YORK Wasps today beefed up their capital bid to take over ailing Super League club London Broncos and bring the pinnacle of the game back to York.

Even as SL clubs voted en masse to block any re-location of the cash-troubled Broncos out of London to a northern club Wasps' vice-chairman Russell Greenfield today journeyed south to meet with officials of Virgin, who have the controlling share issue in the Broncos, and Charlton Athletic whose Valley Ground the Super League club play at.

Before he set off Greenfield agreed that the Wasps' ambitious bid was 'petering out' in the face of the reaction of the entire Super League hierarchy.

He even told the Evening Press that 'for the good of rugby' he would prefer London Broncos being able to remain in the capital and flourish again.

But he also explained that should no-one down south want to take on the flagging outfit then he was spearheading York's audacious attempt to take control of the Broncos and thereby bring Super League to York.

Super League clubs yesterday met at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield, where they unanimously declared their opposition to taking the Broncos out of London to 'Leigh or any other northern-based club'.

It was originally announced that Leigh were interested in taking control of the Broncos, a development that sparked York's approach, which was exclusively revealed on the Evening Press website thisisyork.co.uk last Thursday afternoon.

Andrew Whitelam, spokesman for the Super League, said that as far as Super League was concerned that was the end of the matter.

He also added that the Broncos were hopeful of 'some positive development' regarding their Super League future over the next few days.

That however has not deterred Greenfield from pressing ahead with his scheduled meetings with officials from both Broncos' backers Virgin and landlords Charlton Athletic over the next 24 hours.

Said Greenfield: "I back the Super League entirely in its stance. I want the Broncos to remain in London. It's better for the game and for the sake of rugby league - absolutely. I would love them to stay where they are.

"But if Virgin, or anybody else, does not want to keep the club on in London then I am determined to try to bring them through to York.

"If in any way the club is going to come out of London then I am going to go for it for York. If it does not stay in the capital then it might as well be in York as anywhere else.

"I am just waiting in the wings to see what happens."

Greenfield also revealed that he had been initially approached by the Broncos about a month ago when he thought a prospective re-location was 'a non-starter'.

But then last week when details of a possible switch to Leigh leaked out the Wasps' vice-chairman immediately contacted Virgin.

"I told them that we had a better case to put forward than Leigh, because this season now we have got a very good set-up indeed with a major sponsor to back us," said Greenfield.

Updated: 14:54 Tuesday, September 04, 2001