Hi folks, With everything that is happening, l am extremely concerned for the future of our club. l detest being negative and have always been a 'glass half full' sort of person. However, l look at the owners and wonder whether they are prepared to keep throwing coin at the club or will they take this opportunity to walk away. l know basically all businesses will suffer but surely the airline / travel industry will suffer moreso. I believe the Mittials are into steel but are they also tied up with TF with the car making company, Tata? With you guys being closer to the action, what are your thoughts? Your comments are appreciated.
Interesting question. I certainly think some lower league clubs may fold if the Premier League clubs don't help out. I believe some money has already been made available but a lot more will have to be found. I'm more concerned that many non-league clubs that only get gates around 100 - 200 will not survive. My local team Croydon FC had their clubhouse broken into for the 5th time this year last week, they struggle at the best of times but now really are on the brink. Anyone who thinks it's just a matter of saying "go" and everything is back to normal is deluded, it will never be the same as many people will have no jobs to go back to and massive personal debt, football will be very low on people's priority list, this is a crisis none of us will ever have imagined...
Yep. Our local side, Didcot Town, who play in the Southern League are reportedly close to going under. They had many games cancelled due to the wet weather leading up to the lockdown and haven't played for months. They're an old club who both myself and my son have played for and would be a tragedy to see them fold.
I think we should be ok. However I could see some of the better off teams taking advantage and buying our better players on the cheap. Saying that, we could do the same going down the football pyramid
I actually think some of the bigger clubs could be in big trouble especially if games are to resume behind closed doors. If you look at the figures I posted in the 'Derby & FFP' thread you'll see many already in serious financial trouble, we might come out of this better than many...
Don’t disagree some especially the Derby’s of this world will will be in trouble in that respect we’re a well run club. There are some that will be in prime position to pick the bones though
One thing I do hope when things do resume is that agents are squeezed till their pips squeak, they've f*cked the game over for far too long, this may be their 'Waterloo'...
A lot of talk that certain clubs Derby, Reading, Sheff Wednesday are very close to the edge both truely financially due to their wage structure (and no chance of promotion) and due to exceeding FFP restrictions (but will they be waved this seasn....now that really would be a bummer to us!!) Other clubs who were close had planned to sell players in the summer and now nmay not get what they hoped From reading Rollers excellent financial assessment on Loft For Words a few months ago...I think it said that (a few months ago) we didn't need to sell Eze for FFP reasons, and hence could push for a good price, if you see whay I mean I expect that may have changed now and we might actually need to sell a player to make good our Covid losses and so we might not get what we might have got. However as Wills says above, that may have the knock on effect that the players we were going to buy to replace and replenish will also get cheaper. I think financially, my glass is also half full, we will weather thisthanks to SLF and Lee Hoos.... but I am sure others will not
I think our biggest worry now is that our involved owners in the airline /travel business who have been covering our FFP fine and yearly losses, may not be able to continue doing this, even though they want to.
Really hope however unlikely that there is some sort of prevention in place to stop teams being vulnerable to this sort of opportunism.
My work is in the corporate recovery field and I have had an approach already from a good sized club. I am sure there will be rule changes and the points deduction penalties for entering an insolvency process will be dropped.
What does corporate recovery mean? Is that bringing back to health or picking the bones after demise?
In that case the approach you've had is rather big news. I appreciate that due to professional confidentiality, that's all we are going to know! Until we read about it in the media.
It’s in relation to saving a club. I can’t possibly say who it is. My guess is that many, many clubs are seeking similar advice.
