SIR – If we can put aside for a moment the emotional responses to the Bradford Bulls fire-storm, we may be able to see that it’s all just about an entertainment company which was spending more than it was earning.

If the customers aren’t paying enough to cover the costs, it goes bust, just like many other businesses have done over the years.

What is particularly revealing, in the Bulls case like that of Glasgow Rangers, is how HM Revenue & Customs seems prepared to permit many such sport-based businesses to not pay their PAYE and VAT bills promptly, enabling huge debts to accrue which eventually sink the ship. If your local garage, curry-house or small factory took such a cavalier attitude to paying its tax-bills, the HMRC would rightly land on them with fast and painful weight, yet somehow these high-profile sporting businesses seem to get away with it. Why ?

Whether Bradford Bulls will survive to rise again phoenix-like, as they did back in 1964, remains to be seen.

It is to be hoped that any future Board, and the HMRC, will make sure that all their tax bills are fully and promptly paid, just like the rest of us have to do.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon