Thev following taken from a pompey site ( Posted by a saint ) Possibly not a lie as such, there's always going to be people who are just kicking the tyres, maybe there's 2 or 3 individuals or groups that Birch hasn't dismissed as total chancers yet. I don't want to gloat, Saints have been "hours" away from liquidation and it's not a nice place to be. But the problem's not with Chainrai or any of your previous owners, it's the whole "benefactor" model. If CSI hadn't been scuppered by Antonov getting arrested, if you'd had a better manager than Cotterill, then it's possible Pompey could have been challenging for promotion this season and Chainrai's decisions would appear better than they do now. Flashback to season 2006/07, Rupert Lowe had temporarily been deposed from the Southampton board and the Saints spent money that was only affordable with parachute payments in an attempt to get back to the promised land. If Saints had been promoted that money would have been recuped in the Premier League, everything would have been fine. I don't think there was any Saints fan protesting against the board's gamble. But just like doping in the Tour de France, about half the clubs in the Championship are gambling the financial wellbeing of their club on getting one of those promotion places, Saints included. Maybe we're more fortunate then most in that our £20m loan from Liebherr isn't due to be repaid until 2014 but if we're not in the Premier League by then, it's got the potential to get a lot more rocky at our end of the M27. I would love to say that the solution is to just live within your means, but football's not like that. Because teams are financially doping, any team that doesn't will be competitively disadvantaged. Pompey should get (excluding any player sales or parachute payments) £15m a season, 60% of that turnover gets you to a pay budget of £9m, and that's not going to get you a promotion team. By the end of the summer of 2009, I was welcoming the idea of a reborn Southampton in Conference South. Only then would we not be dependent on duck-hunters and Liverpool fans and maybe by the time we returned to top flight football sanity would have returned. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the natural order of Hampshire superiority returning but wish it wasn't like this. So best wishes, up to the point when we can play you on a level playing field. News to me IF true .
From what I gather when an owner 'gives' money to a club what they have to do is to supply it as an interest free loan. This is so that you avoid the tax on gifts. This debt is then written off over the timeframe. It's all about avoiding that 'gift tax' and is pretty common place. So do we have a loan? On paper Yes. Do we owe payments on a loan? In theory yes? In 2014 will we have to pay it back? I wouldn't think so. that loan will most likely be 0 and written off by the time the 'deadline' is reached. If the above isn't correct then I will be pretty surprised. Andy
ummm...if Marcus lent the money...to his own club, is it not highly unlikely that debt would be called in to bankrupt his own company? Or maybe I'm just looking at this like a blind fan who trusts those at the top
I was under the impression that it was only repaid if we were in the PL by 2014. Maybe that isn't the case after all!
As Itchen Masack said, the Liebherr's are hardly going to call in a debt on themselves! However, I would point one small detail out. If you happened to lend someone £20M, would you want it back at some point?
Loan money to own company. First £20m of any profit comes out untaxed as loan repayment rather than dividend.
In short, no, we don't owe 20mn. Don't you remember Markus said we would never be in debt under hid guardship. It's a non-repayable loan ala Abramovic at Chelski
This is a financial manouevre....common in business. The loan will not be called in as it will bankrupt his own club. Markus said at the beginning that we would never need to borrow from a bank, because we would be borrowing from him. If we didn't get promoted the loan would just be restructured to a level we could pay. This has all been thought out and anyway what do you think Saints is worth on the open market? More than 20 million I would guess. I know this is done in retail. Say a major chain builds a new shop, the cost of the building is set against the takings of that particular shop and hopefully is paid off after a few years. Nothing to worry about at all. Look at what Chelsea owe Abramovich.
Some tw@t messaged me on Twitter and said we were £40m+ in debt and in the last week have been put up for sale! However, I soon found on this was written by a Pompey fan who was 'in the know' with the clubs lawyer next door... He said 'this is all confidential information so don't tell anyone', so I don't understand why he told me
He said our wage bill is £9m+ and that Cortese and the Liebherrs do not get on! Wow, desperation...!
That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, if Lambert is actually on £25k a week, then that's £1.3m straight away.
It wouldn't surprise me if NC and the Leihberrs didn't get on, neither would it surprise me if they were the greatest pals in the world, because no one knows. The Leihberrs are very private people, so how do these 'sources' find anything out. We are in the middle of one of the best times most of us have experienced...why would anyone sell us on the verge of the PL.
That isn't out of the question at all, as stated Lambert is probably on around £1mill, add Lallana, Fox, Fonte, Hooiveld etc into similar territory. Also it wouldn't surprise me if Cortese and the family didn't get on, he was Markus' friend that doesn't mean he is a friend of the family. however Cortese is extremely good at his job and the family will know this. Also if they want to sell the club Cortese is the best man to make this happen. I could personally suggest a 3 potential buyers, however one already owns a football club, and the other two prefer their horses and formula 1 to football. Cortese would dwarf this and will have a massive pool of potential investors. On that topic you'll all be delighted to know that I am leaving the world of financial services come the end of May and will be working for a local organisation in strategic position. I have no doubt that this will enhance your opinions of me. I will not however be living in Southampton as it is a ****hole.
