Austrian Gull
Well-known member
It certainly doesn't seem fair that Southampton are allowed to spend a million on a player just a few months after having points deducted for going into adminstration.
It certainly doesn't seem fair that Southampton are allowed to spend a million on a player just a few months after having points deducted for going into adminstration.
I think the same will happen with Palace somebody will buy them out of administration very cheaply and then spend megabucks getting them back to challenging for promotion from whichever division they are in next season.
The problem is that you cannot stop a new owner spending his money as he will always say that is an infringement of trade as what happened before he bought the club is not his responsibility and that he would probably have done things differently.
I think that the best suggestion so far is automatic relegation that season and 10 point deduction the following season.
Even that isn't really enough though. It hasn't really hurt Southampton. As you've said its the 'restraint of trade' issue that's the problem. Once the club comes out of admin, they are normally trading as a completely new company - one which cannot legally be punished for the mistakes of a previous now-defunct entity.
I think that the best suggestion so far is automatic relegation that season and 10 point deduction the following season.
Even that isn't really enough though. It hasn't really hurt Southampton. As you've said its the 'restraint of trade' issue that's the problem. Once the club comes out of admin, they are normally trading as a completely new company - one which cannot legally be punished for the mistakes of a previous now-defunct entity.
I seem to recall Leicester doing the same thing as Southampton a few years ago, they went into administration and had their debts wiped out, then carried on as if nothing had happened.
That absolutely stank, and was right up there with Leeds announcing an annual profit of of £4.5 million for the period-ending June 2008, after being in administration in 2007.
Fuckers, the lot of em.