Down here in Cornwall there has never been much success football wise. The county has a rugby heritage even though more kids play football. The best teams in the county were no better than Ridgeons league. Then a property developer came along and took over Truro City. While the property boom was on he put a few bob into the club and they paid full time ex pros to come along to run and play for the club. They went through the regional leagues every season and even won the FA Vase during their rise. But no money was spent on the ground so they can rise no further than Conference South. Of course the banking crisis affected property development and the owner had far less money to play with. Being of dubious character many of the web of companies he had set up went to the wall owing money. His car was fire bombed is a strength of the feeling of some of his creditors. He made an audacious attempt to take control of Plymouth Argyle but got found out in time. Last season, the club failed to pax HMRC as they should and had winding up orders placed on them. They managed to find the money to avoid winding up but more disturbing news was that a major creditor was claiming over half a million from the club. The claimant was a company set up by the owner and his solicitors. In the mean time, yet another suspect company involving the owners solicitors buys the ground. This week, HMRC applied again for back taxes and the club were successful in applying to go into administration. he will be docked ten points, even more players will leave. The club will probably fold at some time but a company of thieves will pay off at a penny in the pound and have the ground, valued at £2.5 M for virtually nothing. This is a regular occurrence in football and its plain and simple theft. And maybe fire bombing is the only answer to stopping some of these thieves (just joking).
sounds a little like the Pompey situation (in terms of dodgy companies being set up and buying the ground) what's happened to this guy redruth? i take it he has taken a bit of a hit but isn't bankrupt or something unfortunately some clubs get a sniff of money and they are happy, regardless of the credentials of the person involved.
And it happens at all levels, as you've demonstrated, though it is the bigger casualties that grab the headlines. It is staggering that the FA don't seem to have the ability, or perhaps the will, to do anything about it. One thing that you would think would be fairly simple to enforce would be that clubs have to submit annually an HMRC statement of account; the FA would then know that the club was paying due tax and a club getting into tax arrears would be an obvious warning signal. Even if it didn't stop the crooks, it might allow the damage to be contained.
Terrifying really. People using community pillars as playthings or money laundering exercises. Football is often at the centre of a community, ours is at the centre of a county. They are not things you can simply own they belong to the communities they serve. There's plenty of clubs more interested in far east shirt sales than the community they are meant to serve. These people have truly lost their way.
How can anyone have anything less than admiration and appreciation for Delia and Michael....especially after reading stories like this
One of the real reasons he bought the club is that the ground is right next to the County Council Offices. He reasoned they would need to expand and his ground would be perfect. Cornwall used to be a series of district councils with a county council. But it changed to a unitary authority so used all the district offices that were in use and in fact downsized its main offices. He then tried to get planning permission to build housing. That was knocked back. He then tried to sell it to Primark but planning designates Primark as a High St trader and not a single unit on the outshirts of the city. He then tries to buy Argyle who are in administration. He wants the land to build more houses. Plymouth council comes to the rescue and buys the ground and leases it back to the club. He is now stuffed. He has raped Truro City of all its assets. He is paying the players £500 a game and there is two a week at this level. He brasses off the old supporters and supporters club so much that they do a Manure supporters and start wearing the clubs old colours or red and black instead of the white they now wear. His property development has gone sour so he has virtually disappeared. The chairman of Salisbury agreed to help out but has had no contact with the guy. The gate money from the last home match was just enough to pay for the coach to take the players and staff to a midweek away game. They had two subs one of whom was injured and couldn't possibly have gone on the pitch. He is a prime example of guys involved in football at a high level who have hidden agendas but manage to make money out of it to the detriment of the supporters, local business and tax payers in general.
Couldn't agree more. I'd rather we were back in the chamionship than 'in hock'/rich man's plaything to a multi millionaire. Chelsea, Man City, Koo Pee Arr, Villa, Reading to name but a few and I'm sure there are others!!!!
Me too, I love my club just the way it is. Why would we want to pay some mercenary hundreds of thousands of pounds a week to be average, only then to cut and run when someone offers them another few quid? I had and still do have real fears that Blackburn is going the same way!
I hope and pray that we can be examples of a club that finaces itself properly, keeps debt low and sill maanges to incrementally increase the quality of footballers and football being played every year. I'm a fan of McNallys plan.
Hmmm - methinks you'll have over 25,000 people agree with you - or at least however many fans are on 'Not606'!!!!
