Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA (Part 1)

Lets be honest, I don't think anybody thought we would be sitting this high in the table at this point of the season. While its not over yet, we are performing better (I think) than our preseason dictated we should do so far. I think that does get lost in amongst the results and skeleton staff/team sometimes.

Thats why I put so far sthn.jeff. Its a big ask beating those 3 but its not impossible as we have shown this year. Mind you Brisbane are playing like ass so....

Looking below us you would think Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne had good off seasons. Look at their names: Van Dyk, Djite, Dodd, Smeltz, Kewell, Thompson, Allsop, Hernandez, Rojas, McKain, Miller, Divleski...

Sydney have Emerton and Nicky Carle.

It's a tricky thing to predict, but watching the last games nervously!

Given that the new owners were left with a complete shambles after his Royal Skintness went belly up and are literally having  start at the very beginning , the team  have indeed  done remarkably well so far  this season ,maybe getting their wages on time has helped here who knows!
In the Morgan Fever  podcast he mentioned something along the lines that when they(Wellnix) took over  they were hoping to sort out the paper work but found that there was no paper work to sort out (must have been a bit like being the first liberators going into Gadafi or Sadams palace )
They have a five year plan which initally is about building a sound foundation and  structure within the business side of the club  ,for the fans there is not a lot to see during this part of the plan it's dull suit  stuff and  not very  sexy , the more impotent supporters amongst us who expect/demand  that we not  only win the A league this year but also sign Messi and appoint the Chosen one as manager are already jumping up and down like spoilt toddlers screaming for another ice cream!
The first fruits from the new owners will not really be seen until the season after next in my opinion but hopefully the the first  really positive signs will start  next season.
 As that  great icon of  NZ feminism once said "It won't happen over night but it will happen "

Given that the new owners were left with a complete shambles after his Royal Skintness went belly up and are literally having  start at the very beginning , the team  have indeed  done remarkably well so far  this season ,maybe getting their wages on time has helped here who knows!
In the Morgan Fever  podcast he mentioned something along the lines that when they(Wellnix) took over  they were hoping to sort out the paper work but found that there was no paper work to sort out (must have been a bit like being the first liberators going into Gadafi or Sadams palace )

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This is a little bit unfair. Can't comment on the financial accounts but they weren't starting from nothing. The most important part of the phoenix was the playing roster and the coach. That was in place and they haven't really improved that at all. There would be paperwork around the contracts. I don't even think it would have been Terrys immediate responsibility to handle the accountancy/paperwork. Surely this is more indicative on Nathan? Unless Terry was doing something very odd, and it was of course Terry who appointed Nathan.

 

[QUOTE=Kiwi Jambo]
They have a five year plan which initally is about building a sound foundation and  structure within the business side of the club  ,for the fans there is not a lot to see during this part of the plan it's dull suit  stuff and  not very  sexy , the more impotent supporters amongst us who expect/demand  that we not  only win the A league this year but also sign Messi and appoint the Chosen one as manager are already jumping up and down like spoilt toddlers screaming for another ice cream!
The first fruits from the new owners will not really be seen until the season after next in my opinion but hopefully the the first  really positive signs will start  next season.
 As that  great icon of  NZ feminism once said "It won't happen over night but it will happen "

They have a five year plan which initally is about building a sound foundation and  structure within the business side of the club  ,for the fans there is not a lot to see during this part of the plan it's dull suit  stuff and  not very  sexy

I don't even think it would have been Terrys immediate responsibility to handle the accountancy/paperwork. Surely this is more indicative on Nathan? Unless Terry was doing something very odd, and it was of course Terry who appointed Nathan.

Yes, he was, LOL, going broke.

 

 

Yes, he was, LOL, going broke.

Victim of multimillion-dollar swindle embarks on a quest for justice

Ahsan Ali Syed has tricked scores of business people. Now an Australian property developer is taking him on, writes Kate McClymont.

It was a swindle of global proportions. The alleged perpetrator is a fraudster dubbed the Bernie Madoff of India. From his swish offices in Bahrain and Switzerland, Ahsan Ali Syed has orchestrated a multi-million-dollar scam where upfront fees were paid for loans that never eventuated.

The victims are well-heeled business people from Australia, including a former state treasurer, as well as from New Zealand, Malaysia, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands.

This week Keith Johnson, one of NSW's largest property developers, who was fleeced $US3,627,000, is meeting Bahraini criminal prosecutors to provide documentary evidence that Mr Ali, 40, is at the centre of a vast transnational fraud.

''Hopefully, criminal proceedings will bring this to an end,'' Mr Johnson, whose own property development empire is in the hands of an administrator, said.

Mr Ali's company Western Gulf Advisory claimed it had $US8 billion in its Swiss coffers with up to $US1.1 billion earmarked for investment in Australian projects.

Over the past few years, dozens of Australian businessmen, thwarted in their attempts to refinance loans locally, made the pilgrimage to Mr Ali's office in Bahrain, buoyed by the promise of a financial lifeline. But it was all an illusion, a sophisticated scam whereby Mr Ali pocketed each borrower's 1.6 per cent establishment fee.

With promised loans of up to $US200 million, the upfront fees had to be paid to secure the loans. Most investors lost several million dollars each.

At the end of last year a Bahrani court ordered Mr Ali to repay Mr Johnson's fees plus interest but today WGA will be back in court, appealing the decision.

The Melbourne lawyer Andy Bryce, who represents 15 other Australian clients who between them have lost more than $30 million, will accompany Mr Johnson to Bahrain.

Mr Bryce said that as a result of WGA's fraudulent activities his clients had suffered further losses of about $100 million, with three companies having gone into liquidation. ''It's an international fraud,'' said Mr Bryce. ''There are inquiries under way with Interpol and the NZ Serious Fraud Office,'' as well by Swiss authorities, he said.

Most clients invested after reading articles in the Australian press quoting people claiming to have received loans from WGA. These claims were untrue, Mr Bryce said.
A former Queensland treasurer, Keith De Lacy, the chairman of the failed Cubbie Group, was promoted by WGA as having received funding. But no loan materialised and the Cubbie consortium is still out of pocket to the tune of $1.5 million.

Australians are not the only ones to have been fleeced by WGA. Terry Serepisos , a prominent New Zealand entrepreneur, spent most of last year attempting to stave off bankruptcy, repeatedly claiming he was about to be rescued by a $100 million loan from WGA. which was to become a half owner of Mr Serepisos's A-League football team, Wellington Phoenix. Deadlines for WGA's promised loan came and went until finally Mr Serepisos, who had relished starring in the Donald Trump role in the New Zealand TV version of The Apprentice, was finally bankrupted last September.

The Phoenix wasn't the only football team affected by the WGA scam. Across the world, Ali has wreaked havoc on the Spanish premier division side Racing Santander.

Having failed in his attempt to buy the English Premier League team Blackburn Rovers in 2010, early last year Ali acquired Racing Santander.

This is all the more extraordinary considering that only six years earlier Ali, then living in London, fled the country leaving behind an unkempt flat, �7800 owing on the rent and bailiffs on his tail over unpaid council taxes.

This time last year, Mr Ali swept into Spain on his private jet with his fawning retinue in tow and the promise of a bucketload of money to take the struggling side to the top of the league.

A year later, Mr Ali's promised millions have failed to materialise and Racing Santander is in tatters. The coach has quit, the president has departed, the board resigned en masse and most of the players walked out having not been paid. As The Guardian reported last month, ''Everyone walked except their owner[Ali], who ran.'' The paper reported that Ali was wanted by Interpol and has disappeared.

But Ali recently appeared on Bahraini television when WGA was announced as the new sponsor of the Bahraini Supercar series. For Mr Johnson, the sighting of Mr Ali has given him hope. ''He's still operating, so there's still money which we may be able to recover,'' he said.


Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/business/victim-of-multimilliondollar-swindle-embarks-on-a-quest-for-justice-20120122-1qc7l.html#ixzz1kDsNd8TM

Anyone seen the Wikipedia page today? There is a board listed there of Steve Sumner, John Morris, Hamish Miller and Murry Naylor.

When did the board get announced or is this old news?

Maybe Terry should send WGA's contact details to the Otago Rugby Union.

When I were a lass, we were owned by a dodgy Greek doing dodgy deals with even dodgier Arabs and we LIKED IT. Try telling that to young people today and they'll never believe you.