A bumper £75,000 grant to Keighley Cougars has to be repaid by them after after the Government-backed SportsMatch organisation claimed rules were broken.

Cougars were praised as a go-ahead club when the award was announced back in November 1994.

At the time Magnet, the Keighley-based international joinery company, joined forces with Whirlpool, an electrical goods company, to back the rugby club's community programme. Together they were due to set up the Whirlpool-Magnet Foundation, which was designed to provide grass roots coaching, education and community initiatives.

The two companies were putting up half the £150,000 cost of the scheme, and their money was matched pound-for-pound by the SportsMatch organisation. Cougars received the maximum grant of £75,000 and were the first rugby league club to be granted a top award. But SportsMatch later discovered that Magnet was not involved.

It is understood that SportsMatch has now recovered the £75,000 from Magnet who are now seeking to recover the money from the club.

Cougars chairman Mr Howard Carter - who was not involved with the club at the time of the SportsMatch deal - said: "We are trying to discover exactly what the situation is."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.