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Football League 2018/19 season


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23 hours ago, ajwffc said:

A £200000 fine for Leeds for getting one of their staff members to stand on a pavement.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47285098

Pathetic.

I assume everyone will get £200k fines for sending scouts to opposition matches now. 

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5 hours ago, WALMOT said:

Karl Oyston taking Blackpool to an employment tribunal for unpaid wages:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-47293157

Oh dear what a shambles.

If he wins the club will owe him money, thus reducing the funds available to pay the real creditors.

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From WSC:-

The risk and reward nature of achieving promotion to the increasingly lucrative Premier League has seen some owners commit to an unsustainable approach that may not pay off

18 February ~ Even being a member of the family who control the world’s biggest supplier of canned tuna won’t prepare you for the pressures of running a Championship club. “Money is not the issue here, it is all about revenue,” said Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri – whose father founded the Thai Union Group, owners of John West tuna among others – in a statement to fans at the start of January, which expanded on the financial problems which had led to a transfer embargo earlier in the season. Since taking over in 2015, Chansiri estimates that he has spent around £200 million on the club. Initially, his outlay seemed worthwhile – Wednesday were beaten play-off finalists in 2015-16, before falling at the semi-final stage the following year. Yet as the club’s league position rose their annual losses more than doubled to £20.8m. Since then, diminishing returns on the pitch have caused the fan-owner relationship to become fractious.

Instead of taking responsibility, Chansiri diverted blame onto the League’s Profit & Sustainability (P&S) rules. EFL clubs are allowed to lose a maximum of £39m over three seasons, with limits on owner investment and penalties for exceeding this including transfer embargoes and points deductions. Clubs such as Brentford and Sheffield United have shown that buying low, selling high can be a viable approach to recruiting players. Huddersfield, too, lived within their means before hitting upon the right manager and earning a surprise promotion in 2016-17. Yet for every attempt at a Huddersfield model there are two or three trying to “do a Wolves”. When Chinese investment group Fosun International took over at Molineux in 2016 they poured money into player recruitment and pre-tax profits of £5.8m in 2015-16 had turned into losses of £23.2m by the following season. Had this trend continued over the next two years, Wolves would have faced at least a transfer embargo. However, in 2017-18 their expensive squad earned promotion, and Fosun’s risk was rewarded.

Wednesday’s current predicament, along with fellow recently embargoed clubs such as Birmingham and Nottingham Forest, shows what happens when the Wolves model goes wrong. Had they earned promotion during Chansiri’s first two years, the club’s financial worries would have disappeared. Instead, the losses have racked up and, given there is little prospect of Premier League football next season, Chansiri has taken extreme measures. His name has been plastered on shirts and stands, and shell companies such as D-Taxis and Elev8 (of which Chansiri is the sole director) take up sponsorship boards. This Manchester City-lite approach of misguided benevolence is not enough to avoid P&S sanctions, though. With player sales having previously been ruled out, fans are expected to fill the holes left by his unsustainable investment.

Chansiri has launched “Club 1867”, a scheme essentially selling Premier League season tickets (plus a few other benefits) now, to be redeemed when – or if – the club return there. The cheapest of these tickets is £455 for one year of Premier League football, the most expensive is £3,200 for five years’ worth. With many fans already struggling to afford their standard Championship season tickets, never mind effectively advancing the club the same amount again, the idea that they could raise the roughly £15m needed to avoid P&S sanctions seems deluded. Even if they could, it would only delay the problem for another year unless new manager Steve Bruce can conjure up a promotion.

The Football League’s financial rules are successful to a point – no club has entered administration since they were brought in – but owners might be more willing to follow them if teams began on equal terms. Even one failed Premier League season means a club begins their Championship campaign with a huge financial advantage over others. The £42m ex-Premier League teams receive in their first season back in the Championship dwarfs the £7m each club in that division receives in TV money, never mind the £34m and £16.6m parachute payments that follow in seasons two and three outside the top flight. This uneven financial distribution creates owners who are ready to forgo stability in a desperate bid to reach the Premier League. However, if those owners choose to ignore P&S rules they will need better backup plans than begging already stretched fans to bail them out.

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Another snore fest for the neutrals that’s 3 in a row now. Hopefully that’s the last time it’s going to be played at night as there was ugly scenes outside the ground before and after the match. To let both sets of fans out at the same time is always going to end badly so wasn’t surprised that fights broke out at the leppings lane end of the ground and unfortunately children witnessed it and even got caught up in it all. 

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1 hour ago, Arbroathlegend36-0 said:

Another snore fest for the neutrals that’s 3 in a row now. Hopefully that’s the last time it’s going to be played at night as there was ugly scenes outside the ground before and after the match. To let both sets of fans out at the same time is always going to end badly so wasn’t surprised that fights broke out at the leppings lane end of the ground and unfortunately children witnessed it and even got caught up in it all. 

Shame to read about the trouble. Am surprised South Yorkshire Police let it go ahead on a Monday night to be honest as am sure they would prefer a Saturday lunch time kick off instead of a Monday night. 

When Leeds are in Sheffield both games are lunch time kick offs, so not to make the derby a lunch time kick off seems strange but then Sky rules all  am afraid.

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Just been reading about this on the bbc news website:

South Yorkshire Police set up football advisory group

Football fans will help shape policing in South Yorkshire after the county's force launched a new independent advisory group on football.

South Yorkshire Police hope to hold monthly meetings with supporters and club officials.

The force said it could lead to a change in the way matches are policed.

The move was planned before last night's Steel City derby between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United which saw six people arrested.

Police have come under fire on social media for their handling of disorder at the game.

Speaking in February, Chief Insp Phil Barraclough said the force want to get people together to help improve relationships and explain planning decisions before games.

"We recognise that we need to improve our communication to football supporters across the county.

"We'd like to hear the views of the supporters groups and the football clubs as well."

 

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Bolton could be in serious trouble,

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47457750

Bolton Wanderers have until 13:00 GMT on Wednesday to assure the local council that they have adequate safety provision for Saturday's Championship game against Millwall.

Bolton Council, the club, local police and ambulance services met on Tuesday amid concerns Wanderers may not provide sufficient stewarding for the match.

Greater Manchester Police are also owed money by the club for policing matches.

"We are hopeful a resolution will be found," a council statement said.

"The club has recently been unable to demonstrate it can meet the legal conditions of the ground's safety certificate.

"After consultation with all members of the Safety Advisory Group, the council has taken the decision to give the club 24 hours to address all safety concerns, otherwise we will reluctantly issue a prohibition notice.

"We understand some fans may be alarmed by this news, but the council is bound by legal process and we are not prepared to risk public safety by allowing any event to go ahead without proper resources in place."

Bolton, who are 23rd in the Championship, said in a statement that they have "provided written assurances that they are able to meet the legal conditions."

Players as well as full and part-time staff, including matchday stewards, have still not been paid their salaries for February.

On Monday, part-time staff issued a statement saying they had not been given any information or apology by the club as to when their wages would be paid.

In addition, Bolton's training ground was closed on Monday as the club's financial problems continue to mount, having already been issued a winding-up petition by HM Revenues & Customs last month.

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Following on from Wolves accounts yesterday for last season Aston Villa announced their results for last season:-

Aston Villa have reported pre-tax losses of £36.1m for the 2017-18 season and admitted that complying with spending rules "will continue to provide a significant challenge" for the Championship club.

Losses were up more than £21.5m on the previous season.

However, it is still significantly less than the £80.7m loss Villa made when relegated from the Premier League in 2015-16.

Villa are 11th in the second tier.

Financial accounts of the Recon Group, the club's parent company, filed at Companies House show Villa made losses of more than £1m a week before player sales were taken into account.

Figures also show that billionaire businessmen Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris have put £68m into the club since taking control of the then-financially stricken club in July 2018.

Villa - who made a loss of £14.5m in 2016-17 - narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League last season, losing the Championship play-off final to Fulham.

The financial problems faced by the club soon emerged after their failure to secure a top-flight return, which would have ensured an estimated windfall of £160m.

Villa missed a £4m tax payment and reached a payment agreement with HM Revenue and Customs, before Egyptian Sawiris and American financier Edens - co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise - took a controlling interest in the Midlands side.

Following the change in ownership, "a detailed review" of the club's operations, assets and "projected financial performance" was conducted, according to the publicly available accounts.

The report said the "directors believe" Villa will meet spending rules again this season.

"A number of measures have been identified to ensure financial fair play compliance can be maintained," it read.

Under the EFL's profitability and sustainability rules, Aston Villa are allowed to post losses of up to £61m over the three-year period which takes in their final season in the Premier League.

However, there are a number of dispensations regarding outgoings, including the running of academies.

If they fail to be promoted at the end of this season, their allowable losses are reduced to £39m covering their first three years in the Championship.

Villa's turnover last season was also down from £73.8m to £68.6m, which is attributable to the reduction in parachute payments as broadcast revenue was almost £8m down to £40.3m.

Gate receipts were up more than £1m to £11.8m as the club finished fourth in the table. Sponsorship was also up more than £2m.

Wages at Villa Park, in a season

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