Search Results
The Tax Man cometh…
Posted on February 23, 2012
There can be no doubt that the abbreviation HMRC is one which has hit pretty well every football fan’s radar screen recently. There have been the two big Administrations at Portsmouth and Rangers. Bubbling away in the background is not only the issue of whether clubs’ use of Employment Benefit Trusts constitutes tax evasion (and […]
Posted in Debts, HMRC, Insolvency | 3 Comments »
HMRC Winding-Up Petitions
Posted on February 23, 2012
The following list is of the winding-up petitions presented by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and its predecessors, the Internal Revenue (IR) who were responsible for the collection of direct taxation such as income tax (PAYE) and National Insurance contributions, and HM Customs and Excise (C&E) who were responsible for the collection of indirect taxation […]
Posted in | 1 Comment »
No. of Clubs
Posted on February 13, 2012
I’m sometimes asked for a magic number – the number of top clubs which have gone into Administration. It’s difficult give a simple answer because: Administration is a misleading basis for counting. Clubs can be wound up without ever going into Administration. A better measure is ‘insolvency event’, a term which can however be defined […]
Posted in | 1 Comment »
The Magic of Football – still there in the Cups?
Posted on January 27, 2012
It’s increasingly difficult to see any magic in the beautiful game other than black magic, especially when you look at it from a financial perspective. You only need to think of the narrow escapes at Plymouth and Wrexham recently, and both Portsmouth and Darlington are standing on the edge of the precipice. The Cups may […]
Posted in Community, Fans | Leave a Comment »
The Big 1, 2, 3 or is it still 4? Or more?
Posted on June 9, 2011
Currently I’m working on a joint research project on various European football leagues with colleagues in Austria. One set of data which we have produced so far casts some light on this perenial debate. The latest version of the date centres of course on whether Liverpool ‘have fallen out of the Top 4′, and/or whether […]
Posted in Governance, History, Premier League, Pyramid movement | 3 Comments »
HMRC’s Christmas party
Posted on December 20, 2010
I’m guessing that there will be dancing in the corridors at HMRC’s office party this Christmas. They’ve had a good run in the courts over the last month against various football clubs. So far this run has not included a single outcome of the club going into Administration (the last case was Dundee in October; […]
Posted in Debts, HMRC, Insolvency, Stadium | 4 Comments »
Pompey’s soap turns into pantomime
Posted on October 23, 2010
The most recent events at Fratton Park would have been more at home in the King’s Theatre, where Jack in the Beanstalk opens in a few weeks time. To give a flavour of the goings on, let me quote from the Portsmouth News Fratton latest update newsletter for today. The four consecutive entries, in chronological […]
Posted in Journalism, Media, Ownership, Public relations | 6 Comments »
Manchester City following in Pompey’s footsteps
Posted on October 2, 2010
Manchester City’s financial results, published earlier this week (1), were generally reported uncritically earlier this week, notwithstanding the key loss of £121m, with the exception at least of The Sun (2), where there was some attempt to look beyond the positive headlining provided by the club. According to the club, the financial highlights could be […]
Posted in Benefactors, Costs, Debts, Ownership | 10 Comments »
The trouble with new stadiums 4 (and final)
Posted on August 10, 2010
[See also The trouble with new stadiums 1, which looked at the argument that "We’re a club with ambition and we need more seats to reflect that ambition", The trouble with new stadiums 2, which looked at the argument that "We’ve got the wrong sort of stadium. We need one better suited to maximising our […]
Posted in Assets, Costs, Debts, Stadium | 13 Comments »
A Political Football
Posted on May 20, 2010
In the lead up to the general election (and running alongside a large number of local council elections), I blogged on how I thought it significant that the political parties were wooing the fan vote, but did not hold out much prospect for major new initiatives actually happening after polling day. Well, as many a […]
Posted in 2018, Governance, Politics, Premier League | Leave a Comment »
Whelan and Wigan
Posted on May 4, 2010
With reform of football being part of the current zeitgeist, and political parties showing some interest in the topic at least until Thursday evening (see The Times They Are A-Changin’ 3, it does not come as a complete surprise that the Premier League, in the form of certain of its club Chairmen, should begin to […]
Posted in Benefactors, Debts, Governance, Premier League, UEFA, Wages | Leave a Comment »
The Premier League Old Boys Club
Posted on April 9, 2010
This is the mixed bag of clubs who face the drop from the Premier League. Likely contenders for membership this year include of course Portsmouth, Hull City and West Ham, all of whom have been hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons with regard to their financial performance as much their on-the-pitch performance. It’s not […]
Posted in Governance, Organisational culture, Premier League, Pyramid movement | 1 Comment »
Ups and Downs 1
Posted on April 7, 2010
Like virtually every football fan, there is really only one football result each week that matters to me personally – I have to know it almost as the whistle blows (thankfully possible in the age that we live in). The rest I could easily wait to read in the Sunday papers. With my particular perspective […]
Posted in Promotion, Pyramid movement, Relegation | 6 Comments »
The West Ham ‘takeover’
Posted on January 20, 2010
Barely was the ink dry on the agreement for David Sullivan and David Gold to ‘take over’ (I’ll come back to the reason for single quotes in a minute) than the messiness which had characterised the build up to the event started to re-emerge. CB Holding, owners through the collapse of the Icelandic bank Straumur, […]
Posted in Assets, Benefactors, Ownership, Stadium | 2 Comments »
Is this really ‘financial fair play’ yet?
Posted on January 7, 2010
‘Debt-for-equity swap’ seems to be the buzz phrase of the moment. [Please scroll down to beyond the italics if you are into finance and don't want to rehear some basic stuff.] What it means in simple terms is that someone who has lent the club money decides to wipe the debt out by accepting shares […]
Posted in Benefactors, Debts, Governance, UEFA | Leave a Comment »
