LEIGH LEOPARDS owner Derek Beaumont has named his biggest regret during his time in rugby league.
Having been owner of the Leigh club since 2014, Beaumont has taken them from perennial Championship strugglers to silverware contenders, with the Leopards lifting the Challenge Cup in 2023 and earning a semi-final play-off spot in 2024.
In the past decade, however, Beaumont has been notoriously outspoken – from comments on IMG to calling for a breakaway league.
Looking back at his time in the sport, the Leigh owner has named his biggest regrets.
“There are numerous things I haven’t got right but you learn from them,” Beaumont told League Express.
“I obviously regret dropping the ‘f bomb’ live on the BBC after the Challenge Cup. I managed to get away from that but if I had to isolate one single thing it would be a tweet I put out when we lost at Wakefield in 2017.
“I offered ten grand to anyone who could show the ball touching the line when it didn’t in a game we lost. After that we didn’t win another game and got hammered off the officials.
“I don’t think I helped myself and then called it a ‘joke shop’ where I was fighting against the establishment and it doesn’t work.
“We have had more success working with it and I try and work with it now. I’ve done so and continuously speak in a positive manner with them.
“But we are getting to a point where it’s driving me daft as a business person with the direction of travel the sport is going.
“It isn’t giving us our best chance and we need to take ownership of that and implement a lot of things I am saying as it’s a great game.”
