Welcome to a new regular column from an old favourite. The Original Grumpy Old Man (OGOM). This week OGOM suggests Crystal Palace’s administration is but the first domino in a long line.
The news out of Selhurst Park yesterday can’t really be called a shock or even a surprise, when you have a date with HMRC in court, when you spend most of the January transfer window overhyping one of your academy products in the hope of maximising a transfer fee, when you don’t pay wages on time also it all adds up to the inevitable consequence, bring in the expensively paid administrators and wipe a minimum of 10 points off your seasons total.
Now if we were just worrying about one South London club down on its luck for the second time in a decade (am I the only person who doesn’t quite understand why their isn’t a massive South London club given there are two, potentially three North of the River?) we could just suggest that a combination of bad financial management, ground ownership issues and the idiocies of the modern game were what forced Simon Jordan to walk away from the constant bailing out of Crystal Palace, but that would be to ignore a serious reality, mainly that Palace are no exception but the first of many likely to be treading the same path over the next 6, 12, 18 months.
Even www.clarkeonenil.co.uk has to reign itself in occasionally, as does I and given that one club has already issued writs against a national Sunday newspaper for suggesting administration was imminent (Norwich City) clearly a small restraint is in order. This explains why any further reference to existing professional football clubs in this article will be in brackets. The brackets are to symbolise maybe (or should that be not beyond the bounds of possibility) thus if your club appears in them you may think it is reasonable to assume I am stating they are about to enter administration but the brackets mean I simply use them as a not unreasonable suggestion (I love libel laws me).
A lot more would have been written about the nature of Palace’s predicament if a few more high profile cases weren’t hogging the headlines. Take for example the PL team that has one issue or another day in, day out, ownership changes, transfer embargo’s, tax evasion cases, and a court case winding up order next month (Portsmouth) or maybe instead the CCC club battling HMRC in court next month also but also with other issues around ex owners, loans, new stadiums not filling up (Cardiff City). Don’t forget the PL club that has been told if it doesn’t sell half its squad relegation will make it insolvent and is presently suing its ex Chairman (Hull City). Further down the food chain lives one football club that hasn’t been solvent for 18 months and yet somehow manages to survive (Stockport County) and let us not forget the very small club that needed 350k to appease the taxman and could fall behind again at any time (Accrington Stanley). Even clubs just out of recent financial storms and with new owners struggle to keep the authorities happy (Bournemouth) or are subject to stories of impending disaster that they have to fervently deny (Luton Town).
Administration isn’t always a permanent disaster but does have short to medium term consequences. Sometimes the consequence is a drop from PL to L1 in just a few seasons (Southampton) or a refusal of anyone to invest, lead them money, help buy back training grounds (Leeds United). But other times the unexpected knock-on effects can be long term, like losing your ground and having to go to another city to play (Rotherham United) or been strangled to a slow death by a owner, who the FA don’t accept as fit to be an owner, who refuses to let go despite a thousand mistakes (Chester City). Administration is no longer an easy way to escape your debts or a panacea.
So, how to stop those clubs where the alarm bells are ringing but at the moment no one is listening? Well there is the obvious clues, as we have already referenced: not paying wages on time, owing monies to other clubs and incurring a consequential transfer ban and the dreaded HMRC winding up order. Other clues include owner’s failure to sell the club when trying very hard to (Tranmere Rovers) or even to give yourself away (Salisbury City).
Ground ownership is always an interesting clue that points to further issues, where your capacity to generate income is restrained, maybe by the local council (Barnet) or maybe by the limitations of your old ground (Brentford) or even where over ambitious relocation plans hit the buffers when you have to avoid winding up by a whisker (Southend United). Even with the big boys a combination of all 3 of those can suggest some underlying issues (Everton) and a £110m debt level combined with a plan to move to a legacy stadium always makes you think (West Ham United).
Some clubs seem to rely on a single benefactor which can either be a blessing or a curse, what happens if the benefactor hasn’t got the levels of resources they used to invest (Middlesbrough) or they find themselves in an alien environment that they take time to adapt to (Newcastle United). There is the question of age and mortality, how would the club cope if the benefactor wasn’t there (Wigan Athletic) or the trust set up to survive the original benefactor runs out of steam (Blackburn Rovers).
One of my favourite clues to impending problems is the constant whinging of owners, whether it’s trying to create non relegation monopolies (Bolton Wanderers) or claims that the it everyone else’s fault they need to sell the ground to the council than there’s (Peterborough United). I also like wind-up artists (Gillingham) and well intended new owners who can’t stop talking about how difficult it is to run the club (Sheffield Wednesday). Factor in also any internal strife (Histon) or unresolved historical legacies (Grays Athletic) and the always entertaining planning issues (Darlington) and you may find yourself constantly fire-fighting to the point where no-one is sure how you survived to this point (Swindon Town).
Sometimes the issues are caused by good intentions, fans taking on clubs and then struggling to cope (Ebbsflett United) or directors out of their depth and wanting others to take over (Port Vale). Some other clubs think financial paucity is part and parcel of their lives (Lincoln City) whilst others are shown the promised land of investment only for it to be a mirage (Notts County). Even in the land of endless money that mostly ends in players bank accounts some clubs survive on absentee owners (Sunderland) or the ultimate in the local grocer (Fulham).
This would be a good juncture to suggest so called “big clubs” shouldn’t feel immune from this footballing knockdown, some have debts that would humiliate a small country (Manchester United) or they are a accident on a personal jet away from serious problems (Chelsea) or have a combination of internal strife and high financial gearing (Liverpool). Can you make a case that oil based monies isn’t fully safe (Manchester City) or that American ownership makes the long-term a touch iffy (Aston Villa) or if China sneezes someone in the Midlands is going to catch a cold (Birmingham City)?
Just writing all this depresses, even though I haven’t really put my cynical hat on to make this case, I haven’t needed to. If I did I could suggest clubs that have gone up 3 divisions quickly should be aware (Doncaster Rovers) as should those with a limited population to survive in (Carlisle United). Never discount the possibility of new stadiums being a burden well beyond the first few years (Coventry City) or the tax man remembering which clubs took the piss the most previously (Leicester City). Clubs presently topping their division but constantly selling players might have to pause for thought (Rochdale) and those with dodgy grounds in dodgy parts of town might reflect on how different the early 90’s are to the early 10’s (Oldham Athletic). You can make a case for a lot of clubs, especially those suddenly talking to £100k a week strikers (Stoke City).
So what is the lesson of all this, other than if just 5% of the near 50 clubs mentioned (and it could have been more) go under its still a major problem? Well I’ll put it this way, if you’re a club on a historical low, with an owner who is secretive and dodgy, if you don’t own your ground or training complex, if you have previous in administration and financial meltdown and history of picking fights with the taxman, the football authorities and anyone you care to, if some of your players are heading for bosmans, if your league form is dipping to such an extent that the essential promotion is under threat and if you have a section of your support that can’t see the woods for the trees, be scared, be very scared!
