Swindon charged

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Captain Jack Sparrow

Captain Jack Sparrow

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Jan 25, 2011
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Swindon Town and their owner Lee Power have been charged with breaching Football Association regulations regarding the ownership and/or funding of the League One club.

Sports agency First Touch Pro Management and its company director Michael Standing face similar charges. Standing has previously stated he acquired 50% of Swindon's holding company when Power bought the Robins in 2013. Under FA regulations, agents are not allowed to own clubs because of potential conflicts of interest.

At an FA hearing, it was found that agent Michael Standing had been pumping money into Swindon, with Standing claiming to be owed a staggering £7.5m.

The technical details:

First Touch Pro Management were charged with breaching intermediaries regulation E4, relating to owning/seeking to own Swindon Town.

Power and Swindon have been charged with FA rules E1.2 and E9 (agreement to breach rules/regs) in having an agreement for Standing and First Touch to have an interest in Swindon (contrary to intermediaries reg E4).

If the Independent Regulatory Commission finds the rules were breached then Standing and Power are facing bans and fines, while Swindon could be hit with a points deduction.

All parties have until 22 April to provide their responses.

Swindon said the club was made aware of the charges on Wednesday morning and are seeking legal advice.
 
My understanding of this could be wrong but it looks like an agent (Michael Standing) bought 50% of the club which broke FA rules and this was done 8 years ago in 2013. Apparently, Standing was a secret owner so they all had intentionally broken the rules for this whole amount of time. Power even claimed Swindon was close to bankruptcy just 2 months ago https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55947454 hiding the money that the club were receiving from Standing! So Power and Standing will be in trouble for this.

And as the club received over £7 million in funds from breaking this rule, I can't see how the club themself would get away with this as receiving this money would have benefited the squad in some way obviously.
 
Yes, I saw this last night and my immediate thought was the possibility of a points deduction.

I realise that it's not ideal if we stay up because another club has been punished for off-pitch infractions, but quite frankly I don't care especially as it's Swindon!!! Any chance we get to avoid relegation is fine in my book right now.
 
Bluebaldee said:
Yes, I saw this last night and my immediate thought was the possibility of a points deduction.

I realise that it's not ideal if we stay up because another club has been punished for off-pitch infractions, but quite frankly I don't care especially as it's Swindon!!! Any chance we get to avoid relegation is fine in my book right now.
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You are right. I don't like the fact we could benefit from this as ultimately it will be their fans that will suffer the punishments in reality. But like you said, it is Swindon! Plus they have benefited from 8 years worth of rule breaking intentionally so their fans have benefited enough and should be fortunate that they are still a club unlike Bury!
 
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If we get out of being relegated it will be by our own efforts as they have until 22nd April to respond and the last game of the season is on the 8th May, then they have to arrange the hearing consider their response and pass their verdict to the club and the rest of the league / public. Unless it is deemed serious enough to demote them I reckon they will start about - 20 ? points for next season.

Swindon's major worry could be that they get relegated and have a minus number of points awarded against them next season which would leave them well adrift at the bottom of league 2 that's assuming they are found guilty and until that happens they are innocent under the law
 
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Weren't Northampton Town also in trouble about a £10m council loan that disappeared? Don't know what happened about that one!
 
Gastronomic said:
Weren't Northampton Town also in trouble about a £10m council loan that disappeared? Don't know what happened about that one!
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I think that one was to do with some kind of alleged property/company fraud not directly affecting the club itself. The council loaned a company partly controlled by the owner money for the redevelopment of their stadium, the money was paid to another company and some/a lot of it vanished, hence their unfinished stand. Not a candidate for points deduction.

old timer is right - it’ll be through our own endeavours to get ourselves out of this mess - there will be no lucky points deduction to save us. Whether we like it or not we’ll have to put our faith in Joey and his band of merry men.
 
old timer said:
If we get out of being relegated it will be by our own efforts as they have until 22nd April to respond and the last game of the season is on the 8th May, then they have to arrange the hearing consider their response and pass their verdict to the club and the rest of the league / public. Unless it is deemed serious enough to demote them I reckon they will start about - 20 ? points for next season.

Swindon's major worry could be that they get relegated and have a minus number of points awarded against them next season which would leave them well adrift at the bottom of league 2 that's assuming they are found guilty and until that happens they are innocent under the law
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I think they will look at it quickly as they have been dealing with this for over a year already and now have charged them. I reckon if they punish them with points a deduction before the season is over, it will be around a minus 10 points. But if it ends up being too late for this season then it will be a bigger points deduction like minus 30 next season.

Will we seek legal advice like we did when we got relegated last time and Wycombe did some dodgy dealings.
 
old timer said:
Today is the 23rd has anybody seen or heard Swindon's reply to the charges
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Haven't heard a peep from either party - as Swindon are now relegated with us, there doesn't seem much rush I guess. Not much point in deducting them points, if found guilty, when they're already down - may as well wait till next season and dock them 50 points from the start!
 
smhbcfc said:
If they are found guilty of this the punishment is likely to b draconian
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Well if it ends up being a points deduction, I hope it takes effect next season and not this season when they are already relegated. Serves no punishment if they delete points this season. If it is next season, that is good news for us as L2, 2 teams go down and they may be one of them depending on how many points is deducted.
 
Swindon case being heard in court at present, Manager and his assistant have resigned because the players report back for training next week and Swindon cant announce their new signings because of the court case. Manager and his assistant said that it was impossible to do their jobs in the present circumstances.
 
old timer said:
Swindon case being heard in court at present, Manager and his assistant have resigned because the players report back for training next week and Swindon cant announce their new signings because of the court case. Manager and his assistant said that it was impossible to do their jobs in the present circumstances.
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Their month spell as manager and assistant manager makes it a complete mockery of Swindons situation. If they get away with this, I will be peeved.
 
Swindon have failed to pay their players and staff for June. They have no manager, director of football Paul Jewell has left and just 11 contracted players, plus they haven’t started pre season training yet.

Along with the court cases and imminent insolvency I’d say that club’s in a bit of bother.

I used to work with a passionate Swindon fan 4 years ago and back then he was bemoaning Lee Power and claiming that the bloke would destroy Swindon. Looks like he was right.
 
Swindon. Oldham and Scunthorpe have all been placed under a transfer embargo. They can only sign free transfers to make the squad up to 23 to make the squad quota for the league fixtures, they are not allowed loan signings where a loan fee is required
Swindon have 7 players on the books for the coming
 
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