Might Administration (again) be the best route?

[hedgehoguk]

This idea may be mis conceived, however I think it's entirely possible and may just play out in the club's favour.

Firstly, whilst this winding up petition is still to be heard by the courts, it is my understanding that it prevents the sale of the club until it is resolved. It sounds like GFH either cant or wont continue to pay the players/staff wages, hence the haste to accept Cellino's £1.5mil (which is a loan - we've had a few of those!).

So, March 17th is what, 5 weeks away. Can the club survive for that period without fresh cash injections? Reports seem to suggest not.

Will Cellino gain FL approval? It seems he is confident he will, but the FL say they are still waiting for all documents requested. Doesn't sound like a man desperate for this to conclude ASAP does it?

There's also some confusion as to whether the Al-Thani's bid to buy Cagliari has completed or collapsed - conflicting repors out of Italy. If it's collapsed, will this scupper Cellino's attempt to buy Leeds?

Anyway, the club seems to be lumbered with debt. £6m to Sport Capital, £3.5m to David Haigh and £1.5m to Cellino. An utter mess if ever there was one.

GFH wont want administration because they'll lose everything. Well, I would be quite happy for them to lose everything given the way they've crippled the club. All these false promises and PR spins to string us along - they deserve to be screwed here.

If the club goes into admin soon, they cant sell players to balance the books because we're out of the transfer window. They may be able to accept bids and cash though for summer sales? I don't know.

If in admin, it makes it a fair fight to buy a debt free club, and it will be down to the administrators to decide who'se offer best suits the creditors and the club. Imagine the debts are £11m, the Together Leeds consortium previously offered £12m up front - whats to say they couldn't offer to pay the debts in full - that would definitely be accepted, and take the club on from there to be run by good football people.

Anyway - thought I'd throw it out there, see what others think!

[Sheepy]

If we go into administration again the FL will ensure we go into League One again. I doubt it would be a 10 point penalty, they would increase it to 15 or 17 like they did Bournemouth and Luton because we have had previous financial problems and sanctions.

[hedgehoguk]

Hmm, 15 points would put us on 24, level with Charlton but with +17 on them in terms of goal difference.
Would be a massive risk and by no means ideal, but I actually reckon we could and would survive that. We know how well we do when something like that galvanises the club. Backs to the wall kind of thing.

Not saying I want it to happen of course, but it would be one way to sort this mess out

[Sheepy]

for me its a bit like amputating your finger for a broken nail.

[hedgehoguk]

Worse than a broken nail by all accounts though!
Hard to see an end for it all tbh

[hedgehoguk]

What was the precedent set with Luton and others?

Last time we got nobbled for 15 points (25 in total) but that was because HMRC wouldn't agree to the CVA, so the league had to let have our golden share without a CVA being in place. The fact that HMRC dropped their challenge at the 11th hour should have meant we were given our 15 points back! But hey ho!

[Sheepy]

Bournemouth got deducted 17 points in 2008/9 for failing to follow the Football League insolvency rules. This followed their 10 point deduction for going into administration in 2007/08.

Luton Town were deducted 10 points for going into administration during 2007/8.
In 2008/9 they were then deducted 10 points for irregularities in dealing with agents and then a further 20 points for 'various financial irregularities' dating back several years.

Rotherham United got deducted 17 points in 2008/9 for failing to follow the Football League insolvency rules. This followed their 10 point deduction for going into administration in 2007/9.

Various other clubs have entered administration with no points deductions - two of which are Bradford City and Huddersfield Town.

[hedgehoguk]

Sounds like a case of "make it up as we go along".

Which is entirely possible with the Football League!

All that yet no points deduction for QPR relating to the illegal ownership of their best player in their promotion season. Guess who was legally representing them on that case by the way...........

[Sheepy]

The Luton one is the most worrying 'various financial irregularities'.... A bit like being arrested for being a very naughty boy...

Who represented QPR then?

[hedgehoguk]

Chris Farnell.

The lawyer who "fired" BMC last Friday on Cellino's orders, and who was lined up to be the CEO under Cellino.

Phil Hay literally just tweeted though that it appears to be Haigh's job, and they've exchanged contracts today