Bolton Wanderers
- Thread starter Pope John XXIII
- Start date
seasider red
Vital 1st Team Regular
Is it just me, but I find something distasteful in this whole situation when 2 long established clubs are allowed to go this way when they are in the back yards of 2 of the richest clubs in the world who each pick up £100+ of TV money each year. A sad reflection of what has happened in the world of football since all the "Sky" money started sloshing about. The rich get richer & to hell with everybody else. Very sad
Mappred
Vital 1st Team Regular
It’s not up to either club, admittedly. But you’d think they’d be able to do something to help. Didn’t Man U used to use Gigg Lane for their reserve games?
LynxRed
Vital Squad Member
Bury have gone........
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49451896
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49451896
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Just seen that.
First since Maidstone.
Devastating. The EFL have monumentally failed a whole community here
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...v/12/bury-high-interest-loans-shadow-recovery
An article from five years ago, saying that the previous owner of Bury took out loans against Gigg Lane at 138% per annum.
So Bury have gone, but is there any news on Bolton ?
An article from five years ago, saying that the previous owner of Bury took out loans against Gigg Lane at 138% per annum.
So Bury have gone, but is there any news on Bolton ?
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Bolton slightly less urgent in terms of the EFL. Bury had been served a 14 day notice of withdrawal by the EFL. That expired on Friday and they had an extension.
Bolton haven't had that yet so will be served it after they missed the deadline today. They will have 14 says whatever.
Problem with Bolton is that the administrators have said they have run out of money to keep the club going. They haven't the money to see out the week, so administrators have said they will wind the club up tomorrow UNLESS a deal is suddenly agreed, presumably with some money up front.
Old Red Fart
Vital Champions League
What a disgusting ,degrading business, there's no limit to human greed. And the two Manchester clubs don't come out of it with any medals either. United being the richest club in the world, don't make me laugh.
This could be any of us.
I agree, but this benefits the Manchester clubs though, doesn't it?
Pick up a few more fans. Sell a bit more merchandise etc.
I guess if Bolton hadn't had their 14 days notice the EFL have to stick to the rules, but it doesn't seem very fair kicking one club out and not the other. As Pope has said though, the administrator could pull the plug on Bolton before then. Certainly if they don't sort things by Monday, they won't have any proper players to turn out for them.
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seasider red
Vital 1st Team Regular
Bolton saved according to Sky "Football Ventures Whites" or something like that
mao tse tung
Vital Champions League
Interesting piece from today's Football briefing in The Athletic about Bury's demise:
By the time you read this, it might be the time for calm and structured thoughts.
But not now. Not in the dark of the middle of the night as the candle is snuffed out on Bury. Not while the body is still warm.
That this 134-year-old institution even survived to Tuesday’s 5pm extension was, frankly, false hope.
Potential saviours C&N Sporting Risk Ltd had privately cautioned against stories that a last-gasp deal to resuscitate the club was anywhere close and it proved to be way off. Once they got a look at the books, and what had been done to Bury, it became clear that any takeover was impossible.
On Tuesday evening the EFL turned off Bury’s life support switch, finally announcing the time of death at 11.07pm.
For fans of the club who had to wait over six hours in agonising silence, not a single thought was given. You would hope because those at the EFL were sat in shame, but to expect such introspection would be breathtakingly presumptuous. This is the organisation that created the environment for this to happen. It is not the organisation who appears ready to acknowledge that.
Shaun Harvey - who was recently ousted as the organisation’s chief executive by its unhappy member clubs, you may remember - is not solely responsible for the financial mess of the lower leagues. He did, however, preside over a period where due diligence was simply not carried out on new owners of clubs and where the bottom half of the three divisions he watched over was allowed to decay.
The EFL’s statement last night said there should be an investigation “into decisions taken at Bury FC over the last few seasons” which is absolutely correct. They stopped short of recommending any investigations in to why they didn’t heed any of the warning signs, or listen to the concerned fans, or pay attention to the filleting of one of their members for the profit of third parties.
Bolton Wanderers, just seven years removed from the Premier League, have 14 days to prevent themselves following in Bury’s grim footsteps.
Even mentioning their recent stint in the top flight seems crazy because, as we know so well, the Premier League is positively overflowing with cash. Transfers have never been so big, the players have never been so skilful, their hairstyles have never been so wild and the ticker counting up every pound spent has never been so vividly yellow and so brashly thrust in your face. That the same ticker was used to count down to Bury's morbid deadline was, at best, crass.
British football is full of money… except when it isn’t.
How many of the clubs in the Premier League are owned by companies that pay tax in the UK? Correct me if I’m wrong but I think you can count them on one hand. In recent years there have been times you could probably count them on one finger.
Peddling the myth of trickle-down economics has always been a way of the richest preserving their wealth but when it’s so demonstrable and obvious that hundreds of millions of pounds are going offshore - even if you never read the accounts and only paid attention to transfer stories you would realise that - it is no mystery that those at the bottom will get strangled by the process.
We are at the point where it makes more sense to wonder how lower league clubs are staying in business rather than tweeting pointless condolences when they go to the wall.
Do I have faith that anything will be done? About as much as I do that those imaginary millions might trickle down and save the next couple of clubs from disaster.
The article was penned by Ed Malyon, former Sports Editor at the Independent who is now the Managing Director at the Athletic.
If the Managing Director is prepared to tell it how it is hopefully some of his reporters will follow suit.
By the time you read this, it might be the time for calm and structured thoughts.
But not now. Not in the dark of the middle of the night as the candle is snuffed out on Bury. Not while the body is still warm.
That this 134-year-old institution even survived to Tuesday’s 5pm extension was, frankly, false hope.
Potential saviours C&N Sporting Risk Ltd had privately cautioned against stories that a last-gasp deal to resuscitate the club was anywhere close and it proved to be way off. Once they got a look at the books, and what had been done to Bury, it became clear that any takeover was impossible.
On Tuesday evening the EFL turned off Bury’s life support switch, finally announcing the time of death at 11.07pm.
For fans of the club who had to wait over six hours in agonising silence, not a single thought was given. You would hope because those at the EFL were sat in shame, but to expect such introspection would be breathtakingly presumptuous. This is the organisation that created the environment for this to happen. It is not the organisation who appears ready to acknowledge that.
Shaun Harvey - who was recently ousted as the organisation’s chief executive by its unhappy member clubs, you may remember - is not solely responsible for the financial mess of the lower leagues. He did, however, preside over a period where due diligence was simply not carried out on new owners of clubs and where the bottom half of the three divisions he watched over was allowed to decay.
The EFL’s statement last night said there should be an investigation “into decisions taken at Bury FC over the last few seasons” which is absolutely correct. They stopped short of recommending any investigations in to why they didn’t heed any of the warning signs, or listen to the concerned fans, or pay attention to the filleting of one of their members for the profit of third parties.
Bolton Wanderers, just seven years removed from the Premier League, have 14 days to prevent themselves following in Bury’s grim footsteps.
Even mentioning their recent stint in the top flight seems crazy because, as we know so well, the Premier League is positively overflowing with cash. Transfers have never been so big, the players have never been so skilful, their hairstyles have never been so wild and the ticker counting up every pound spent has never been so vividly yellow and so brashly thrust in your face. That the same ticker was used to count down to Bury's morbid deadline was, at best, crass.
British football is full of money… except when it isn’t.
How many of the clubs in the Premier League are owned by companies that pay tax in the UK? Correct me if I’m wrong but I think you can count them on one hand. In recent years there have been times you could probably count them on one finger.
Peddling the myth of trickle-down economics has always been a way of the richest preserving their wealth but when it’s so demonstrable and obvious that hundreds of millions of pounds are going offshore - even if you never read the accounts and only paid attention to transfer stories you would realise that - it is no mystery that those at the bottom will get strangled by the process.
We are at the point where it makes more sense to wonder how lower league clubs are staying in business rather than tweeting pointless condolences when they go to the wall.
Do I have faith that anything will be done? About as much as I do that those imaginary millions might trickle down and save the next couple of clubs from disaster.
The article was penned by Ed Malyon, former Sports Editor at the Independent who is now the Managing Director at the Athletic.
If the Managing Director is prepared to tell it how it is hopefully some of his reporters will follow suit.
How did Bolton manage to get such large debts playing in the top division ?
Appleton praised the part played by the family trust set up by the late Eddie Davies -- who owned the club from 2003-16, writing off £175 million ($214 million) in loans and interest.
Four days before his death in September last year, he also gave the club £5 million to save it from administration.
Appleton praised the part played by the family trust set up by the late Eddie Davies -- who owned the club from 2003-16, writing off £175 million ($214 million) in loans and interest.
Four days before his death in September last year, he also gave the club £5 million to save it from administration.
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Never keen when rich owners choose to spend their money on a club, get to choose exactly how it is spent and then call it 'debt'.
When I spend money on my hobbies I don't tend to imagine that the hobby owes me that money back, but then the super rich live in something of a different world
When I spend money on my hobbies I don't tend to imagine that the hobby owes me that money back, but then the super rich live in something of a different world
And therein lies the rub. Premiere league football is part of that different world. If we as supporters want to be part of it we must face the realities of the situation.
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Premier League is somewhat different, with the fashion now being for the hyper rich to use someone else's money, preferably the club's own, to fund everything including their own dividends, as with Man Utd.
Or for the club to be the 'sporting prestige' arm of a major foreign business or political figure
