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AP - Man U, Liverpool accused of 'financial doping

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
AP - Man U, Liverpool accused of 'financial doping
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
AP - Man U, Liverpool accused of 'financial doping'

Heavily indebted Premier League clubs Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool were accused by a British parliamentary committee Monday of engaging in "financial doping."

In 27 recommendations at the end of a yearlong inquiry, legislators urged England's soccer authorities to curb "ludicrous levels of borrowing" and the use of profits to service large debts.

The All Party Parliamentary Football Group is calling for heavy scrutiny of business plans ahead of any club takeovers, echoing the agenda of soccer's world governing body FIFA.

The group also backed FIFA's "six-plus-five rule" that would impose limits on foreign players, urging the British government to lobby the European Union to overlook its treaties on free movement.

The key warning in the report is that while soccer appears to be weathering the initial impact of the recession, the meltdown in the markets that has claimed major financial institutions operating risky business models should serve as a warning to the clubs.

"The financial world has learnt a serious lesson in the last year that living by the old adage, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' can lead to catastrophic results," said governing Labor Party legislator Alan Keen, who chaired the inquiry. "There is a real danger that English football could go the same way. Corrective action needs to be taken now to address serious weaknesses in the governance of the game as well as severe financial imbalances.

"Lack of proper governance and financial instability are the two fundamental vulnerabilities to the success that English football has enjoyed in recent times. Our report includes tough measures to improve the way the game is run and to combat 'financial doping' whereby short term success can be bought at the expense of long term financial stability."

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9476786/Man-U,-Liverpool-accused-of-

See Parliamentary Football Committee
http://www.allpartyfootball.com/

Presumably further details later.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
6+5 rule, lol.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago

Thats fine for us Gooners, we run within our operating costs and before anyone points the finger and says "what about the Emirates dept" that dept is serviced by the increased capacity (means we make enough money to pay it off and then some) of the stadium, so we still actually make a profit every year.

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
In 27 recommendations at the end of a yearlong inquiry, legislators urged England's soccer authorities to curb "ludicrous levels of borrowing" and the use of profits to service large debts.

Sheesh, we make one mistake of taking out a 60 trillion dollar loan for Keane and we get lumped in this report...
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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
UberGunner wrote:

Thats fine for us Gooners, we run within our operating costs and before anyone points the finger and says "what about the Emirates dept" that dept is serviced by the increased capacity (means we make enough money to pay it off and then some) of the stadium, so we still actually make a profit every year.

 
Love it that we operate in a fiscally responsible manner.
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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
This group sounds as bad as NZ's Geographic Board.
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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
Michael wrote:
This group sounds as bad as NZ's Geographic Board.

haha so true!
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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
UberGunner wrote:

Thats fine for us Gooners, we run within our operating costs and before anyone points the finger and says "what about the Emirates dept" that dept is serviced by the increased capacity (means we make enough money to pay it off and then some) of the stadium, so we still actually make a profit every year.

 
So debt incurred to fund a stadium, which increases revenue and allows you to buy players is ok, but soft loans from the club owner to the club to buy players isn't ok?  Tickets to the emirates are the most expensive in the country.
 
Football clubs are businesses, they are regulated as such, and debt is a normal element of business.  If a debt can be serviced what is wrong with it?

Normo's coming home

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almost 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
james dean wrote:
UberGunner wrote:

Thats fine for us Gooners, we run within our operating costs and before anyone points the finger and says "what about the Emirates dept" that dept is serviced by the increased capacity (means we make enough money to pay it off and then some) of the stadium, so we still actually make a profit every year.

 
So debt incurred to fund a stadium, which increases revenue and allows you to buy players is ok, but soft loans from the club owner to the club to buy players isn't ok?  Tickets to the emirates are the most expensive in the country.
 
Football clubs are businesses, they are regulated as such, and debt is a normal element of business.  If a debt can be serviced what is wrong with it?
 
Arsenal's stadium revenue is currently not funding players. Arsenal are one of only two teams (the other being blackburn) in the prem to turn a profit on player transfers alone over the past 5 years- although tbh it  may well have been pushed over with the purchase of nasri and arshavin in the last 9 months. Still, it is a telling statistic.
 
The profit form the current stadium is being directed to servicing the debt incurred to build it - not to player purchases. Uber has the whereabouts of all of this financial info, im sure he'd be happy to provide links (i've seen them before).
 
And i dont think we're just talking about 'soft loans from the club owner' here - i understand that the glaziers used ManU as security to gain extremely non-soft loans from financial institutions that are now in a bit of bother. The glaziers are required to begin paying that money back soon and as of yet have given no indication where these payments are going to come from - so to respond to your statement, it is yet to be proven that these debts can indeed be 'serviced'. Saw an article about this recently too on F365 from memory. Might be wrong, but i understand that liverpool's owners have done something very similar.
 
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