Commons protest on Vikings’ rejection

Oct 23 2008 by Paul Glynn, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

DEREK Twigg has voiced frustration in Parliament at the process by which Widnes Vikings’ Super League application was rejected.

Halton’s MP says the club’s exclusion from the expanded competition in 2008 underlines the view by many in Widnes the Rugby Football League ‘has it in’ for the Stobart Stadium club.

Last month, Twigg and Weaver Vale MP Mike Hall wrote to RFL chief executive Richard Lewis about the reasons why Vikings had been overlooked and to check on the status of Wakefield’s Super League application, following the collapse of their stadium plans.

Twigg said that in his response, Lewis told him: “Their (Widnes’) financial background was a major factor and this was always going to be the case.

“It was perfectly possible for Widnes to be awarded a licence and without revealing any confidentialities, they did finish well ahead of several other clubs.”

Twigg told the House of Commons: “If Widnes' financial situation, that of having gone into administration, was going to be the major stumbling block in achieving the Super League licence, then the RFL should have said that at the beginning.

“If it had, Widnes would not have bid in the first place and the club would have avoided going through a process that it was never going to win anyway, because of its former financial situation.”

Lindsay Hoyle, Labour MP for Chorley, endorsed the Halton MP’s claims Widnes had been unfairly treated.

Addressing the house, Mr Twigg declared how the decision had left him and many other Vikings supporters feeling a sense of befuddlement and he called for greater transparency in the Super League application process in future.

Mr Twigg said: “In Widnes, there is a widely-held view that the RFL has an inherent dislike of the Widnes club because of something that went on in the past that no one can quite fathom.

“The treatment of the club in relation to the Super League licence further reinforced the view that the RFL has it in for Widnes.”

He added: “Iin seemingly moving the goalposts for Super League licence approval and showing a breathtaking and arbitrary disregard for its own criteria, the RFL has made a mockery of the process from the outset.”