Financial mire at Anfield breeds mistrust
I REMEMBER the days when following a football team was so simple. Before the days of wall-to-wall television coverage; before that interweb thingy was invented; before Radio 5 Live interrupted Sports Report to broadcast live commentary on Portsmouth versus Wigan.
All you had to do was pick up your morning paper, turn to the back page and devour the latest news and reports, reading the paper from back to front (if you got that far).
Nowadays I have to order the Financial Times and the Economist to keep abreast of takeovers, accounts, ownership structures, credit crunches and leveraged buy-outs.
The lunatic world of football finance grows ever more complicated, and the ordinary fan becomes more remote from the behemoths that used to be our local football clubs.
No wonder our grounds lack atmosphere; those in attendance are probably busy checking the stock prices and interest rate movements to see if their club is about to go into administration.
The last fortnight has been instructive: when we should have been speculating on the relative merits of Spain, France and Italy in breathless anticipation of a European festival of football, the headlines have been dominated by the ludicrous amounts of money offered for, and to, Cristiano Ronaldo; the £200,000 per week allegedly tempting Ronaldinho to join the Eastlands gulag; and of course Abramovich's quest to hand another £100m to next door's cat, or whoever else passes his front door when he takes another astute decision over his club's managerial arrangements. Bizarrely, Michel Platini, the UEFA supremo, also chose the eve of the tournament to launch a tirade against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea carrying huge debt to provide them with an unfair advantage over other clubs, going so far as to say this was 'cheating.'
Now there's probably a serious point in there somewhere, but shouting 'big boys did it' or pulling tongues is not the best way to get it across.
Sadly, our own club has now become embroiled in the financial quagmire, good and proper.
The publication of the accounts of Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd, the ultimate holding company in the structure which owns Liverpool FC, gave rise to a batch of headlines which were bound to reignite the smouldering resentment burning in the hearts of even the most moderate fan, patiently waiting to see if another Torres is due to arrive, or whether a spade will enter the ground in Stanley Park. Talk of losses, levels of debt, write-offs and travel expenses which would make an MEP blush are bound to be seized on by those who seek to discredit the American owners as evidence they are only seeking to line their own pockets.
The ownership structure is now so complicated that it is hard for seasoned financial commentators to disentangle, let alone your average football fan; Kop Holdings is apparently 'two levels above Liverpool FC' in the structure, and inter-company loans complicate the picture further.
This level of complexity breeds mistrust, and generates suspicion that its purpose is not just to keep our money out of the grubby hands of the taxman, but to prevent us all from forming a clear view of the owners' intentions.
If the Gruesome Twosome are to have any hope of turning round fans' opinions, they need to invest some time and energy into explaining exactly how their financial plans stack up, how the cost of the stadium is to be funded, and how the revenue will be generated to pay for it.
We might not all understand it, but we'd appreciate the effort. And perhaps then, we could go back to worrying about the footie, not the FTSE.
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Interesting subject and a valid article ... to a point!
We as fans for so long have wanted the best, we demand it of our club, we want the best most expensive players, we want to be seen to have the same financial power as your rivals, and of course we want to be the best in our league and then we expect to also be the best in europe!
All these demands have pushed our football towards the business world, football is no longer a sport first, its a business first and those people unsure about business activities may need to spend a little time researching the machanics of the business world.
Its completely normal for directors to place all expenses incurred on the business, millions of people do it each years in the UK as sole traders or via limited companies, it really is very normal and I didn't see an issue nor do i have an issue with us making a loss last year, considering we have had a takeover, rafa bought over 70m worth of players and the new ground planning takes millions to setup (before a single hole is dug).
I'm not suggesting we have to like it but I'm not supporting mass fan revolt either,it seems our continued efforts to remove our american owners for the DIC group is helping to keep us in this negative zone. DIC are not a sugar daddy setup, they are clinical business people with profit as there main goal .... either or would be my answer as i see them both from the same area ... business!!!
As for the american owners breaking promises, I'm really unsure there is any valid argument, they promised they would provide funds for rafa .. over 70m last season and a new grounds arranged ... with the current state of the worlds money markets, it could have been worse ....
Manu had similar issues, groups of fans wanting them out, debt on the club and they won the league and CL the 2007/08 season!
I believe we should just be patient as thats all we have, otherwise we get ourselves stressed and workup, negative starts to engulf our club and our moaning just compounds that negative, come on guys, lets stay the 12th man ... its what we are good atand lets trust the business side to also focus on what they are good at, using this clubs history to build turnover to provide our manager with transfer funds, but saying that, the manager also needs to stay focused on what he is good at, and thats providing success!!!!
Good luck LFC and this coming year feels positive, just maybe this might be our years.
reikirebel :-)
Interesting points, though, should the cowboys bother to explain, then they would have negating most of the purpose for the complexities they have invented. They are pulling the wool (or trying to) over all eyes, including each others. We just have to accept we are now owned by two individuals who couldn’t recognise an honest word if it jumped and bit them on the nose and we just have to live with that till they choose to leave. We can pressurise them to leave by boycotting all merchandising and restricting ourselves to the business of supporting the playing and technical staff. But other than that, we can do nothing.