Featherstone Rovers Chairman enters plea following arrest

Featherstone Rovers are battling to join Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, St Helens and the rest of the big boys in the Betfred Super League finally fulfilling the aim that has driven the club for years.

They are undoubtedly the biggest and best club to never play Super League.

It has been the dream of Chairman Mark Campbell but he arrested recently after allegation of  wounding with intent to cause GBH and unlawful wounding.

He denied the allegations at the time and today, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post, he has entered a not guilty plea at Leeds Crown Court.

At the time of the arrest, the club made the following statement:

“Featherstone Rovers can confirm that its chairman Mark Campbell has been arrested in connection with an allegation which is denied. He has been granted bail pending a future court appearance. The club have been advised to make no further comment at this time.”

Campbell has huge ambitions for Featherstone as a club which should be commended as he chases Super League.

It has also led to him making the tough decision to part company with Sean Long.

It was a decision he explained on the club’s social media last week:

“It’s always sad, George, parting with a coach because any coach and chairman, you’ve got to have such a tight bond and you work so closely with them. So it was sad but it had to be done. I’ve no doubt it was the right decision.

“I did know from the outset that obviously Sean hadn’t been a head coach and he would struggle in some areas. I think his choice of assistant didn’t help him.

“I tried to persuade him to go for somebody with more experience, who had been a head coach who could help him with structure, organisation, planning ahead, utilising all his staff but Sean wanted Leon.

“I just thought that the two of them were too alike and from that it’s been a difficult eight months to see the squad we put together, to see us basically not getting the best out of what we’ve got and any good coach gets the best out of the players and this clearly wasn’t happening.

“Well yeah, but when you look at it, you look at the way we’ve been playing and you look at how we’ve been playing and you look at the dynamics of the team, we’ve just been driving straight through the middle and steamrolling certainly every team in the championship out of the top six.

“When it’s come down to winning a particular game against some of our rivals, we haven’t had a great record. We could have lost quite easily to Bradford at home. Sheffield should have beat us if they’d kept the discipline. Toulouse took us apart in the second half. Halifax have beat us twice.

“So they’re all worrying signs considering the budget what Sean Long had to spend, and this is the biggest budget this club’s probably spent in its history.

“So you put everything together. It’s been a difficult time because we want to be planning with confidence for next year. We need to be acting now on recruitment and planning for next year. And in Sean’s tenure, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t possibly do that and put the club at jeopardy.

“We brought Fordy in to work with Sean, to try and fill those gaps, but it just clearly wasn’t working. With any business you need one boss, and I came back from a job yesterday and watched it half an hour training and I felt genuinely excited, I was looking out and thinking, I can’t wait for Sunday. I can’t wait to see this lot because I watched training and it’s the most focused, sharp and they just looked a real purpose about what we were doing in training. I can’t wait for Sunday.”