Rovers were a few months late with filing their accounts for the 2017/18 season, which had to be in to Companies House by 31st March 2019. Rovers have now sent them in and Companies House have confirmed receipt of them. However, as a result of being so late, there will be a fine to pay! The fine starts at £100 and goes up gradually, depending on the how late is the final submission. Wonder how much 2 months is!
While waiting for Rovers to get their act together and send in their accounts, Companies House had to issue a 'struck off notice'. This notice is a warning shot to the people who own the company that if they fail to submit their accounts then Companies House will continue with the action to have the company struck off and then legally they won't be allowed to trade because it is a criminal offence to fail to submit your accounts to Companies House.
Bury, Oldham, and Blackpool were other clubs who did not submitted their accounts on time. They are clubs which we might politely call 'clubs in crisis.' Clubs that have had issues in terms of winding up orders, county court judgements, failure to pay players, so it is not a gang we would like to be part of.There are also 2 Championship clubs who failed to do their accounts on time. They are Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton. Bolton are in administration and Sheffield Wednesday are alleged to have sold their ground to an unusual company by the owner to circumnavigate financial fair play, so both of those clubs have got a cloud over them at the moment.
To be seen with a list of clubs labelled as a 'crisis club' is very worrying and embarrassing. To me, there are reasons why companies choose not to disclose information and it is never a positive reason. And if we are on a list of 'crisis clubs', it’s easy to conclude we have similar problems as them. So what the hell is going on?
We now know the accounts have been received and they now have been published. It doesn't look pretty reading! We made losses of over £3.4m for the 2017/18 season and rank as the 6th highest in L1 . That means we were losing £65k a week. This is not sustainable, which is what Wael said he wanted the club to be - sustainable! Now remember this is for 2017/18 season, so the 18/19 season will probably be worse because last season was a bad season and attendances were lower so not much income in as before plus we would have had to pay off DC after sacking him. We are paying out £97 in wages for every £100 that comes through the door and you can't run a normal business like that. Wages increased by 12 per cent and revenue was down by 12 per cent, so you put those two together and you've got a perfect storm of financial problems. You can't carry on with those as trends in the long-term. Again remember this is for 17/18 season, so could be a lot worse now!
So with this all in mind, maybe this is the true reason why we haven't started our new training ground. Maybe this is why we have nothing planned for a new stadium or to redevelop the Mem. This also backs up what DC said before he left when he said we need to make massive cuts. Coughlan also said a few weeks ago on the Twentyman show that he will need to reduce the amount of staff.
I am prepared for a season of struggle. It would be a good idea if you do too. Anything better is therefore a bonus but we have a long 12 months ahead of us.
While waiting for Rovers to get their act together and send in their accounts, Companies House had to issue a 'struck off notice'. This notice is a warning shot to the people who own the company that if they fail to submit their accounts then Companies House will continue with the action to have the company struck off and then legally they won't be allowed to trade because it is a criminal offence to fail to submit your accounts to Companies House.
Bury, Oldham, and Blackpool were other clubs who did not submitted their accounts on time. They are clubs which we might politely call 'clubs in crisis.' Clubs that have had issues in terms of winding up orders, county court judgements, failure to pay players, so it is not a gang we would like to be part of.There are also 2 Championship clubs who failed to do their accounts on time. They are Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton. Bolton are in administration and Sheffield Wednesday are alleged to have sold their ground to an unusual company by the owner to circumnavigate financial fair play, so both of those clubs have got a cloud over them at the moment.
To be seen with a list of clubs labelled as a 'crisis club' is very worrying and embarrassing. To me, there are reasons why companies choose not to disclose information and it is never a positive reason. And if we are on a list of 'crisis clubs', it’s easy to conclude we have similar problems as them. So what the hell is going on?
We now know the accounts have been received and they now have been published. It doesn't look pretty reading! We made losses of over £3.4m for the 2017/18 season and rank as the 6th highest in L1 . That means we were losing £65k a week. This is not sustainable, which is what Wael said he wanted the club to be - sustainable! Now remember this is for 2017/18 season, so the 18/19 season will probably be worse because last season was a bad season and attendances were lower so not much income in as before plus we would have had to pay off DC after sacking him. We are paying out £97 in wages for every £100 that comes through the door and you can't run a normal business like that. Wages increased by 12 per cent and revenue was down by 12 per cent, so you put those two together and you've got a perfect storm of financial problems. You can't carry on with those as trends in the long-term. Again remember this is for 17/18 season, so could be a lot worse now!
So with this all in mind, maybe this is the true reason why we haven't started our new training ground. Maybe this is why we have nothing planned for a new stadium or to redevelop the Mem. This also backs up what DC said before he left when he said we need to make massive cuts. Coughlan also said a few weeks ago on the Twentyman show that he will need to reduce the amount of staff.
I am prepared for a season of struggle. It would be a good idea if you do too. Anything better is therefore a bonus but we have a long 12 months ahead of us.
