BBC Radio Leeds<\/a>, explaining his current position, and has admitted he knows very little about what is going on at the club as it stands.<\/p>\nRevealing that players and staff were owed wages for the last three months, Cooke explained the side\u2019s decision to enter administration, believing it is what was needed for there to be an outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s concerning isn\u2019t it. I think it was the end of September, and nobody has received any pay since then, none of the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I expected the club to go into administration, I think it makes business sense to put it into administration and start a new company up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s partly what I would have done if I\u2019d have been in the same position as Mark Campbell and Chris Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooke revealed that, as it stands, he is contracted to Featherstone for 2026, signing a two-year deal when he joined the club. However, lack of communication from Campbell and Hamilton mean he is currently in limbo about his future as head coach.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI\u2019m not sure where the club\u2019s heading, and I\u2019ve asked Mark Campbell on numerous occasions to let me know if I\u2019m going to coach the team next year or not, and he says he can\u2019t give me that information, so I\u2019m a little bit lost with it, if I\u2019m honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure where I\u2019m at, I\u2019m not sure where any of the other staff are at and I\u2019m not sure where the players are at. It\u2019s concerning that there\u2019s not very much information coming from the club, or anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the players have already left to find new clubs, leaving the squad depleted heading into the new season. Cooke has confirmed that, despite the financial issues, some players have in fact signed deals for 2026, should the club stay afloat.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The players have] got to look after themselves, and I don\u2019t think the club are too concerned by players that are leaving the club, because it reduces the wage bill for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting situation for the players, because they\u2019ve got to look after themselves. They\u2019ve found other clubs and their contract is less than an amount of what what they was on at Featherstone, then they can recoup that money as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery player and staff member is owed three months wages for September, October and November, nobody has been paid anything for three months and I don\u2019t see any money coming in before Christmas, that is for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do know that the players are protected by an insolvency policy that the RFL have, where rugby debts have got to be cleared before a ball can be kicked next year, so the RFL have got to stick to that policy and the players deserve the money, that is for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confirming that some of his squad have signed deals, he added: \u201cI do know that Mark Campbell has been on to a number of players, and agreed deals with them to pay them some monies that they\u2019re owed now, and give them contracts for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly know Danny Addy\u2019s agreed to stay at the club and a couple of others, I\u2019m just not sure where anything else is at. \u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he thinks Featherstone Rovers will be a Championship team competing in 2026, he said: \u201cI\u2019m not convinced in anything. I\u2019ve not been given any information to make me confident or not confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe Featherstone Rovers will be around in 2026, I do think they will make the start line. But, with what team I\u2019m not sure, and when they\u2019re going to start training and who\u2019s going to coach the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players that are agreeing contracts with the club are not going through me, so I\u2019m not sure where anything\u2019s at and I\u2019m not sure where I\u2019m at or where any of the players are at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765275256_81_srl-logo.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Featherstone Rovers boss, Paul Cooke, has revealed he has no idea where he, or any of the players,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-311116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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