This isn't at all meant to give stick to Watford fans, whose club appears to have been the latest to fall victim to the lack of oversight and proper vetting that seems so commonplace in the sport...if not for the Notts Co ownership-group-that-wasn't, this might be the front-runner for most egregious. It's just incredibly bizarre that this sort of thing keeps happening again and again. When not being Lawrence Bazini, Laurence Bassini was a businessman, insofar as someone who is briefly associated with several now-bankrupt companies can hold claim to the title. He claimed to have other dealings, but no one knows. In 2007, he was collecting benefits; in 2011, he was fronting a bid to purchase a football club, with money provided by someone unknown, and while apparently not owning a stake in the shell company doing the buying. How this actually constitutes "owning" something, no one seems to be sure. Yesterday, he was supposed to show up for a fan forum, did not, and has today announced that he intends to resign from the board because the chairman said less-than-complimentary things about him...what effect that will have on his continued ownership or the financial backing of whoever is financially backing him, no one knows. How is that state of affairs allowed to persist? In North American sporting leagues, one best be prepared to show a pretty thorough paper trail before making a bid, and even then the leagues have frequently turned back prospective buyers. This isn't even a case of being taken in by a slick presentation masking a shoddy (or non-existent) organization...serious questions were raised from the very beginning and never answered, yet he was still able to take control of a team in the second tier of English football. Granted, there seem to be more clubs needing stable ownership than moneyed individuals or groups willing to provide it, but surely the powers-that-be can do a little better job of protecting the integrity of the sport?
We were in severe danger of going down a similar route ourselves, as I remember. All with the public face of MLT in the lead.
There needs to be much more rigorous investigation of the finances of potential owners, that's for sure.
Seem to remember some kid buying or attempting to buy Aldershot many years ago. Don't think these people will ever go away.
Same thing's happening at Crawley Town I believe... I agree, the FA, Premier League and Football League need to regulate this much better than they currently are. Too much freedom is being granted to these so called 'investors' that can just pitch up and buy a football club without any 'paper trail' as you put it. If it continues, it will bring the game into disrepute if it hasn't already.
