Rugby League: Hull face an uncertain future

THE future of the Hull Sharks is in doubt after their chairman stormed out of the club's annual meeting when he failed to get his way over a new share issue.

David Lloyd, the leisure industry millionaire who also controls the town's football club, Hull City, later announced that he wanted pounds 2m from the club for his 50 per cent shareholding, plus the return of a pounds 500,000 loan.

All Hull's players are now on the transfer list, which puts an obvious question mark over their ability to fulfill their first fixture in Super League at Sheffield next Sunday.

Hull's second-biggest shareholder and forner chairman, Roy Waudby, said the meeting had resented Lloyd's approach.

"He would have finished up with 90 per cent of the club and Hull people don't like being bullied or threatened," he said.

"He asked if the meeting wanted him to go and, when a few people at the back shouted that they did, he just walked out. He lost a point and he threw down his racquet."

Waudby has asked the managing director of Super League, Maurice Lindsay, to intervene and the Rugby League is also keeping an anxious eye on the situation over the weekend.