LUFCTALK

Taken from Oddschanger a list of Championship debts, was suprised at ours, if I'm honest.

24. Rotherham United - 0
23. WBA - 0
22. Sheffield United - £1:9m
21. Derby County - £3m
20. Norwich City - £6:5m
19. Swansea City - £9:3m
18. Wigan Athletic - £15:4m
17. Millwall - £18:5m
16. Nottingham Forest - £21:9m
15. Bolton Wanderers - £22m
14. Leeds United - £25:1m
13. PNE - £30:8
12. Birmingham City - £33:4m
11. Sheffield Wednesday - £38:1m
10. Aston Villa - £50:1m
9. QPR - £56:1m
8. Reading - £58:4m
7. Brentford - £59:3m
6. Hull City - £63m
5. Bristol City - £75:5m
4. Ipswich Town - £95:5m
3. Middlesbrough - £102:1m
2. Blackburn Rovers - £112:8m
1. Stoke City - £122:7m

Blimey, Ipswich are in big trouble...

Otherworld wrote:Blimey, Ipswich are in big trouble...

Where would Stoke be without the parachute payments ? Apparently all Ipswich's debt is owed to the owner & will be never paid off. If he leaves the debt will be written off, sounds like the position Bolton were in. Also that's brilliant housekeeping by Rotherham.

Imagine our debt if Bates, GFH or Cellino were still running the show. There were fans wanting to spend big in January, just goes to show we need to sell a player before we buy one.

Having thought about things I'm assuming any debt we have will be for buying back ER against a secured loan. We don't make much of a loss ( if any ) on transfers. There is a wage cap & the squad isn't massive. There must be a lot of match day revenue these days wire tickets, food & drink & merchandise.

That debt will be owed to the owners (most of it)

Football clubs do not own the stadiums anymore but are facilities of the football club bought by a 3rd party.....Greenfield Investment in this case owned by Radz.

Our real debt is probably negligible if not zero IMO.

Not that i have any understanding about finance in football but I think what we have here is a demonstration that whilst we are on an even keel financially, i.e. Andrea Radrizzani would seem to have sorted out our balance sheet, we do not have the sort of funds to be rushing out and buying players costing multi millions.

I was somewhat baffled about the chase for Dan James but then that was perhaps a bit of investment speculation with a hope of increasing the chances of reaching the Promised Land. Those dark days in debt can stay away as far as I am concerned

That will be the debt the clubs will have announced in their accounts for the 17-18 season.

Also it doesnt show who the debt is owed to as if it were owed to the banks then clubs would be in administration.

I would imagine a lot of the debt is owed to the owners of the clubs who will never ever see the money repaid.

NottinghamWhite wrote:

Otherworld wrote:Blimey, Ipswich are in big trouble...

Where would Stoke be without the parachute payments ? Apparently all Ipswich's debt is owed to the owner & will be never paid off. If he leaves the debt will be written off, sounds like the position Bolton were in. Also that's brilliant housekeeping by Rotherham.

Don't get me wrong i'm a 2+2 is 3 when it comes to Maths. I've been banging on about this for a few years. How can owners run up debts larger than their personal wealth, then when they decide to sell, just wipe the debt completely? Its almost like clubs are running on fresh air. That must give them a advantage at some level. I mean if your worth £60m, then run up debts of £180m (what happened at Bolton) and then wipe the slate clean when you are ready to sell with all assets in tact, beggars belief imo. And why didn't Leeds transfer its debt onto one owner?

I call it magic! Better terminology would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure if the Fit and Proper test is really working and the EFL rules about staying within budget will ever work in the long term as you can see from that list everyone bar two clubs are in debt, some small others in way over their heads. This is the shame of football nowadays. It affects not just the club, but also the fanbase, and the wider community.

I have in recent years fallen out with football in many ways and this is one of the biggest factors why i have been less inclined to watch football on TV or go to matches when i am in Ireland or the UK. There are too few clubs in the EFL and lower Premiership who are actually making any money out of it. Parachute payments are just an incentive to get promoted nothing more. I blame Sky TV and other similar companies for ruining the heart and soul of Football as i remember it. I just read on BBC sport its 40 years since the first 1 million transfer fee was paid for Trevor Francis from Birmingham to Nottingham Forest and the record currently stands at 93.5 million for a player. I remember the Trevor Francis transfer happening, it was huge money back then. I do think there should be a grading system depending on your last three seasons and how well you performed, cups won, MoM awards and other factors such as player of the year, club awards etc. This grading would be capped and structured in such a way that clubs could stay within a set amount, then if two or more clubs met the cost then the player decides which club he wants to go to.

If something isn't done, in the next 15-20 years many of the clubs will go out of existence. The bubble is only there for the bigger teams everyone else are just bottom feeders unfortunately.