Bob Chapman addresses the fans

COUGARS face a tough few weeks and months ahead if the club is to survive -- and must find over £200,000 to get through to the end of the year.

Most senior players this week rejected new terms as the club launched a drastic cost-cutting plan.

Senior players had been paid between £250 and £500 every time the team won and £100 to £200 if they lost, but at a meeting the previous week they were told the club could not go on paying that kind of money.

Former director Mike Smith, who had been brought in to examine the running of the club told a fans meeting on Tuesday night: "Now we will be paying £225 for a win and £50 for a defeat.

The dramatic drop in match terms will save the club hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The previous first team budget would have cost £315,000 with the new level due to cost the club a predicted £174,700, while backroom staff costs are to be reduced from £121,000 to £51,500.

Club chairman Bob champman said that each year managing directors had drawn up budgets for the club, but they had repeatedly failed to get the level of income needed.

Club owner Hami Patel had made up the shortfall - about £250,000 a year - but last month he declared: "enough is enough."

He arranged for the players to be paid up until the end of April but then insisted that the club go it alone.

"In short Hami Patel bought us out of administration by the club was supposed to stand on its own feet but it has failed to do that," he said.

Mike Smith told the meeting that the club was due to spend £536,000 during the year but because they weren't getting the income they needed faced a shortfall of £329,000 if they had continued paying out.

Urgent action was needed the club got rid of expensive back room staff and was forced to cut payments to players.

"It was a crazy situation, absolutely ridiculous and I had no choice but to make these decisions," he said.

He added that when told of the situation coach Steve Deakin offered to return to being a part-time coach to help the club.

Mike Smith said: "This is our club, your club. It belongs to the players, the fans everybody -- we all need to work together."

Plans for the future included launching a 'Team Cougar' fundraising scheme which would cost £85 a month, bringing £1,000 a year into the club. There were also plans to set up a new company 'Action for Kids' which would manage the clubs community activities.

Keighley Cougars would again be at the forefront of developments in the game showing other clubs how to work in the present financial climate.

"We have got to help the other clubs in rugby league by showing that what Keighley Cougars is doing is right. Our problems are the same as everyone else's problems," he said.