Keighley Cougars are being chased for money by rival clubs and creditors, with allegations of debts mounting at the Championship club.
According to documents obtained by The i Paper, Keighley and its owners, Ryan O’Neill and Kaue Garcia, have been hit with eight county court judgments (CCJs) in the past three years.
The company Cougarmania has three unpaid judgments, owing a total of £14,169, awarded against it since January 2025.
Financial problems continue to mount
Keighley play their home games at Cougar Park (Photo: Getty)
Cougarmania also had two judgments of £7,653 and £3,200 against it, which were paid in May 2024 and December 2025, respectively.
Another of the owners’ companies, Bedspreadz Poultry, has three judgments totalling £11,499 awarded against it since July 2025, all of which are unpaid.
The i Paper understands Keighley also owe at least one Super League club and at least one Championship club thousands of pounds each over player loans.
Allegations have been made that the Cougars are in debt to other Super League and Championship clubs as well, and owes money to other unnamed creditors.
Keighley are the sixth rugby league team to face financial issues since December, with Salford Red Devils, Featherstone Rovers, Halifax Panthers and North Wales Crusaders all going bust.
Salford, Halifax and North Wales have all reformed under new owners after being liquidated.
Keighley have won four of their 17 Championship games this season.
Owners renege on promise to stand down
The Cougars are currently 14th in the Championship (Photo: Getty)
O’Neill and Garcia, who took over the club in 2019, announced in June that they would stand down as owners at the end of the campaign because of personal and homophobic abuse.
However, just nine days later they reversed that decision and announced they would remain in charge “following an extraordinary outpouring of support from the club’s supporters, sponsors, volunteers, the town’s MP Robbie Moore and wider community ever since the announcement”.
Approached by The i Paper, O’Neill has denied that he, Garcia and Keighley are in any financial difficulty.
“Cougarmania had three CCJs over seven years,” he claimed.
“All have been paid. One related to the installation of metal poles paid for by the council as part of road widening, but we got left with a substantial part of the bill we didn’t expect.
“The other two I cannot remember what they were for, but they have all been settled.”
Bankruptcy claims
Owners Ryan O’Neill and Kaue Garcia deny any wrongdoing (Photo: Getty)
On Bedspreadz Poultry’s debts, O’Neill says the pair took over the commercial chicken farm two years ago and that “it has been a hard graft, and we had to make a lot of investment.”
“We were taken advantage of by some suppliers being totally green and naive,” he said.
“The vets came and charged us £15,000 a month, the water supplier charged us £3,000 a tanker delivery. We disputed it.
“Sadly they pursued us, and when we refused to pay, they slapped us with a CCJ. We are having to pay this, despite it being entirely wrong.”
O’Neill claims he was discharged from bankruptcy in May last year.
On the debts owed to other rugby league clubs, O’Neill replied: “We don’t owe all of those clubs, some we do for loan players which are current creditors.
“These get paid as normal. All clubs generally owe other clubs money at various times, and it is usual that if a club defaults, the RFL pay out of central distribution.
“To pull us on this is to represent probably every club in the competition, both in the Championship and Super League.”
Questionable business practices
Questions have also been asked about the business practices of O’Neill and Garcia after their involvement in the company behind the smartwatch company Moochies went into liquidation.
An investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that O’Neill was declared bankrupt by the High Court in May 2024 and a large number of complaints had been made by consumers about Moochies because of software glitches, predatory subscription billing practices and product failures.
Both the associated UK companies Moochies Trading and Moochies Technologies, which are linked to Garcia and O’Neill, have their accounts overdue and are facing strike-off proposals.
A third UK company involved with the Moochies product, Kids Tech Company, was dissolved in February.
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On his and Garcia’s involvement in Moochies, O’Neill claims the pair have not been involved with the smartwatch product and its companies for several years.
“Moochies never paid for Cougars, I had a minority shareholding, I drew a salary, and it was a loss-making venture which is common in the tech industry,” he said.
“Running our own businesses, especially the Moochies one where it is fast growing, always has the propensity to hit hurdles. That doesn’t mean we don’t always have the best intentions.
“The club is in no financial difficulties whatsoever, and the investments we have made into its revenues shows that.
“In regards to my own business interests and the past, this had nothing to do with Cougars, it is historic, it never funded Cougars so is essentially a private matter on an investment that went wrong.”
The RFL declined to comment.