League One Wigan Athletic woes

Rick Parry has confirmed the tape is authentic iirc but has said it was part of a wider discussion.

Genuine question for all: Legally what can the Football League actually do?

Continue to secretly heat Rick Parry?
 
For some strange reason I have always thought Tiger has good intentions for Oxford United and most fans are happy with our present owners now. But we did have some financial issues for a year didn't we? Many people thought our present owners didn't have enough money to subsidize us for 2.5m a year.
It is difficult to judge potential owners even if they have a lot of money.
 
How do you judge a successful Club? It could be argued that taking financial stability into account Newcastle is a well run club! Half way in the top league! Are Man City or Chelsea profitable?
 
Came here about to post this but you've beaten me to it! Absolutely extraordinary. Suspect that even if serious fraud is found it will be too late for Wigan Athletic Football Club. I'm normally one to be cautious in criticising the EFL, particularly in their governance of ownership matters, but it is simply absurd that they sanctioned such a takeover.
The EFL are clueless. How many Cock-ups are they going to oversee? I saw on TV this week that The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has purchased pandemic insurance for the last 17 years, so are set for a pay-out estimated at around £114m. Why did the EFL not do the same? Because they are inept.
 
For some strange reason I have always thought Tiger has good intentions for Oxford United and most fans are happy with our present owners now. But we did have some financial issues for a year didn't we? Many people thought our present owners didn't have enough money to subsidize us for 2.5m a year.
It is difficult to judge potential owners even if they have a lot of money.
Yeah this is the issue I always have with people decrying the ‘fit and proper person’ test. All the EFL can really judge, surely, is the financial capacity of a person to run a football club. Fans seem to be under the impression that the EFL should be able to assess the degree of malicious or benevolent intent of a new owner, but that is surely unrealistic. For one thing, fans have different conceptions of what an owner should be putting into a club - Newcastle fans treat Ashley as if he’s literally worse than a genocidal nation state, but compared to many of the owners we’ve seen in the EFL in even the last decade, he really hasn’t been that bad. He’s kept the club afloat and competing at the top level. He maybe hasn’t allowed it to push on as much as he should have done, but he’s hardly on the level of an Oystons. The EFL can’t be the arbiter of what a ‘good’ owner is, only that they have the means to run a football club and that everything is above board.

That said, I think the issue here is that the deal for the takeover looks, even without the benefit of hindsight, astonishingly suspect. 20% interest on loan repayments by an already cash strapped club to, essentially, the same owners? Definitely fishy, and an absolute abdication of responsibility by the EFL to let it go through.

I saw on TV this week that The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has purchased pandemic insurance for the last 17 years, so are set for a pay-out estimated at around £114m. Why did the EFL not do the same?

Mm I saw this, and to be fair I think it’s being considered an astonishingly fortunate act of foresight by the powers that be at Wimbledon rather than an example of something all sports industries should have had. Also, can you imagine the uproar if it had come out a year ago that the EFL were paying £2m a year (AEC’s premium I believe) to an insurance company for a policy that included pandemic insurance? People would, probably rightly, observe that the minuscule likelihood of such a pandemic occurring would mean that the money would be put to far better use supporting EFL clubs in the form of immediate cash payments (for example).
 
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Some familiar names cropping up here.
I wonder if they would be able to get the stadium as part of any deal? Would make sense if they can.
Also interesting to see that Eales is involved. Must still have a good business relationship with Lenagan. I wonder that means for Solihull Moors?
 
Yeah this is the issue I always have with people decrying the ‘fit and proper person’ test. All the EFL can really judge, surely, is the financial capacity of a person to run a football club. Fans seem to be under the impression that the EFL should be able to assess the degree of malicious or benevolent intent of a new owner, but that is surely unrealistic.

That's unrealistic, sure.

But I think a realistic expectation is that the EFL does conduct a review into each prospective owner's finances, interviews them about their intent and does not permit the sale until that process is complete.

I don't know what they did or didn't do with regards the Wigan sale, but they certainly didn't do any of that for Steve Dale at Bury.
 
I will predict that the EFL will get more careful with prospective owners, then prospective owners will get much less. Then fans will start appealing to EFL to let takeovers to go through! What percentage of Newcastle fans want the oil rich Saudi Arabia to buy there Club! Although they probably have a few Bob!
 
That's unrealistic, sure.

But I think a realistic expectation is that the EFL does conduct a review into each prospective owner's finances, interviews them about their intent and does not permit the sale until that process is complete.

I don't know what they did or didn't do with regards the Wigan sale, but they certainly didn't do any of that for Steve Dale at Bury.
Words are cheap!
 
Hot diggity dog ... seems Ol Slippery is planning a return to EFL ..... ( IL is already 'in the building' so to speak with Wigan Rugby , who share Robins Park stadium with Wigan Athletic) ....

 
That's unrealistic, sure.

But I think a realistic expectation is that the EFL does conduct a review into each prospective owner's finances, interviews them about their intent and does not permit the sale until that process is complete.

I don't know what they did or didn't do with regards the Wigan sale, but they certainly didn't do any of that for Steve Dale at Bury.
5 minutes worth of Googling shows up enough to worry.
 
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