Featherstone Rovers chased by eight ex-players over unpaid wages
Featherstone Rovers are being chased for money by a group of players and staff over unpaid wages.
i understands group of at least eight former players and staff are trying to get the club to pay them money they are allegedly owed, with some claiming they have outstanding wages dating back more than a year. All are no longer at the Championship club.
It is believed ex- coach Brian McDermott is among the group allegedly owed cash. McDermott, now an assistant coach with NRL side Newcastle Knights in Australia, left Featherstone at the end of 2022. He has been approached for comment.
i has been told one ex-employee even took Featherstone to the small claims court to ensure he received what he was owed. Others have approached the RFL for assistance but say they have received little help from the governing body.
Several individuals who have been badly affected have spoken to i on condition of anonymity.
“The club seems to have a habit of not paying players at the back ends of their contracts, specifically ones that are from abroad,” one said.
Another said he is owed £5,000 by Featherstone and said the late or non-payment issue is “pretty common” at the club.
“They completely ignored all my phone calls”, he said. “They owe me five grand. My partner almost had to leave the country because they were delaying to pay for her visa. They stopped paying my rent to the real estate… It wasn’t all they did, there was a lot of other stuff too. It’s madness.”
One affected player said: “We went through Christmas without being paid. We’ve been assured by the club we’ll be paid this month, but I’m not holding my breath. We’ve gone to the RFL and the RFL are talking about special measures.”
The combined amount the club allegedly owes to former players and staff in total is unknown.
Australian prop Ben Mathiou took the West Yorkshire club to court last year to try and get back the money he was owed.
Mathiou, who was signed by Featherstone in January 2022, won the sum of £3,116.66 after an employment tribunal held in Leeds in July 2023.
At the tribunal judge R S Drake awarded Mathiou unpaid wages for two months and unpaid win bonuses for five matches.
Rovers have a history of late payment of wages. In November 2023 the club publicly admitted there had been a delay in the club’s payroll.
In late January, the issue had not been resolved. At the time, the RFL confirmed it was aware of the problem and described it as “ultimately a club matter”.
Featherstone have not responded to several requests for comment. When approached this week the RFL said it would not be commenting further.
Rovers failed in their promotion bid for Super League last year. The alleged financial issues have not stopped Featherstone from signing new players for the 2024 season, with the club recently signing NRL halfback Paul Turner.
Approached recently about the growing concerns of players and staff seeking money, the RFL responded with a statement that said: “We understand that outstanding payments have either recently been made or are about to be made. The Rugby League Players Association [RLPA] has a dispute resolution role so may also be worth contacting.”
The RFL declined to confirm or deny if the club had been placed in special measures. The RLPA has been approached for comment.
Featherstone’s alleged payment issues come at a contracting time for English rugby league financially, with the sport’s TV rights deal with Sky Sports almost halving from £40m a year in 2021 to now around £22m a year.
This has meant less central distribution going to those clubs in the two semi-professional divisions below Super League, the Championship and League 1.
In the past 15 months, two third-tier clubs have pulled out of the RFL structure of competitions because of financial difficulties.
West Wales Raiders withdrew from League 1 in December 2022 and now no longer exist, while London Skolars withdrew from the same competition in September and now compete in the amateur Southern Conference.
Newcastle Thunder almost went under in September after owner Semore Kurdi pulled his funding. But Newcastle were taken over by a new group of volunteers and will compete in League 1 this season.
Last week Championship club Whitehaven admitted seven of its players are still owed money from their February wages and blamed a cash-flow issue.
“The club are owed money far in excess of the money we owe to seven players for their February contract and we have spoken to them collectively about the reason for this cash flow problem,” Whitehaven said in a statement.
“They will be paid as and when our creditors clear their invoices. All other monies ie fuel expense, community pay, game money and January’s contracts have been paid in full.”
Featherstone Rovers open their new Championship season away at Batley Bulldogs this Sunday.
