Halifax confirm they will not take part in RFL’s autumn tournament

Fax boss Simon Grix revealed to the Courier last week that he had reservations about participating in the competition due to the risk of injuries to players.

Clubs have instead been invited to feature in a new-fangled competition, with a theme of celebrating the sport’s 125th anniversary and a prize pot of £250,000 - thanks in part to financial support from the Super League clubs.

The tournament is seen as a way of ensuring lower league clubs can play some games and earn some income after the coronavirus pandemic.

The plan is to start the competition in October when grounds could be open to fans once more and have two regional divisions of up to eight clubs each, all playing seven games before semi-finals and a final.

But in a statement on their website, the club said: “Earlier this week, the RFL announced that the 2020 Championship season would be cancelled and also that there would be no promotion or relegation. Finally, the RFL offered an end of season competition covering 16 teams, by invite, running across October and November 2020.

“These decisions have now enabled the Board to address, in more detail, the current unprecedented challenges for the Club with more clarity and certainty and we would now like to share that with all associated with Halifax RLFC.

“As a Board we have a duty of care to both the Club and all its Staff. Whilst the end of season tournament is a commendable gesture by the RFL, our Club will not be taking part for the following reasons:

“Our players, who are part time, have not played for four months, have no suitable training facilities or time to get back up to match fitness. The risk to players picking up injuries (as evidenced in the NRL) is too high for us to consider allowing them to play. Financially the Board has worked very hard, alongside its stakeholders, to manage its way through this Pandemic.

“The current situation sees the Club having a chance to survive 2020 with help from those stakeholders. However, the prohibitive costs of testing, un-furloughing players, match day costs, playing either behind closed doors or restricted crowd numbers, simply puts all that hard work at risk. The Club’s longer term survival and growth is paramount and the Board feel that this has to take priority, therefore we will not be entering this end of season competition.

“Consequently, the Clubs Commercial Director, Steve Lambert, will now start contacting our sponsors next week to start opening discussions about 2020 reclaim options and 2021 sponsorship opportunities.

“Likewise all our season ticket holders will also be sent a letter / e-mail next week with regard to the same topic.

“A huge amount of work is ongoing to manage our costs and revenue and the success of this will determine the future success of the Club, both on and off the field.

“We trust this gives you an insight into the challenges the Board faces and how we are managing those challenges in order to safeguard the future of the Club.

“Now, more than ever, we all need to stick together and work our way through these extraordinary times to come out of this Pandemic stronger than ever before.

“Thank you for your continued support and stay safe.”