Trouble at the Villa | Page 5 | Vital Football

Trouble at the Villa

Basha73 said:
Question is, how many times does this have to happen and how many clubs does it have to take down before something is put in place to prevent it.

Obviously we have FFP and it has helped but if this can still happen then it obviously does not go far enough.
Click to expand...

Fitness test is the issue
 
Basha73 said:
Yep. At the moment it is far too lax. As Apollyon mentioned, maybe some sort of bond to protect the club would help.
Click to expand...

Problem is, how do you do a fitness test on these people?

What investigative powers can the FL have to be able to discern that Xia is a charletan?

Or that Fawaz is a 7 year old in a 45 year old's body?

You ask Xia to show proof of funds and he'll find proof and the whole Chinese system will help him to do so because it's in the country's interests. The proof he shows won't tell you how wealthy he really is or reveal that he will have these cash flow problems further down the line.

Same with Fawaz. The Hasawi family would have provided any evidence needed. That would have told us nothing about the cash flow problems later, the family cutting off the money, Fawaz's unsuitability to run so much as a bath or the hanger-on minions that would embarrass our club again and again.

SISU sounds the easiest- don't allow a dodgy hedge fund to own a club. But no doubt SISU would have been able to dress themselves up as something else through various subsidiaries.

its easy to criticise the fit and proper tests but I personally can't see how an organisation like the FL can be effective in them against these kinds of men. They aren't the FBI or HMRC!

Perhaps the one thing that would be effective is of clubs were considered community or national assets and the FL could remove them from an owner's control and forcibly put them up for sale where there is evidence of significant mismanagement.

Like with the Americans; they would have passed every test but if their plans were indeed some nefarious property deals to our detriment that would be discovered too late- but if the FL could remove the club from their control as soon as such detrimental plans started then it would make them think twice.

Not sure if there is any legal framework that could possibly allow that but I think it's the only thing that would put these guys off.
 
I'd make sure that they had a current "American Express Card" on them at all times with an expiry date always 5 years ahead - plus a Nectar card.
 
Basha73 said:
Yep. At the moment it is far too lax. As Apollyon mentioned, maybe some sort of bond to protect the club would help.
Click to expand...

The new owners would need to deposit a bond with the FL ? To stop this being like an additional savings account, there would need to be strict rules on the circumstances to which a club could draw on the funds, and how the deposit is re established. Quite a bit of administration involved and some owners may feel uncomfortable with the level of intervention.

Something needs to be done to protect the supporters though, and to recognise that the club and fans ARE a part of the local community. They are not just part of same megalomaniac’s wet dream. If anything good has come from the Fawaz years it is that we have come out the other side. Not giving Fawaz any credit for that, just saying that no matter how dire things look, there is always hope of better things to come. When you hit rock bottom, the only way is up !
 
forestfire_59 said:
The new owners would need to deposit a bond with the FL ? To stop this being like an additional savings account, there would need to be strict rules on the circumstances to which a club could draw on the funds, and how the deposit is re established. Quite a bit of administration involved and some owners may feel uncomfortable with the level of intervention.

Something needs to be done to protect the supporters though, and to recognise that the club and fans ARE a part of the local community. They are not just part of same megalomaniac’s wet dream. If anything good has come from the Fawaz years it is that we have come out the other side. Not giving Fawaz any credit for that, just saying that no matter how dire things look, there is always hope of better things to come. When you hit rock bottom, the only way is up !
Click to expand...

The league has tried to do something to protect supporters and clubs. It's FFP.

It's primarily the riches of the premier league that are putting clubs at risk - that's out of the control of the EFL.

As for bonds it'd be a legal nightmare to govern - the EFL run a league of football clubs, they're not a statutory authority.

The only way football is going to change for better and be more equitable in this country is by direct government intervention. I actually believe it'd be attractive to many voters if one of the parties proposed wholesale regulation of professional football to protect the lower leagues, restrict player salaries and regulate broadcasting deals. For the many, not the few and all that....
 
The FL and PL are between a rock and a hard place; they have to base the fit and proper test around the same compliance testing that any other director would go through, but with a few minor stipulations added on.

Football clubs come under the same jurisdiction as any other business would; attempting to set entrance criteria that appears prohibitive without good cause would result in legal action.

Both parties know this and that is why they avoid the confrontation that would ensue.
 
There are always loopholes, in any systems of control they seek to employ - with various methods of creative accounting and ownerships via subsidiaries, holding companies, multiple investors etc.

Still staggers me how few teams have actually faced a transfer embargo.
 
Villa's plight will come as no surprise to some; I can remember a David Conn article in the Guardian relating to the number of Chinese take overs taking place.

The article did not paint Dr Xia in a very good light at the time, describing him as a glorified landscape Gardener, albeit a pretty large one.

The guy at West Brom did not come across as the real deal either; be interesting to see how that one pans out.
 
AdebolaCornflakes said:
I WILL be alerting OKD to this blatant xenephobia. You just dont get this over on COYR
Click to expand...

Yes but they talk about football on there, and there’s all the people that used to post regularly on here . . . Sniffer, Jock to name but 2.

If this forum is to survive, all the petty in fighting needs to stop.
 
Agreed FF59, although there does seem to be a lot of moral superiority from some on COYR who themselves have contributed to the petty in fighting on here in recent months.

Good luck to 'em.
 
You boys do love a bit of in fighting, boring as it is. I have taken the word snert in to my vocabulary though.
 
AdebolaCornflakes said:
Agreed FF59, although there does seem to be a lot of moral superiority from some on COYR who themselves have contributed to the petty in fighting on here in recent months.

Good luck to 'em.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call it moral superiority.

There are some good people on there who know their stuff and used to contribute on here.

There are also a few morons who know fuck all about the subject matter but pass comment regardless.

*opinion
 
You must log in or register to reply here.