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The Football League 19/20

Spurus

Nos Custodimus Quod Lingus
Feb 14, 2019
466
1,028
Pretty much saying there's only 1 group that satisfied criteria. They are still likely going to go into liquidation with league membership being revoked. Feel badly for Bolton and Bury.

The EFL really needs to shape up its ownership approval process. It's a joke. How these people and Villa's old owner actually passed the fit and proper testing is beyond me. For fucks sake, there was proof even before Xia took over VIlla that he didnt have much funding for the club. The only reason Villa survived is because they managed to find a new buyer so early. The EFL has to be held responsible for 2 clubs that could very likely fold on the same day. It's shameful.

Agreed, it is really sad for English football as a whole that these clubs are going though this, they are literally dying out. I do hope Bolton pull through somehow but I doubt it, and the way things are going, I also don't think Bolton will be the last club to face liquidation.

As for the EFL, is it that hard for them to do some kind of deep financial background checks to make sure potential owners always have suitable finances to maintain their clubs?
 

LSUY

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2005
24,010
66,826
Average weekly pay
Championship: £10,998
League One: £2,312
League Two: £1,124

A salary cap is the most helpful change the EFL could introduce.
 
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fortworthspur

Well-Known Member
Nov 12, 2007
11,244
17,536
shame about Bolton - one of the founding members of the football league, and not long ago in the prem.
 

Led's Zeppelin

Can't Re Member
May 28, 2013
7,333
20,178
Apparently the Championship's average salary bill is running at 106% of revenues, so desperate are the clubs to get into the Premier League.

That is not sustainable.

The woeful "fit and proper" rules of ownership are part of the problem, but it goes deeper than that. The greed at the top level, where clubs earn more in one match than most lower division clubs need to survive for a year or more, and where individual players earn more than entire teams lower down, needs to be addressed.

Without lower division clubs, the top clubs wouldn't survive for long. They are so short sighted that they think Bury and Bolton's problems have nothing to do with them.

We appear to have no management worth the name at the top level of the game. The authorities could not contrive to be more pitiful if they got paid a bonus for being as pitiful as it's possible to be.

Come to think of it, they probably do.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,348
87,809
Apparently the Championship's average salary bill is running at 106% of revenues, so desperate are the clubs to get into the Premier League.

That is not sustainable.

The woeful "fit and proper" rules of ownership are part of the problem, but it goes deeper than that. The greed at the top level, where clubs earn more in one match than most lower division clubs need to survive for a year or more, and where individual players earn more than entire teams lower down, needs to be addressed.

Without lower division clubs, the top clubs wouldn't survive for long. They are so short sighted that they think Bury and Bolton's problems have nothing to do with them.

We appear to have no management worth the name at the top level of the game. The authorities could not contrive to be more pitiful if they got paid a bonus for being as pitiful as it's possible to be.

Come to think of it, they probably do.
I keep using S****horpe as an example, which I don't apolgise for seeing as they're my dad's family's team... but they are a small, provincial club. Not that long ago we were in the Championship. The (then) new owners decided to invest in infrastructure, thinking they should try to run the club as a big Championship/Premiership club; U23's programme, training facilities, new stadium etc etc.

2 seasons ago they were in League One, but in the automatic promotion spot, and with a good shout of winning the league altogether. But a wall was hit mid season, and the club since have been in free fall. Management changes, key injuries resulted us in being relegated to League Two last season.

Suddenly, because the club have invested in all these things that are utterly useless and expensive to a league two side with an average gate of 2.5k, there is no money for players or wages. All the key players are gone, with cheap and poor replacements brought in. We have a coach who has experience at this level but needs time. As such we have but 1 point from the first 6 games, and are looking very likely like dropping out the leagues basement, for the first time in our history.

A club like Scunny in the conference or whatever it's called, is death. With the steel mills closing compromising an already dwindling fan base, and bugger all investment beyond local business, the clubs future will be bleak.

And all because the owners got aspirations beyond what was practical, and did something unsustainable.
 

TheRevolution

Well-Known Member
Nov 25, 2018
873
2,304
Anyone else find it sad that other clubs didn't lend a helping hand here? I mean all of the premier league clubs got together to give Scudamore a £5m farewell gift but we can't try and help out 2 old estalished clubs? Bolton were a long time rival, a formidable foe in their day and the rest of the football league is just going to sit there and watch them die.
 

1882andallthat

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2009
2,821
4,157
An irony for Bury and Bolton in Greater Manchester is not lost on being within an approximate 5-10 mile radius of two teams in the Premier League who are literally awash with money, and a tiny fraction of it that pays what they pay a few players in their first team in a week would literally wipe out these debts that Bolton and Bury have in an instant.
 

LSUY

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2005
24,010
66,826
Bury’s been expelled. RIP Bury

They won't be the last. The model adopted by a lot of clubs in the football league is unsustainable - in the 17/18 season League 2 clubs made £91m in revenue but spent £71m on wages, 17 League 1 clubs had pre-tax losses of £37m, 12 Championship clubs had a wage budget greater than their total revenue and all the clubs of the football league lost a combined £411m. Clubs operating at a profit in the football league is a shrinking minority.
 

TheBlueRooster

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2005
3,817
4,701
Anyone else find it sad that other clubs didn't lend a helping hand here? I mean all of the premier league clubs got together to give Scudamore a £5m farewell gift but we can't try and help out 2 old estalished clubs? Bolton were a long time rival, a formidable foe in their day and the rest of the football league is just going to sit there and watch them die.

Not really up to other clubs to help out, there's a reason thay are in trouble. I don't like to see what's happened but whoever buys them (if they do) will run into the same problems. The fans are moaning but look at the empty seats week in week out. What do Bury average, 3000 fans each week if that? Does that cover the expenses each week. Maybe the media moguls should pour more money into the lower leagues than the Premier League
 

TheRevolution

Well-Known Member
Nov 25, 2018
873
2,304
Not really up to other clubs to help out, there's a reason thay are in trouble. I don't like to see what's happened but whoever buys them (if they do) will run into the same problems. The fans are moaning but look at the empty seats week in week out. What do Bury average, 3000 fans each week if that? Does that cover the expenses each week. Maybe the media moguls should pour more money into the lower leagues than the Premier League

Absolutely! Although they are just going to stick to where the most cash comes from which is United and Liverpool. While I kind of agree that it's not up to other clubs to help out surely there's an unspoken duty for the football world to look out for itself? I especially think it looks poor when all of the clubs did a little fundraise for Richard Scudamore (which it also wasn't up to the clubs to do) yet they can't help out these clubs. Surely football clubs have a duty to help out the community?
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,214
Absolutely! Although they are just going to stick to where the most cash comes from which is United and Liverpool. While I kind of agree that it's not up to other clubs to help out surely there's an unspoken duty for the football world to look out for itself? I especially think it looks poor when all of the clubs did a little fundraise for Richard Scudamore (which it also wasn't up to the clubs to do) yet they can't help out these clubs. Surely football clubs have a duty to help out the community?

It's entirely selk-inflicted from shit owners. Other clubs shouldn't bale them out. If you want to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at the authorities for the way football is organised, all the money goes to the top. Blame Sky, blame the FA, blame shit owners. It's nothing to do with us or any other club.
 

luptic

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2008
2,352
3,062
Not the way you want to see football eating itself up. But when you see clubs spending ridiculous amounts of money on players, you cant feel any sort of pity for them.
What went wrong at Bury and Bolton is still being done throughout the football league. Whilst there is some that are doing it right, they are plenty more burdening the clubs with debt.
But when you see the top sides in England doing much of the same thing, can you blame the owners of these lower sides?
Success comes greed.
I sort of feel for Bury, but with Bolton the likes of Gartside etc burdened Bolton with debt to succeed in the premier league. Which was well above their mantle for many years, but they still forked out millions on players they couldn't afford.
 

Metalhead

But that's a debate for another thread.....
Nov 24, 2013
25,351
38,294
It's entirely selk-inflicted from shit owners. Other clubs shouldn't bale them out. If you want to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at the authorities for the way football is organised, all the money goes to the top. Blame Sky, blame the FA, blame shit owners. It's nothing to do with us or any other club.
It's not so much pissed off, I think that a lot of them are devastated that they no longer have a football club to follow - there is a real community spirit at that level. Hopefully they will start again and work their way back to the league.
 

TheBlueRooster

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2005
3,817
4,701
Not the way you want to see football eating itself up. But when you see clubs spending ridiculous amounts of money on players, you cant feel any sort of pity for them.
What went wrong at Bury and Bolton is still being done throughout the football league. Whilst there is some that are doing it right, they are plenty more burdening the clubs with debt.
But when you see the top sides in England doing much of the same thing, can you blame the owners of these lower sides?
Success comes greed.
I sort of feel for Bury, but with Bolton the likes of Gartside etc burdened Bolton with debt to succeed in the premier league. Which was well above their mantle for many years, but they still forked out millions on players they couldn't afford.
This what happened with Leeds, they won the league and spent a fortune on players to win in Europe but it failed and they are still trying to get back into the Premier League. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. Our fans say get the cheque book out Daniel but be thankful he doesn't.
 
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