Dispatches - How to buy a football club

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Scrap the loan system immediately, never liked it and that includes loanees at RFC, (S Death excepted) if you can afford the player buy him, otherwise go without. The loan system encourages bigger clubs to hold on to players they never intend to use, to stop the other clubs getting them instead, if they want to do that let them pay not the lower clubs.

Perhaps the JM critics should all be made to watch the programme.

[Tails]

I think that is throwing the baby out with the bath water. I'd advocate for a much more stringent loan system; say a absolute maximum of 3 loanees, one space for an under 23 only. I'd put an end to situations like Bellamy/Cardiff regarding the payment of wages by the parent club.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Scrap the loan system immediately, never liked it and that includes loanees at RFC, (S Death excepted) if you can afford the player buy him, otherwise go without. The loan system encourages bigger clubs to hold on to players they never
intend to use, to stop the other clubs getting them instead, if they want to do that let them pay not the lower clubs.

Amen to that! It's misused so much, and not only does it allow big clubs to hold onto player it also distorts the leagues lower down - for many clubs it's not how good your own players are but how good a relationship you have with PL managers. So many teams have got promotion on the back of loan players, then they have to replace them the next year and are stuffed.

Perhaps the JM critics should all be made to watch the programme.

Pointless - there's been enough evidence shown to them enough times - they have decided what they've decided and nothing will shift that.

[ZacNaloen]

This show explains a few comments I've been a little confused about from JWM.

[Row Z Royal]

This show explains a few comments I've been a little confused about from JWM.

frexample?

[ZacNaloen]

Why he won't sell to consortiums

[10539.4 Miles Away]

I'm not that convinced of what this program actually exposes. There's some interesting editing going on with it and very little actual hard evidence. Pointing to a website that says "clubs" is not exactly damning is it? Clubs are owned off shore? Well I never!

To me it seems the program have uncovered a dodgy scammer (Sim) who has already hooked Robson and a few others - look at the bit in the restaurant when they talk about who's actually getting the share of the eventual profit of the club - the English guy who fronts London Nominees seemed surprised that Sim would get the equity share himself and then "look after" Robson and himself. He's name dropping clubs and managers all over the place, but what evidence did he have? A tour of Sheffield United after an inquiry to purchase it? Sim is a con man and he's looking for fish, like Mr Gupta and the reporter to invest millions in a house of cards, no different to any other scam out there!

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt there is corruption in our game but my take on it at the end was the producers realised a program about a dodgy Asian investment scheme would garner far few viewers than one about football being exploited. I'm glad the authorities have requested all the evidence that Dispatches collected, its their duty to investigate it, but would I'll be even very surprised if anything more comes from it.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Maybe, but there are two significant things here.

Firstly, this brings to the attention of the masses the way football clubs are touted around and the attitude towards supporters. So many people are shocked and surprised by this programme - but so many other people aren't because they've been aware of this for a while. Bring it out in the open to more people can only be a good things.

Secondly, the clubs discussed - and in particular Leicester and Cardiff - puts a lot in perspective for how Cardiff have operated over the past few years and how Leicester are operating now.

[10539.4 Miles Away]

Maybe, but there are two significant things here.

Firstly, this brings to the attention of the masses the way football clubs are touted around and the attitude towards supporters. So many people are shocked and surprised by this programme - but so many other people aren't because they've been aware of this for a while. Bring it out in the open to more people can only be a good things.

Secondly, the clubs discussed - and in particular Leicester and Cardiff - puts a lot in perspective for how Cardiff have operated over the past few years and how Leicester are operating now.

I would have bet my house that the first reply would be you Dirk.

I agree its good to bring it to light and Leicester and Cardiff do seem dodgy as fook but we all knew that anyway didn't we?

While I can't stand the man (or the club) I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Fergie.

[Svlad Cjelli]

I thought it was a mistake that just when the programme was getting really into lack of governance/ownership rules they went off down a side-alley of trying to pin things onto Fergie.

But that was them going for the publicity-grabbing stuff rather than the important stuff that only appeals to the purists and "a certain type of zealot".

[Ian Royal]

Maybe, but there are two significant things here.

Firstly, this brings to the attention of the masses the way football clubs are touted around and the attitude towards supporters. So many people are shocked and surprised by this programme - but so many other people aren't because they've been aware of this for a while. Bring it out in the open to more people can only be a good things.

Secondly, the clubs discussed - and in particular Leicester and Cardiff - puts a lot in perspective for how Cardiff have operated over the past few years and how Leicester are operating now.

I would have bet my house that the first reply would be you Dirk.

I agree its good to bring it to light and Leicester and Cardiff do seem dodgy as fook but we all knew that anyway didn't we?

While I can't stand the man (or the club) I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Fergie.

Watch QPR over the next year or two. If they get sold for big wonga you can add them to the list for owners who were looking to spend to go up and then sell for a big profit and feck everything else.

Surely the fact that the vast majority of tier 1 and 2 clubs have untraceable ownership offshore is pretty damning. And whilst I'm convinced Sim was bigging up his relationship with Ferguson massively, there is also still clearly a link there.

And Leicester and Cardiff have been operating in EXACTLY the way Sim was saying the clubs he was touting would operate once they were bought. That also must add credence to the suggestion this is far from a one off dodgy scam to take moron's money.

[10539.4 Miles Away]

I thought it was a mistake that just when the programme was getting really into lack of governance/ownership rules they went off down a side-alley of trying to pin things onto Fergie.

That's exactly what made me start to question the whole program, it seemed like we were getting into the interesting investigation and then we veered off into tabloid territory.

Ian, as I said earlier, I have no doubt that there are some shonky deals going down - Cardiff, Leicester and QPR being prime candidates for suspicion, we can only hope that this scratching off the surface leads to something more. Clubs being owned off shore is just as likely to be a tax dodge as anything else, indeed didnt JM take an extend holiday in Malaysia one year for similar purposes?

[Ian Royal]

I thought it was a mistake that just when the programme was getting really into lack of governance/ownership rules they went off down a side-alley of trying to pin things onto Fergie.

That's exactly what made me start to question the whole program, it seemed like we were getting into the interesting investigation and then we veered off into tabloid territory.

Ian, as I said earlier, I have no doubt that there are some shonky deals going down - Cardiff, Leicester and QPR being prime candidates for suspicion, we can only hope that this scratching off the surface leads to something more. Clubs being owned off shore is just as likely to be a tax dodge as anything else, indeed didnt JM take an extend holiday in Malaysia one year for similar purposes?

Yes. Had he hung around we might have got shot of Burns quicker.

[SpaceCruiser]

I thought it was a mistake that just when the programme was getting really into lack of governance/ownership rules they went off down a side-alley of trying to pin things onto Fergie.

That's exactly what made me start to question the whole program, it seemed like we were getting into the interesting investigation and then we veered off into tabloid territory.

Ian, as I said earlier, I have no doubt that there are some shonky deals going down - Cardiff, Leicester and QPR being prime candidates for suspicion, we can only hope that this scratching off the surface leads to something more. Clubs being owned off shore is just as likely to be a tax dodge as anything else, indeed didnt JM take an extend holiday in Malaysia one year for similar purposes?

Well, he was there to set up a Malaysian version of Auto Trader....

[Row Z Royal]

Just watched it.

Not shocked by what goes on because it's the sort of thing that's been in the headlines ocnsistently for the last 5 years. But the flimsy use of clubs as naive investments is the biggy. It would equate to building on sand with the loan players, as has been mentioned before, then essentially asset stripping.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I think Bryan Robson has got caught doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. The talk of selling training grounds and turning a profit by building on greenfield isn't right, but he thinks he's helping the financial situation of the clubs. I think I'm erring towards pity, but let's see how he reacts publically now.

And the more I see of Fergie, the more I like him. Okay, so he occasionally hangs out with a bloke who turns out to be dodgy, but little things like that brief phone call to 'John' show that he's actually got a bit of class.