LOVE him or hate him, Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont is a character.
Following a successful rebrand from ‘Centurions’ to ‘Leopards’, the Leigh owner has been hitting the headlines in recent months with his new brand and team.
Beaumont is also active on social media and often comes into contact with critics. That being said, he is not fussed about the opinions of those outside of his immediate circle.
“The opinions of me that are important to me are my own when I put my head on my pillow at night,” Beaumont said on the Eddie and Stevo podcast.
“If I believe at night that I’ve acted correctly and done my best then I’m happy with that.
“If people in my family tell me that what I’m doing is not right then that would concern me. People on social media, I’m not really bothered.
“You’re never going to please all the people all of the time. What I do is stand up for what I believe is right and stand up against adversity. I like to be charitable, I love rugby league and I’d love every club to be rich.
“Would I like to see a rejuvenated Bradford? Yeah, I’d love to see them rejuvenated and I’d love to see Nigel get some success.
“If you ask me something I will tell you straight and if they don’t like it then that’s their problem to deal with.
Beaumont was also eager to dispel claims that he walked away from the club back in 2018.
“There is a misconception that I walked away. I didn’t walk away in 2018 but I had to give the perception that I did,” Beaumont continued.
“The club had come out of Super League and we didn’t make the middle 8s so we went from a £2 million squad, we went down with parachute payment of £500,000 and £900k central distribution and we were down to less than £200,000 and that was too big for me to deal with in a year.
“If players and agents knew I was staying in and rebuilding, they wouldn’t have done the deals that they did with me.
“I would have gone then, I made the club openly available. There was £100,000 in the bank, no players were signed and there was a brand new baby there for someone. No one came forward.”
