London Broncos owner to leave club as major off-season changes detailed ahead of Championship return
London Broncos owner David Hughes - Alamy
London Broncos appear set for a turbulent winter – after their owner and backer David Hughes has confirmed he will be leaving the club.
Hughes has bankrolled the Broncos – and rugby league in the south of England – for well over 20 years, and been responsible for the club’s success.
But he will now walk away, with the club cast adrift under IMG’s gradings system and likely unable to return to Super League for a number of years to come due to their poor score.
They were graded 27th last year and while they will improve on that this year, it will still be nowhere near enough to threaten for a place in the top-flight.
And Hughes has now decided the time is right for a change at the top of the club and has appealed for interested parties to step forward and continue to support London’s efforts to strengthen the game in the south.
Hughes said: “After 27 eventful years of which we spent 20 years in the Super League, I have decided on behalf of myself and the Hughes family that we will step down at the end of the season. We will make every effort to facilitate anyone interested in taking over the club to lead it through the Championship.
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“We would ask any interested party to contact Jason Loubser at London Broncos at Jason.loubser@londonbroncosrl.com.”
“I’m not going to comment too much on it,” he said on Sky Sports. “Hopefully it might change a little bit, but we’re up in the air at the moment.
“We’ve not really (given up hope of being a Super League club in 2025). I just hope that we can retract and get away from the IMG ruling, which is bizarre.”
But London will be demoted to the Championship in the weeks ahead – and they will now have to plan for life without their owner too, with Hughes confirming plans to step back.
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