ONE of the failed bidders for the new Bradford Bulls has accused the RFL of not being “brave” enough to back a fan-owned club.

New Zealanders Andrew Chalmers and Graham Lowe were officially unveiled as the new owners earlier this week. They have already met with players and discussions over their contracts have been taking place.

But the RFL’s selection process has been heavily criticised by other parties involved.

The Lucid Group, headed by Rotherham Titans chief executive Richard Lamb, had plans to run the new club on a community basis.

But consortium member Andy Agar felt the governing body had already made their choice before even meeting them – a view disputed by the RFL, who are due to answers questions on the selection process for the first time at a briefing today.

Agar, who owns a group of communications agencies, told the T&A: “I’ve done a lot of (business) pitches over the last 25 years, some to very positive audiences and some to quite hostile ones.

“I have to say this is one of the strangest I’ve ever been involved with.

“I appreciate they’ve got to act quickly and it’s never an easy process given the short timeframe.

“But it became pretty clear to me that they hadn’t given much consideration to the document we’d already submitted with the superficial level of questioning.

“It also felt pretty clear that we’d walked into what was ostensibly a fait accompli.”

Agar, Lamb and former Cronulla Sharks chief executive Damian Irvine spent 75 minutes last Thursday with RFL chairman Brian Barwick and chief executive Nigel Wood.

But Agar sensed they were unwilling to grasp the idea of fan ownership.

He added: “It was quite a radical step because you’re effectively saying the model for your sport is kind of broken.

“It would have taken a leap of faith to move away from the traditional model of club ownership.

“I don’t think they had the bravery to look in the mirror and say ‘actually we might have broken this a little bit’.

“That meeting felt to me that they were just paying lip service. It was a box-ticking exercise.”

Agar claimed he did not feel the appropriate due diligence had been done on their bid. He said: “All they really wanted to know from me was am I a rugby league man?

“It’s probably more important that I’m a fit and proper business person irrespective of my sporting allegiance.

“It was pretty clear when we walked out that room that they had already made their mind up.”

The group were never told that their bid was unsuccessful or why – Lamb only found out on the car radio at tea-time the following day.

“It’s a quaint old English tradition,” said Agar. “But it’s just called common courtesy.

“There’s a lot of goodwill that’s been burned up very quickly at that rugby club, not just with the players but supporters and support staff as well.

“We wanted to give 52 per cent ownership to a supporters trust.

“We don’t know if we were close, if there were four parties or ten parties or if we were even in the game at all.”

Agar insists he does not regret their bid for “the custodianship of an incredible brand with an amazing history.”

He said: “Would hindsight have stopped us bidding? No, because it was a real opportunity to become involved in a very good club that was once pulling in excess of 20,000 fans at home games so there is potential.

“It’s a big part of the community and it needs to be reinvigorated.

“I don’t want it to sound like sour grapes because some you win, some you lose. But I do feel the process could have been handled a lot better.”

Responding to Agar’s claims, an RFL spokesperson said: “The bidding process was detailed and made clear to all bidders from the outset.

“The RFL Executive and Board considered every bid for a new Rugby League club in Bradford carefully and the independent RFL Board made the decision that the bid from Andrew Chalmers offered a Bradford based club the best chance of stability and success in the future.”