The future of London Broncos remains up in the air after the beleaguered Super League club announced its intention to go into administration.
The Londoners have been the subject of much speculation since leaving the Twickenham Stoop at the end of the 2013 season and failed to quash growing doubts over their participation in Super League for 2014 with their continued silence.
It was feared that David Hughes, who has personally bankrolled the club since Richard Branson ended his interest a decade ago, would withdraw his support after failing to receive guarantees over the club's Super League status, following the decision to reinstate promotion and relegation from the end of next season.
The Broncos' inclusion in this week's fixture list for 2014 was seen as a positive sign but then came a new twist in the saga.
"London Broncos rugby league club have today instructed lawyers to file a notice of intention to appoint administrators over the club," said a statement issued on behalf of the Broncos on Wednesday evening.
"This will allow 10 working days for the club to work with the Rugby Football League and other parties to resolve the club's future and will prevent any creditor from taking action against the club in this period."
The club said there would be no further comment but Barnet FC's chairman, Tony Kleanthous, recently confirmed he was in talks with the Broncos over a move to The Hive, and is thought to be interested in acquiring a stake in the Super League club but only if it became debt-free.
Head coach Tony Rea and chief executive Gus Mackay are thought to be overseeing a skeleton staff after a raft of redundancies were made at the end of last season.
Earlier in the day halfback Mike Bishay became the 15th player to confirm his departure from the London club, who are thought to have as few as five players left on the books.
Even if London were given exemption from the overseas quota to enable them to put together a side in time for their opening match at Widnes on February 16, they would be near-certainties for relegation.
The maximum sanction for a breach of insolvency regulations is currently six competition points and that would be doubled if the RFL's policy review is approved by clubs.
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