Bury FC

[Crafty Canary 495]

The EFL have deferred their opening game of the season for failing to meet the EFL’s deadline for proving their financial viability to meet their fixtures. Next week they face a High Court winding up petition and could be put out of business.

They are former FA Cup winners and I believe they hold the record for the biggest winning margin - 6-0 - versus Derby County. I really feel for their supporters and hope their club survives. We have come close in the past so wish them well.

 

[First Wazzock 902]

There is only one loser when this happens, and that is the fans.

Wouldn't you think with all the money sloshing about in football, something could be done to help the smaller clubs...

[splendidrush 699]

A wake up call for all Clubs, especially those who rely on their history 🤭 With Bolton also in big trouble, it seems that it's only a matter of time before someone goes under. 

[JB 115]

This is something I was discussion with a work colleague and we both agree that it's awful for the fans and they don't deserve their club to be in a position such as this. The blame has to lay with the owners, or whoever deals with the finances. At the end of the day, you'd expect them to have some business ability otherwise they wouldn't be in such a position, so the question should really be how they have got into such a mess and question their integrity. Surely you just need to look at your income from the football league, sponsors and ticket sales etc, versus your outgoings, player wages, transfer budget, and utilities etc, and if they see that there's more going out than coming in, address it straight away. 

I don't believe other clubs or the league should have to "help out" on what is essentially irresponsible business people and their decisions because that would mean owners will feel they can be as reckless as they like and someone will just come to bail them out when things go wrong. 

[splendidrush 699]

1 hour ago, JB said:

The blame has to lay with the owners, or whoever deals with the finances. At the end of the day, you'd expect them to have some business ability otherwise they wouldn't be in such a position, so the question should really be how they have got into such a mess and question their integrity. Surely you just need to look at your income from the football league, sponsors and ticket sales etc, versus your outgoings, player wages, transfer budget, and utilities etc, and if they see that there's more going out than coming in, address it straight away. 

 

I think that you should post this on a message board South of the Border. 

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,017]

A terrible situation for the fans of any club under threat of extinction. My fear is as soon as it happens to one club, a lot more may follow. Given the amount of money sloshing around at the top of the game (You have individual players that have a higher net worth and income than entire football clubs) you would hope that some of it would trickle down to the lower leagues, or that there was some sort of contingency fund for this kind of situation. I temper this by saying that any such arrangements should not mean that clubs can just abdicate their responsibility for financial management, I do not know what the issue is in the case of Bury, but football is littered with clubs that have been finically mismanaged, particularly clubs that have overstretched themselves chasing the Premiership dream (Bolton and Portsmouth spring to mind). Maybe the football authorities need to scrutinise clubs a little more closely and provide earlier intervention/advice/support in an attempt to prevent this sort of situation arising........

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB

[Jobsworth Canary 168]

I would like to see each premier league club give 1 percent of their tv revenue into a fund that would help struggling lower league clubs like Bolton/bury etc 

[nutty nigel 7,509]

I don't like to see this stuff happen mainly because the fans don't deserve it. Well most of them anyway.

However it's not lost on me that Bolton wanted to do away with relegation when they were in the PL. Perhaps they saw this coming? Clubs like Bolton and us and even Leicester have to realise that football is cyclical and they have to share their time in the PL with maybe up to 20 other clubs.

[splendidrush 699]

30 minutes ago, nutty nigel said:

I don't like to see this stuff happen mainly because the fans don't deserve it. Well most of them anyway.

However it's not lost on me that Bolton wanted to do away with relegation when they were in the PL. Perhaps they saw this coming? Clubs like Bolton and us and even Leicester have to realise that football is cyclical and they have to share their time in the PL with maybe up to 20 other clubs.

I don't think Leicester have to worry about the cyclical nature of football. 

[Nuff Said 5,088]

1) Isn't this supposed to be a Norwich City forum? 😉

 

2) The problem with a fund to help struggling clubs is that it doesn't incentivise owners, or supporters for that matter, to behave sensibly. If they know there's a safety net, why not splash out and risk over-spending if the other clubs will come in and save you if it all goes wrong. There's a similar argument about things like pensions and social care for the elderly - why bother to save if you know the state will look after you? (not that I agree with that BTW).

 

I would have thought a more effective "fit and proper person" test (it appears to be a joke at the moment) and maybe mandatory supporter representation on the board would be a better way of ensuring stability.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

1 hour ago, Nuff Said said:

1) Isn't this supposed to be a Norwich City forum? 😉

 

2) The problem with a fund to help struggling clubs is that it doesn't incentivise owners, or supporters for that matter, to behave sensibly. If they know there's a safety net, why not splash out and risk over-spending if the other clubs will come in and save you if it all goes wrong. There's a similar argument about things like pensions and social care for the elderly - why bother to save if you know the state will look after you? (not that I agree with that BTW).

 

I would have thought a more effective "fit and proper person" test (it appears to be a joke at the moment) and maybe mandatory supporter representation on the board would be a better way of ensuring stability.

I agree about the fit and proper person test. I believe there is an effort being made to toughen it up but i think there are legal problems to be overcome.

As to supporter representation on the board, I don't see that as the answer per se, as Swansea found, because the one supporter-director can always be outvoted.

What I am in favour of is a supporter-director with a golden-share veto over a few crucial issues, which would include being able to blackball any potential buyer who didn't satisfy the fans that they were fit and proper by their definition, as opposed to any legally hidebound definition.

[Bradwell canary 109]

Goes back a long way.

Big Sam used to spend way beyond their means when in the PL.

Relegation means a huge loss in income as we well know.

So Its better for our board to take their present financial actions, and ensure our club does not follow Boltons.

If we are honest the promotion seasons are the most enjoyable for all of us, not the constant concern over getting stuffed by the big boys, who spend more on one player that our income for the season.

[Well b back 3,186]

Every team that spends more than their turnover should have to place the same amount in a fund which is distributed amongst all the other teams that kept within a turnover budget. 

FFP is currently a joke.

[Rock The Boat 1,324]

5 hours ago, Jobsworth Canary said:

I would like to see each premier league club give 1 percent of their tv revenue into a fund that would help struggling lower league clubs like Bolton/bury etc 

I don't think we should be giving any money to the binners. I'd rather see them dead and Buryied

[Nuff Said 5,088]

2 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

I agree about the fit and proper person test. I believe there is an effort being made to toughen it up but i think there are legal problems to be overcome.

As to supporter representation on the board, I don't see that as the answer per se, as Swansea found, because the one supporter-director can always be outvoted.

What I am in favour of is a supporter-director with a golden-share veto over a few crucial issues, which would include being able to blackball any potential buyer who didn't satisfy the fans that they were fit and proper by their definition, as opposed to any legally hidebound definition.

A supporter on the board would at least be able to publicise any issues that concerned them - visibility can be helpful when mismanagement is occurring. Although that would depend on the supporter representative being sufficiently independently minded, and we repeatedly see those supporters who do get close to the board accused of being stooges. So I agree it might be a small forward step but it wouldn’t fix anything.

 

As for your idea of a supporter-Director, that would have had you practically burnt at the stake a few years ago. How times have changed - for the better!

[TIL 1010 4,718]

Name a potential supporter/director for NCFC ?

[Nuff Said 5,088]

I think "whoosh" is the customary response to one of these.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

37 minutes ago, TIL 1010 said:

Name a potential supporter/director for NCFC ?

Those having the one-person-one-vote vote would be all season ticket holders and any non-season-ticket holders enrolled in ticket-membership schemes or who were paid-up members of the (currently 19) supporter groups registered with the club, plus club employees, since it is the business they are working for, but I have no whom they would pick out of those who would want to stand.

[TIL 1010 4,718]

To be perfectly honest with you Purple i cannot think of one person prepared to put themselves forward to stand.

[Duncan Edwards 2,217]

21 hours ago, splendidrush said:

I don't think Leicester have to worry about the cyclical nature of football. 

Worth bookmarking this.

 

Bolton didn’t need to worry about it with Top half finishes and Jay-Jay Okocha et al. 

[splendidrush 699]

2 hours ago, Duncan Edwards said:

Worth bookmarking this.

 

 

Leicester are the 17th wealthiest Club on the planet. They don't operate in the same financial environment as Bolton.