Bolton Wanderers receive winding up petition

[Pavilionaire]

The time has come to leave all sentiment aside. What we're talking about here is CHEATING. Clubs like Bolton have been living beyond their means for too long now, employing players they can't afford and gaining an advantage on the field over clubs that do abide by the rules.

Financial Fair Play rules permit a certain amount of loss under certain rules, and if there is a chairman willing to fund that club and wear that loss then fine. But if you can't pay the tax/NI on the wages of the players you employ, or you can't pay the VAT that you've collected on the government's behalf on tickets and merchandise then that is not on and you deserve everything you get.

Tough on Bolton fans, they'll have to start again at the bottom but, like AFC Wimbledon, Newport and Rangers have shown, there IS hope. The guilty parties here are the board that have tragically mismanaged the finances of this great and historic club.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Told you they were screwed. Feel sorry for their fans and the workers in the hotel who may not get paid just before Christmas. No sympathy for Gartside at all ct of a man.

 

[drew]

Thats a tad OTT if you don't mind me saying so, Phil Gartside isn't exactly my favourite chairman either, but this isn't about him, it's about Bolton Wanderers Football Club, one of the oldest clubs in the country, and founder members of the Football League.

The fans certainly don't deserve this, and I wish them well.

Equally the fans didn't deserve to see premiership football if their club wasn't sustainable. Same applied to Portsmouth.

 

[GT49er]

Jussi
A young Ben-Haim
Kevin Nolan
Hierro
Jay Jay Okocha
Djorkaeff
Ivan Campo
Stelios Gianakopoulos
Gary Speed
Gary Cahill
Anelka
MICHAEL RICKETTS

Those were the days

Indeed, and they were the days of Sam Allardyce putting together a really exciting team, playing excellent entertaining football - in spite of the fact that some people persist in the belief that such a thing is impossible!

 

[Return of the Rev]

Equally the fans didn't deserve to see premiership football if their club wasn't sustainable. Same applied to Portsmouth.

Most teams are not sustainable outside the top league,they are just corpses kept alive by artificial intervention! If any club can't survive on turnover they should be demoted till they can.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Equally the fans didn't deserve to see premiership football if their club wasn't sustainable. Same applied to Portsmouth.

While that's true I don't know a set of fans in the league who would question spending on success on the pitch. Take us right now. We're top and yet everyone's clamoring to get in Calleri / another expensive striker and strengthen the rest of the squad for a push at going in to and staying in the Prem. Everyone just assumes Tony will cover the bills. Didn't see anyone toeing the FFP / sustainability line last season, myself included.

Overspending is endemic. Sky / Bosman haven't helped but teams were regularly in financial trouble before Sky including big ones like Wolves, Bristol City and us.

 

[Bozza]

The time has come to leave all sentiment aside. What we're talking about here is CHEATING. Clubs like Bolton have been living beyond their means for too long now, employing players they can't afford and gaining an advantage on the field over clubs that do abide by the rules.

Financial Fair Play rules permit a certain amount of loss under certain rules, and if there is a chairman willing to fund that club and wear that loss then fine. But if you can't pay the tax/NI on the wages of the players you employ, or you can't pay the VAT that you've collected on the government's behalf on tickets and merchandise then that is not on and you deserve everything you get.

Tough on Bolton fans, they'll have to start again at the bottom but, like AFC Wimbledon, Newport and Rangers have shown, there IS hope. The guilty parties here are the board that have tragically mismanaged the finances of this great and historic club.

Aren't we just another Bolton? Rich sugar daddy bankrolling the club massively which is all hunky dory for as long as it continues, but if they stop with little or no notice then the club is stuffed.

Eddie Davies was/is a lifelong Bolton fan in the same way as Tony Bloom is.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Aren't we just another Bolton? Rich sugar daddy bankrolling the club massively which is all hunky dory for as long as it continues, but if they stop with little or no notice then the club is stuffed.

Eddie Davies was/is a lifelong Bolton fan in the same way as Tony Bloom is.

Not sure I see how this has anything to do with not paying the collected Income Tax/NI/VAT to HMRC. It is not BW's money and they shouldn't be using it to "support" a failing business (and neither should BHA if we were in this position). Imo, such action should automatically result in all the directors of the company being disqualified.

 

[Beach Seagull]

Great value on Skybet for them to finish bottom @7-4 (was 2-1 yesterday). If they get deducted 12 points it's a cert I would say they will finish bottom, without a deduction I still think they will as they must be pretty dispirited and are talking of an 'asset sale' in January. The odds at other bookies to finish bottom is evens.

 

[Triggaaar]

They will still have their club to follow - just one league down!

If that's all that happens, I won't feel too bad for them. Going into administration doesn't write-off debts, the creditors choose whether or not to accept a lower payment, and HMRC presumably won't, as with Rangers.

 

[Bozza]

Not sure I see how this has anything to do with not paying the collected Income Tax/NI/VAT to HMRC. It is not BW's money and they shouldn't be using it to "support" a failing business (and neither should BHA if we were in this position). Imo, such action should automatically result in all the directors of the company being disqualified.

Sure, yes.

I was looking more broadly than that in the parallels between the two clubs.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

If that's all that happens, I won't feel too bad for them. Going into administration doesn't write-off debts, the creditors choose whether or not to accept a lower payment, and HMRC presumably won't, as with Rangers.

Isn't it a majority decision, or do HMRC have a veto ? Wouldn't Davies have 95%+ of the debt and hence voting ?

 

[El Presidente]

Should be relegated out of the league, that would stop this administration lark.

Err.........no it wouldn't.

 

[Triggaaar]

Isn't it a majority decision

I wouldn't have thought so (I'm sure most on here will know and tell me I'm wrong). If you owe someone money, surely you can't just stop owing it without their agreement, unless you're bankrupt? Presumably creditors normally choose to have some pennies in the pound as opposed to nothing. HMRC didn't accept that with Rangers. so they got nothing and club was liquidated.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

It would stop the cynical, we can lose 10 points and still get the money from this league, lark.

Err.........no it wouldn't.

 

[GT49er]

mustering sympathy for them is trickier than normal. As I've commented on another thread when Coyle left and pointed to their finances as one of the reasons a fair few Burnley fans countered by outlining how much debt they were in (and how exposed they would be if either Davies called the debt in or they got relegated). It was only a dialogue with a few of their fans but they were quite happy living in debt.

Criticising them for being happy living in debt .................... hmmm, glasshouses, stones and people living in them come to mind.

 

[narly101]

Closure and liquidation. I appreciate that it's not fair for the fans, but something really does need to give in this hideous world of football. Its not longer about the game, but the promise of playing with the big boys, and inflated player wages.

It disgusts me to see that clubs can buy their way to the top, and then moan when they can't sustain it. I'd be interested to see how much money they recieved in parachute payments, and whether during any year of their tenure in the Championship whether they lived within their means. I seriously doubt it.

**** em.

 

[El Presidente]

It would stop the cynical, we can lose 10 points and still get the money from this league, lark.

I don't think it's cynical though. Wanderers have been subsidised by a sugar daddy in the form of Eddie Davies for a number of years. He's now nearly 70, in poor health, and doesn't have the inclination to continue to cover the club's losses as there are more important things in his life.

Can you imagine what would happen to the Albion if something similar happened to Tony Bloom?

 

[Mr Putdown]

If any club can't survive on turnover they should be demoted till they can.

Im not sure you've really thought that one through Rev.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Sure, yes.

I was looking more broadly than that in the parallels between the two clubs.

Why are you seeking to look more broadly? One club is thieving from the government, the other isn't. Case closed.