward.\u201d
Speaking during an event to launch the Championship, now made up of 20 rather than 21 teams, yesterday (Monday, January 12), RFL interim chief executive Abi Ekoku said: \u201cOne (interested party) applied. They were the former directors of the old company, so that presents a challenge.
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t enough separation between the old company and the new company. It\u2019s not about one set of owners, it\u2019s about the operational standards we accept as a game. That\u2019s the reason it couldn\u2019t be approved.\u201d
Hamilton, the former Oldham owner and chairman who was par of a consortium who relaunched that club after the original folded in 1997, has vowed to continue the bid to resurrect Featherstone.
And Ekoku, who is confident Featherstone will feature in the Championship in 2027, has referred to other interest, adding: \u201cThere have been parties wanting to take up the membership.
\u201cTwo of them are serious, for sure. Their first port of call has to be with the administrators so they know what they\u2019re buying into and what they\u2019re seeking to acquire.\u201d
Cooke (pictured), who stepped up from assistant to coach following James Ford\u2019s departure in February, said in a statement quoted by the Yorkshire Post: \u201cWhile the news of Featherstone Rovers\u2019 demise and not competing in this forthcoming season is heartbreaking, I believe it offers an opportunity for new investment with fresh ideas and offers opportunity for the club to be rebuilt on solid foundations.
\u201cI have been guided throughout the last few horrendous months of uncertainty by my legal counsel Richard Cramer, who has a wealth of experience working in Rugby League since 1994.
\u201cBoth Richard and myself would be able to provide any assistance to a newly-formed Featherstone Rovers. We are happy to lend our support, advise or become part of any consortium which forms a solid rebirth of the club.
\u201cWhile everyone, including myself, have lots of unanswered questions, I\u2019d rather focus on trying to find a solution.
\u201cTo that end, I am still liaising with the RFL to establish what it will take for a fresh bid to be submitted so Featherstone Rovers can be reborn and play again.\u201d
Meanwhile Jon Trickett, the Labour MP whose Normanton and Hemsworth constituency includes Featherstone, said he was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d by Rovers\u2019 absence from the Championship and added: \u201cI am supporting the club and hope there is a solution to the current problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PAUL COOKE, who coached Featherstone Rovers to last season\u2019s Championship play-offs and the 1895 Cup final at Wembley,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-409959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}