Barrow Raiders have been charged by the RFL with misconduct and could be relegated from the Championship if guilty.
Raiders charged for breaking the rules over payments to players
Barrow Raiders have been charged by the Rugby Football League with misconduct and a series of breaches of RFL operational rules.
The Cumbrian club have also been ordered to appear before a tribunal, probably early next month, and if found guilty they could be relegated from the Co-operative Championship.
The breaches span a four-year period up to 2011 and emerged during a formal RFL investigation which has been taking place for the last two months.
The investigation included recent allegations made by former player Ned Catic, principally against Raiders chairman Des Johnston.
Barrow were docked six points in July for breaching the salary-cap regulations in 2010, which ended their play-off hopes for this year, and had a further six-point deduction suspended until the end of 2012.
The Raiders finished the season 10 points ahead of York and another hefty penalty could earn a reprieve from relegation for the City Knights, who are due to go down to Championship 1 with Dewsbury.
Under the League's operational rules, there is no limit to the scale of fine or points deduction if a club is found guilty of misconduct.
The League even have the power to strip Barrow of the Championship title they won in 2009 courtesy of their Grand-Final win over Halifax.
Barrow are alleged to have:
failed to record in player contracts all financial benefits or benefits in kind that a player is receiving;
broken a rule preventing any club or club official loaning money or goods or making payment or providing any benefit in kind to a player unless they are recorded in the player's contract;
misconduct by committing a breach of Championship salary-cap regulations.
