Do anyone but us ever say anything good about city BFB? Not damning in this case.....................yet In fact I think the Malaysians have already discovered the errors of this thinking in the loanees aspect.
This guy was touting around clubs with potential that he reckoned he could sell to consortiums through a football investment company, he was explaining about how they could get around the rules about having an interest in more than one club by using shell companies and having people fronting as owners. Bryan Robson is in this guy's (Joe Sim's) pocket and in it up to his neck. Robson promised to use his contacts to arrange loan deals for any club the consortium's bought into. The guy boasted he was big buddies with Sir Alex Ferguson and some of the top agents, and what's more had films and evidence to prove it..........SAF didn't come out of it too well, and the finger was pointed at him as arranging to loan Man Utd players to clubs that these consortiums bought into. The plan on the table was that they bought into Sheff Wed, in this case Joe Sim took 20% of the clubs shares for arranging the deal, the members of the consortium picked up the club for peanuts (£10 -£15 million was the fgure being bandied about) and with "preferential" loan deals and transfers arranged by Robson, SAF and their contacts they got into the premiership, on the cheap. Joe Sim would then arrange the sale of the club to wealthy Asian businessmen at a discount...........pick up Sheff Wed, a club with a big fan base and get them into the premiership for around £50 million (help with financing the deal i.e. interest free loans being available through the wealthy Asian businessmen if needed) So you pick up Sheff Wed and get them promoted it costs you £50m and maybe an interest free loan of £20m secured on a future sale. So you end up with a premiership club worth around £300 million, the consortium then sell the club to the wealthy Asian businessman for a knockdown price of £150 million and they forgo the loan repayment, the consortium walk away with a cool £100 million profit (20% of which goes to Joe Sim, who pays off Robson and others out of his cut). As broker of the deal Joe Sim takes a 5% share from the new owners. When asked how he could guarantee the sale, Joe Sim claimed to have contacts with wealthy Asian businessmen who wanted to buy into Premiership football, he claimed to be well in with Paul Lim (the billionaire who wanted to buy Liverpool) our very own VT, Thaskin Chanawara (the ex Man City owner) and a few others including the guy at Birmingham.......he also claimed to be building contacts in other parts of the world. A bit of a scare from our point of view..........when asked what time he would be getting to the meeting, he said he was running late because he was having lunch with HAMMAN Not Sam Thank God, but the guy who was bombed out by FIFA in the bribery scandal. At the end of the programme Joe Sim let it slip that he was talking to the Sheff Utd owners, and thinking of doing a deal in his own right, which would be the first time he would be using his own money. Sensational journalism for the sake of it? Maybe, but an interesting watch, and unfortunately it had the ring of truth. Rich Asian businessmen, get into a premiership club cheaply for risking no more than an interest free loan, the consortiums, who take a medium sized risk for an almost guaranteed profit. Sounds like no one loses, but this guy gets to control which players go to which club to a certain extent.......and they will go to the ones which make him the most profit, it's one step up from match fixing..........this guy also is a big gambler on match results as well.......he also own's the Man Utd themed bar and restaurant franchise in Thailand and Korea........licensed by the club.......it stinks, and it's the poor old fan that gets screwed again.
Nice summary Prophet. Sim did say Cardiff was for sale but that seemed like showboating as its obvious that any club with debt, good fanbase and potential to get into the Premiership could be bought at the right price. One thing that did make me feel uncomfortable was the business model - acquiring players on loan from premiership clubs in order to gain promotion - not dissimilar to the strategy we employed last season. Another thing that struck me was that if this is the business model that is thought in Asia to be the best bet for promotion then it was our owners last year that dictated this strategy and not Dave Jones so those who criticised Jones for this approach may have been incorrect. Just a thought!
I think this so called 'business model' has been around ever since the premier league and loan windows started. Norwich giot promoted using about 7 loan players years ago and I'm sure your history book or in this case computer search will highlight a few others. It isn't new, just old ideas recycled to make a dull programme a bit more spicy.
All a bit airy fairy to be honest. It is likely, having limited knowledge of football and being asian, that VT did indeed seek advice from this source on more than one occassion. Seems he even took to the idea of using loans to get into the premier. I somehow doubt any other contact or deals would have been made with this fly by night Sim by VT, to what purpose? Businessmen like VT glean info from such sources, no doubt other avenues were looked at with other such people, what sounded good was looked at, what looked like it might work was used. They have tried the loan system and found it wanting, now they seem to be going another route with free transfers and buys, no doubt the odd loan will come as well, but nothing like last year. They are bussinessmen and of course seek to earn a profit, they are not here because of their love for the game, indeed, it is documented that VT knew very little of the way football is run and had to be convinced of it's viability. The intention is clear, to get us to the premier where they can recoup the funding they have put in. But I believe they have far reching ideas that go beyond just getting us to the PL, the PL is just the first step that must be gained so all other marketing ploys can be put in motion. This guy from last night was a chancer and I would expect top people would have thought twice before committing to anything he had to offer.
Well our investors are not exactly making any money...in fact we are taking their money...like who would gamble millions on taking a championship side into the premiership? This must be one of the worst bets ever.
I've just seen this programme and I would say that CCFC fits the business model they were talking about exactly. Buy the club. Get in a load of loan players. Get into the Premiership. Just because you didn't make it up through the playoffs, it doesn't mean this TG or VT are business men that can be trusted. I'm not saying Ridsdale was any better, but I'd have a bloody good look at this lot.
Shaper There is a major difference here. Ridsdale put no money into the club - the Malaysians have put in well over £10m, some say as much as £20m, with at least £5m of that to be capitalised (turned into shares) if approved at next week's meeting. That gives them a 49% stake in the club, outside of any other outstanding loan monies. That is a commitment. Also, who do think is behind the funding of the new players? 6 so far with another 2 or 3 in the pipeline if reports are correct and Malky wants up to another 6 in total. Season ticket income of some £7m would have financed the running of the club through the summer with little available for transfer/wages money. Who knows, if we move onwards and upwards as you guys have done, maybe they will look to cash in but that has happened with clubs under UK ownership and is not the sole perogative of European or Far Eastern owners.
