Ownership

[SCOTTISH LEEDS]

The vast majority of these so called footballers should offer THEIR wages this month to charity as they do not deserve any from what i have seen.

All this bluff and gusto from mcd about the takeover is just a smokescreen so he can deflect his own deficiencies away from the spotlight.

[caelan]

Okay so a few points here. First of all i'm not an accountant or businessman, nor, as iv'e said, am i a Leeds fan, so apologies if any of the points are ignorant.

Yes raising the money in direct donations would be very difficult - not impossible - but if 50k set up a direct debit of about £10 per month it would take about 15 years wouldn't it, not that there should be any rush - there is no reason to believe Leeds will be in any better position in 15 years time. I think the fundamental issue is whether you as fans want an owner - you have the choice of being a millionaire's investment or a billionaire's toy. Neither appeal to me, but maybe i'm in the minority.

So the funding problem isn't as big as it may seem. There are many ways to raise money. Everyone will know the usual approach by charities and fund raisers - things like collection buckets, raffles and sponsored runs - which little by little add up to a significant boost to the main donations. The heart of the effort would come from direct debits. If we say 50,000 supporters are interested, and give (on average) £10 per month, that's a solid platform for further fundraising, and is especially important when applying for loans or grants. It isn't that much of a commitment when set against other expenditures - how much do you pay for your season ticket for example? But it is a question of priorities. Then there is investment fundraising, like the community shares scheme FC United of Manchester (sorry to mention 'an enemy') use, where money is put in as a sort of ISA, with interest being tax free in return for a guarantee the money will stay there for a certain amount of time. Of course it isn't easy, but if we look at FC United again, 3000 members raised 5 million through these types of fundraising - it stands to reason that 50,000 Leeds fans have the potential to raise 83 million in the same amount of time. It isn't easy, it isn't something that can be achieved in a week, but its about securing your football club for your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to enjoy.

The idea that fan ownership is 'unsustainable' seems pretty strange to me. A football club is profitable when managed properly, I would point to obvious examples such as Barcelona, AFC Wimbledon, the vast majority of German clubs. Fan ownership isn't just sustainable - its a far superior business model for a football club than having some **** like Bates siphon the club's prophets into his own bank account.

[Aces]

With one or two exceptions the players don't deserve to be paid, their contract states that they PLAY football for Leeds United, I have not seen much evidence of them playing recently.

Ah But .... One of the reasons the little cherubs are playing so badly, is because they are fretting about getting paid, they have £500k mortgages, a huge loan on a brand new sports car, a further mortgage on the holiday apartment in St Tropez, plus needing money to pay the bills in the swankiest resteraunts. Don't you feel sorry for them at all????

[dlw10]

With one or two exceptions the players don't deserve to be paid, their contract states that they PLAY football for Leeds United, I have not seen much evidence of them playing recently.

Ah But .... One of the reasons the little cherubs are playing so badly, is because they are fretting about getting paid, they have £500k mortgages, a huge loan on a brand new sports car, a further mortgage on the holiday apartment in St Tropez, plus needing money to pay the bills in the swankiest resteraunts. Don't you feel sorry for them at all????

No! It is all quite obscene. If Premiership players were paid the amounts currently available in the Championship and the leages below all tapered down from that level then I could just about accept that as a bloody good return for being born with a talent to play a game well. As it is, because we are all happy to fork out £800 a year to watch Premiership footie on TV those Prem players are obscenely paid when compared with all other occupations.
For all the wrongdoing and incompetence that has gone on at Elland Road we cannot get away from the fact that ours, like all other clubs, only struggles because the current level of players remuneration is unsustainable. I really do wish the whole of football would just collapse so that we could start again at sensible levels. Funnily enough that would get all the crooks and idiots out of the games' boardrooms too, as they are only there for their own ego trips and to hide their own crooked manipulations.

[RamseyWhite]

Totally agree with those sentiments from DLW.
I only hope that this financial fair play will kick in but I have grave doubts that the big premiership teams (maybe with the exception of Arsenal) will comply.

[Wilfred Martin]

I share those sentiments entirely, DLW. Given that the ridiculous wages are bleeding football dry, other than being a status symbol, I find it hard to imagine why anybody would wish to purchase/own a football club at the moment.

Don't you find it rather ironic though, that the rules put into place by the FA/FL to safeguard clubs from being in a situation where they are repeatedly going into administration might be the very barrier which leads LUFC down that route (complete mismanagement by GFHC notwithstanding)?

I wonder whether the FA can show any evidence that their "fit and proper" rule has benefited any football club, or football in general?