General The Board & Senior Management

[Northstandboy]

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

This is not the lack of investment, or support we should be questioning, it's what they've done with that money.

Or, it's whether they should have spent it committing the club to long term contacts that they can't financially support.

But they can support it. The people making these investments, committing to these long-term contracts - they unequivocally can commit to supporting us financially to the extent that they can prevent a transfer embargo.

Whether they should continue to do so, or indeed even want to, is obviously up for debate - but let's not pretend that these people are suddenly poor.

This is a conscious decision.

 

[greatunclekip]

But all those questions need to be addressed. To totally kneecap a club 6 or 7 weeks before the season starts, come on!

It’s only a couple of months back we were told that relegation was all factored in.

Final comment on the matter tonight..

Incredibly grateful for the investment Erick has put in til now.
Think it is absolutely indefensible to kneecap a football club so close to a season.

 

[werthersoriginal]

In June 2025, Sheffield Wednesday was charged by the EFL with several breaches of regulations relating to payment obligations. Chansiri was also charged with "causing the club to be in breach of EFL Regulations despite his commitment to fund their cash requirements".

No I am not in any way saying that the activities that followed that are anything that Erick would repeat, and at the moment he has done nothing other than decide not to stump up the cash to get us through this season. He’s released a statement saying he ABSOLUTELY will. As owner, that’s his call, nothing illegal. And we should trust that. Dusan and Tim have earnt that trust..

We are at level 1 with Erick, he’s decided not to stump up the cash, and that was exactly the time Wednesday fans mobilised to do something, rather than assume all will be fine in January..

Weds have come out the other side, and are now going into League 1 with Bannan and Slattery in midfield. It can get better..

The fact the CEO is point blank refusing to engage with fan groups does suggest he is busy trying to find a solution that he can’t even spare half an hour rather than the fact there’s some horrible truths not ready to be discussed to be fair to him.

But for all your inveighing you haven’t suggested a reason for the money being cut off, and that’s the bit that matters. Just because a thing happened before doesn’t mean another thing is the same.

 

[westyorkshireexile]

Its the stadium or bust. We will know after the outcome of the Oral Review.

 

[chuckbert]

It gives us a marginal advantage, I agree. But only that. The Oxford 'name' might get you a slight premium in price. But not much more than that. And as before, CM may well be (and apparently is) very full of himself. But in this context, so what?

What is this evaluation based on? The association with Oxford is a massive global recognition/reputation thing. U’s fans get pissed off witht the uni, but it is literally the first or second most recognised uni name globally (with Harvard). It has better recognition than Cambridge because (1) OED - even though that’s not actually uni and (2) it gets some of Cambridge’s kudos because the term Oxbridge is used (not Camford). There are truly few small cities around the world with this kind of brand.

 

[Under The Cuckoo Lane]

What is this evaluation based on? The association with Oxford is a massive global recognition/reputation thing. U’s fans get pissed off witht the uni, but it is literally the first or second most recognised uni name globally (with Harvard). It has better recognition than Cambridge because (1) OED - even though that’s not actually uni and (2) it gets some of Cambridge’s kudos because the term Oxbridge is used (not Camford). There are truly few small cities around the world with this kind of brand.

But there is a limited premium to pay for a brand.
Hyundai lawnmower £400.
Same spec Honda £1600.
We are gold plated Honda cost without the gold.
We had 39 professionals, some cost millions and added nothing to performance, costing thousands per week. We kept 'improving' infrastructure with rising costs but no real performance benefit. The costs ballooned, revenue dropped, stadium delayed, global costs spiralled.
300K losses per week.
We recruited professionals to manage our club, some were either 'Yes Men' or failed, either way they won't have to answer they have either gone or will quietly disappear.
Who was custodian of our club financially because they failed us.
I'm confused we were allowed to sign Ramsey and 2 more coaches because according to Charlie manager costs also fall under the embargo.
Will we have to let the 3 new coaches go, or will contracting them mean a points deduction?

 

[Jster]

But they can support it. The people making these investments, committing to these long-term contracts - they unequivocally can commit to supporting us financially to the extent that they can prevent a transfer embargo.

Whether they should continue to do so, or indeed even want to, is obviously up for debate - but let's not pretend that these people are suddenly poor.

This is a conscious decision.

Agreed. Owning a football club is a position of responsibility. It's something of great community value, not a toy. So if you suddenly stop funding it to the point where it can no longer function competitively, you're no longer a good or responsible owner. (Whether we've reached that point yet is unknown.) It's not like he's run out of money.

 

[m]

But all those questions need to be addressed. To totally kneecap a club 6 or 7 weeks before the season starts, come on!

It’s only a couple of months back we were told that relegation was all factored in.

Final comment on the matter tonight..

Incredibly grateful for the investment Erick has put in til now.
Think it is absolutely indefensible to kneecap a football club so close to a season.

Ok, so this is a thought experiment: I'm using numbers plucked off here to highlight what I see as the scenario in the most general sense.

If we are £80M in debt to our owners, and it would take £35M to get us compliant, would you consider this increase to the debt to be worthwhile?

How much would you consider worthwhile?

Is it worth it for a new striker and/or centre back?

 

[Under The Cuckoo Lane]

Ok, so this is a thought experiment: I'm using numbers plucked off here to highlight what I see as the scenario in the most general sense.

If we are £80M in debt to our owners, and it would take £35M to get us compliant, would you consider this increase to the debt to be worthwhile?

How much would you consider worthwhile?

Is it worth it for a new striker and/or centre back?

Not when CB gets injured after a week.
I'm hoping ET has temporarily lost confidence in signing new players, but keeping certain staff on doesn't back that theory up. Maybe if we get back to say 22 players, and Ramsey starts well, and league position good, and green lights on stadium, and funding progress, he will input again as per official statement.
If not, and more non compliance means points deduction, then.....
I do think fans group needs a doomsday plan.
Whatever happens we have amazing fans and will stick together somehow.

 

[Emilio]

But for all your inveighing you haven’t suggested a reason for the money being cut off, and that’s the bit that matters. Just because a thing happened before doesn’t mean another thing is the same.

We've all already hypothesised plenty of times what that could be. The greater Thohir family trust tightening the dripping tap until the stadium planning is FINALLY secured, for example. Or Erik himself really having had enough. Or plenty of others. Kip's guess is as good as your or mine. I think it's fair enough to be seriously concerned at the situation, despite not knowing all the details of the predicament, especially when we see other clubs such as Wednesday having suffered similarly.

Wednesday are a far greater part of the English football establishment than we are (like it or not). Even though they also need a whole new stadium, they were still a more desirable club to invest in when they were in our position than we are. If things go down the pan as badly for us as it has for them, I don't think there will be as many knights in shining armour willing to ride in to save us.

Who knows. Maybe in a few weeks this will all be put to bed by either Erik or a new investor finding the required x million quid to end the embargo, and we can look forward to an exciting end to the transfer window.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

No I didn't. I asked the question if that were a possibility. I wouldn't suggest such a thing because I have no idea whether or not that might be a thing.

And I have a good reason for asking, it wasn't just random

What was the reason?

 

[Yellowoptimist]

What was the reason?

I asked that as well. Nothing forthcoming

 

[ECYellow]

the textbook definition of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). Its sole job will be to hold the physical stadium asset, manage the £150m construction contract, and handle the long-term project debt.

Is the new company a subsidiary of OUFC?

If a new company is set up to manage the build and the construction contract, that company will not have demonstrable accounting history. So, wouldn’t the new company require a parent company guarantee or bond etc to satisfy financial regs relating to the funding of the project? If so, presumably that PCG would be with OUFC?

I note some of the funding may be via the markets (vague as you like) but I presume some funding will be via shareholders.

 

[Oxford84]

So we are in this massive debt that will kill the club and some peoples answer is just for Thohir to spend an extra 10, 20 or 30 million pounds so we can start buying even more players!

 

[chuckbert]

But there is a limited premium to pay for a brand.
Hyundai lawnmower £400.
Same spec Honda £1600.
We are gold plated Honda cost without the gold.
We had 39 professionals, some cost millions and added nothing to performance, costing thousands per week. We kept 'improving' infrastructure with rising costs but no real performance benefit. The costs ballooned, revenue dropped, stadium delayed, global costs spiralled.
300K losses per week.
We recruited professionals to manage our club, some were either 'Yes Men' or failed, either way they won't have to answer they have either gone or will quietly disappear.
Who was custodian of our club financially because they failed us.
I'm confused we were allowed to sign Ramsey and 2 more coaches because according to Charlie manager costs also fall under the embargo.
Will we have to let the 3 new coaches go, or will contracting them mean a points deduction?

Sure but that wasn’t the point I was contesting

 

[chuckbert]

So we are in this massive debt that will kill the club and some peoples answer is just for Thohir to spend an extra 10, 20 or 30 million pounds so we can start buying even more players!

The challenge is finding the sweet spot. There can be as much truth in spending your way out of trouble as well as in adopting austerity.
Eat too little and you starve, eat too much and you pop.
Of course if the whole business plan is flawed then maybe there’s nothing we can do and we’re heading for the plug hole either way.

I may be delusional but I think the value of doing something with brand Oxford is worth a lot of financial loss to the owners.

 

[Under The Cuckoo Lane]

Sure but that wasn’t the point I was contesting

I know. Please accept my apologies its getting a lot for me.

 

[OUFC1983]

So we are in this massive debt that will kill the club and some peoples answer is just for Thohir to spend an extra 10, 20 or 30 million pounds so we can start buying even more players!

A part a lot of people are missing is even if he put that money in, only half of it goes to player wages. What are we spending the other 15-16m on? Then on top of that we would need even more money to actually spend on transfer fees, extra wages etc. That would take us even further past 65%!!
I think TW and GF are getting a big pass at the moment, as ultimately the running of the club was down to them. If they’ve shat the bed and not understood the rules, and the impact of them then I can’t blame ET saying no.
Once the stadium gets the all clear, can’t a load of those costs be moved on the spreadsheet so to speak to alleviate things?

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

Dear Mr Thohir

The way I see the current situation is this

We have a really close family member or very close friend who has a heart condition for several years, let’s call him The Yellows. In this situation there is no NHS
A few years back 15/20 there was someone who could have resolved this problem by selling us what we needed to put it right,let’s call him Mr Kassam. His refusal means our relation/ friends heart has got weaker and weaker.
Many doctors have tried to help with injections let’s call them Lenegan, Bakrie and Thohir but unfortunately this is just about keeping our friend/ relative stable. We hear there is a chance of a heart transplant so we go down that route knowing it will take several years. Various people who feel a heart transplant is not ethical object and delay the process let’s call them FoSB, costing us critical time.

The injections aren’t coming anymore and our friend/relative is close to life support.

If they die we will be bereft,this person was at the centre of the community and has given joy to hundreds of thousands of people.

Please help them survive

 

[Chris on a Bike]

Great idea when its not your money.

Ah! Back to Charlie again!

 

[Deleted member 6957]

We've all already hypothesised plenty of times what that could be. The greater Thohir family trust tightening the dripping tap until the stadium planning is FINALLY secured, for example. Or Erik himself really having had enough. Or plenty of others. Kip's guess is as good as your or mine. I think it's fair enough to be seriously concerned at the situation, despite not knowing all the details of the predicament, especially when we see other clubs such as Wednesday having suffered similarly.

Wednesday are a far greater part of the English football establishment than we are (like it or not). Even though they also need a whole new stadium, they were still a more desirable club to invest in when they were in our position than we are. If things go down the pan as badly for us as it has for them, I don't think there will be as many knights in shining armour willing to ride in to save us.

Who knows. Maybe in a few weeks this will all be put to bed by either Erik or a new investor finding the required x million quid to end the embargo, and we can look forward to an exciting end to the transfer window.

Quite. I can't blame supporters for worrying about the extreme scenarios when, on the surface, the situation does not look good at all.

We're ultimately being asked to trust a man who has, from the outside looking in, pulled a plug out of nowhere without even having the decency to address supporters and put them at ease. That statement from Dusan was far too late and, as I've said previously, shows where we sit in Erick's mind.

It's then been quite dismaying to see supporters on this forum who are, perfectly reasonably, concerned and agitated about the whole mess be mocked with laughing emojis and sarcastic comments, essentially creating a divide amongst the fan base between those who trust Erick and those who are worried he's pulled the plug completely.

Ultimately, whether you trust Erick's intentions over this matter or you don't, we should all be absolutely united on the point that us supporters have not been treated with anywhere near enough respect. As such, he deserves to be treated with the proportionate level of scepticism and caution our situation warrants.

In my opinion he is absolutely getting off lightly and I'd rather see vigilance and eyes open than benefit of the doubt.

 

[Chris on a Bike]

No I didn't. I asked the question if that were a possibility. I wouldn't suggest such a thing because I have no idea whether or not that might be a thing.

And I have a good reason for asking, it wasn't just random

Come on Boris, spit it out!

 

[holdsteady]

I don’t want & wouldn’t want any club to go bust through financial mismanagement & said so when Reading were having their struggles.

I’d worry about our reputation in football yes, especially if it means you’ve messed players/agents around.

Of all the things to worry about in life I wouldn’t be putting football agents on the list.

 

[Yellowoptimist]

Come on Boris, spit it out!

Afraid it looks like stirring with no basis. Unfortunately he’s not alone on here at the moment. If people have a view share it, if they have information (not gossip) share it. If they don’t it’s difficult not to sit back and question their motives or agenda

 

[Scotchegg]

No stadium, no club. We know this and we've known this for years. It has literally been the driver behind all of the campaigning from the club and the fans, and probably thousands of posts on here. We are desperately close to overcoming the final hurdle, and a lot of money has gone in and is still going in to get us over that hurdle, but we're not there yet.

Staying at the Kassam is not financially viable. Again, nothing new. Whether the suggestion has come from FoSB, "concerned locals" or, inexplicably, our own fans, the notion that we can stay where we are has been dismissed due to the reality that Kassam isn't selling, and even if he did, the model is not sustainable to cover the cost of running a league one club with aspirations to go higher.

Our debt is unsustainable, and has been for several years. Our debt has outstripped our assets for decades and we are entirely reliant on our owners to fund our football club. Not just today, and not just Oxford United. This is the reality across pretty much every football league club in the country, has been for years, and will be for tears to come. But with Oxford not owning their stadium, and only having 2 years left on the licence to play in their current one, our situation is uniquely worse.

EPL/EFL are a mess, and have been for years. They have turned a blind eye to the big clubs over spending and "buying" success to help them drive their brand, but have disproportionately punished smaller clubs when they have dared to try to catch up. Admittedly the EFL are trying to build a more sustainable model and have issued punishments across a few clubs recently. But even that has been discretionary. Of course they hammered Sheffield Wednesday, they had no choice. But they let them off any further point deductions for the coming season. West Brom were given a points deductions, but they waited until it was pretty much immaterial having secured their Championship status, and I'm sure they thought that the points deduction on Leicester wouldn't matter, but Rowett managed to still take them down. So the EFL rules shouldn't be something that we suddenly see as either virtuous or consistent.

Which brings us to the current rules. These have been questioned by numerous commentators and independent experts, and were before they were applied to Oxford. Being sustainable is fine, but it has to give clubs the time to restructure their finances in order to comply. How many businesses could realistically go from being able to spend 120% of their turnover (with much greater revenue streams) to 65% in a matter of months? There is the option of the owner bridging this gap, but this is not unconditional. For every penny they put in to cover the shortfall, they much put another penny into the club. And not just into a savings account to be spent at a later stage, but into something tangible with receipts. I don't know but I suspect that the club were hoping to cover this with the stadium costs. And the sudden change over the last few weeks came about because the EFL rejected this because planning hadn't yet been approved. The notion that Erick is unwilling to put the money in is unknown. It is just as likely that he had nothing to put the money into. This would be consistent with the vision that the situation can quickly be resolved before January.

The situation is complex, and the lack of communication is unhelpful and leaves a vacuum to be filled by speculation. And these allow people to draw conclusions based on little more than fear and in some cases, bias.

And I appreciate that some will see that my posts may hold a positive bias, but the idea that we just "suck up" the rules, throw many more millions into a club swamped in debt, or whether we could even do that without having anything to spend it on, is a failure to understand the unique complexities that we face and why a short term reset may be the best thing that can happen right now, even if that means sticking with what we have.

 

[yellowbow]

Its the stadium or bust. We will know after the outcome of the Oral Review.

Don’t you mean after the appeal after the oral review

 

[Emilio]

Afraid it looks like stirring with no basis. Unfortunately he’s not alone on here at the moment. If people have a view share it, if they have information (not gossip) share it. If they don’t it’s difficult not to sit back and question their motives or agenda

To @Boris' defence, he is one of the few of us who is actually fairly ITK, and though he no longer works at the club, he is far more likely to hear things that he perhaps can't/shouldn't share with us on here than most posters. That said, very cheeky of him to drop a morsel like that and leave us circling for the full meal.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Afraid it looks like stirring with no basis. Unfortunately he’s not alone on here at the moment. If people have a view share it, if they have information (not gossip) share it. If they don’t it’s difficult not to sit back and question their motives or agenda

It does seem odd to give out cryptic messages and not to back it up.
As you say, you do start questioning people’s agendas.

 

[Billyox]

No stadium, no club. We know this and we've known this for years. It has literally been the driver behind all of the campaigning from the club and the fans, and probably thousands of posts on here. We are desperately close to overcoming the final hurdle, and a lot of money has gone in and is still going in to get us over that hurdle, but we're not there yet.

Staying at the Kassam is not financially viable. Again, nothing new. Whether the suggestion has come from FoSB, "concerned locals" or, inexplicably, our own fans, the notion that we can stay where we are has been dismissed due to the reality that Kassam isn't selling, and even if he did, the model is not sustainable to cover the cost of running a league one club with aspirations to go higher.

Our debt is unsustainable, and has been for several years. Our debt has outstripped our assets for decades and we are entirely reliant on our owners to fund our football club. Not just today, and not just Oxford United. This is the reality across pretty much every football league club in the country, has been for years, and will be for tears to come. But with Oxford not owning their stadium, and only having 2 years left on the licence to play in their current one, our situation is uniquely worse.

EPL/EFL are a mess, and have been for years. They have turned a blind eye to the big clubs over spending and "buying" success to help them drive their brand, but have disproportionately punished smaller clubs when they have dared to try to catch up. Admittedly the EFL are trying to build a more sustainable model and have issued punishments across a few clubs recently. But even that has been discretionary. Of course they hammered Sheffield Wednesday, they had no choice. But they let them off any further point deductions for the coming season. West Brom were given a points deductions, but they waited until it was pretty much immaterial having secured their Championship status, and I'm sure they thought that the points deduction on Leicester wouldn't matter, but Rowett managed to still take them down. So the EFL rules shouldn't be something that we suddenly see as either virtuous or consistent.

Which brings us to the current rules. These have been questioned by numerous commentators and independent experts, and were before they were applied to Oxford. Being sustainable is fine, but it has to give clubs the time to restructure their finances in order to comply. How many businesses could realistically go from being able to spend 120% of their turnover (with much greater revenue streams) to 65% in a matter of months? There is the option of the owner bridging this gap, but this is not unconditional. For every penny they put in to cover the shortfall, they much put another penny into the club. And not just into a savings account to be spent at a later stage, but into something tangible with receipts. I don't know but I suspect that the club were hoping to cover this with the stadium costs. And the sudden change over the last few weeks came about because the EFL rejected this because planning hadn't yet been approved. The notion that Erick is unwilling to put the money in is unknown. It is just as likely that he had nothing to put the money into. This would be consistent with the vision that the situation can quickly be resolved before January.

The situation is complex, and the lack of communication is unhelpful and leaves a vacuum to be filled by speculation. And these allow people to draw conclusions based on little more than fear and in some cases, bias.

And I appreciate that some will see that my posts may hold a positive bias, but the idea that we just "suck up" the rules, throw many more millions into a club swamped in debt, or whether we could even do that without having anything to spend it on, is a failure to understand the unique complexities that we face and why a short term reset may be the best thing that can happen right now, even if that means sticking with what we have.

And the kassam stadium is the very reason why we are here to day
We cant generate enough turnover to give us a bigger wage budget

Brentford id say similar sized club to us really well not now but historically

Griffin park capacity 12300
Kassam Stadium capacity 12500

Turnover before stadium move
Brentford £13.9m(championship)
Oxford £9m(league one)

We dont have the food and drink sales conference facilities to hire out etc so with that included we wouldn't be far behind Brentford turnover

Season after Brentford moved in to the new stadium
Turnover £15.3m BUT it was covid no crowds
So my guess work(cant use the following season as it was in premiership and turnover was £150m)
So my my guess work
Turnover £23-25m
would have neared sellouts every week. In the Championship, a stadium of that size pulling in regular ticket sales and premium hospitality usually generates £6 million to £8 million

I see absolutely no reason why our own turnover wouldn't rocket in the same direction we might be league one but we have the hotel and Brentford dont

 

[Bicester Yellow]

Its the stadium or bust. We will know after the outcome of the Oral Review.

If there’s the investment there from outside sources.

He’s not going to fund it himself, and as yet no further funding has been forthcoming.