When foreign ownership goes bad (Which is most of the time)

[Gav]

I was talking to a Sheff Wednesday season ticket holder yesterday who had been trying to buy Weds v Udders tickets online for almost a week without success, apparently the system has been offline due to them not paying the bill and when someone did pay the bill the system crashed, thousands queueing outside the club shop yesterday as a result.

He was also telling me how many of the players hadn't been paid for 4 months, the club came very close to not playing this season as the majority of players were out of contract, the club was in breach of contract due to not having paid wages, it was an absolute shambles.

Last season Wednesday were originally deducted 12 points after breaching rules surrounding the sale of Hillsborough to the owner, it was reduced to 6, but they still went down to division 2. The date of the sale was the problem here, they were found to have breached the EFL’s profitability and sustainability regulations for the three year accounting period up to 2017-18 as a result, the owner couldn't even get that right, the fans suffer. 

Last season they had three different permanent bosses (Monk, Pulis and Moore), one long-term caretaker (Neil Thompson) and two emergency stand-ins (Andy Holdsworth and Jamie Smith) due to Covid issues.

Sheffield Wednesday made an operating loss of £24 million and paid £2.5 million to rent Hillsborough, the latest set of accounts for the 2019-20 season reveal. The club still hasn't refunded season ticket money promised to fans from last season either, but they have sold 13,000 tickets for the new season which is a good effort considering the above.

The common denominator, useless foreign ownership, its a blight on football across the globe and it needs putting a stop to or great clubs like Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers will cease to exist.

Ps - Some good news, they got Wednesday home shirts delivered a month or so before we did, the bad news, many have been taken back due to stitching coming away.

When it rains it pours.....

Edited August 1, 2021 by Gav

[Sparks Rover]

9 minutes ago, Gav said:

I was talking to a Sheff Wednesday season ticket holder yesterday who had been trying to buy Weds v Udders tickets online for almost a week without success, apparently the system has been offline due to them not paying the bill and when someone did pay the bill the system crashed, thousands queueing outside the club shop yesterday as a result.

He was also telling me how many of the players hadn't been paid for 4 months, the club came very close to not playing this season as the majority of players were out of contract, the club was in breach of contract due to not having paid wages, it was an absolute shambles.

Last season Wednesday were originally deducted 12 points after breaching rules surrounding the sale of Hillsborough to the owner, it was reduced to 6, but they still went down to division 2. The date of the sale was the problem here, they were found to have breached the EFL’s profitability and sustainability regulations for the three year accounting period up to 2017-18 as a result, the owner couldn't even get that right, the fans suffer. 

Last season they had three different permanent bosses (Monk, Pulis and Moore), one long-term caretaker (Neil Thompson) and two emergency stand-ins (Andy Holdsworth and Jamie Smith) due to Covid issues.

Sheffield Wednesday made an operating loss of £24 million and paid £2.5 million to rent Hillsborough, the latest set of accounts for the 2019-20 season reveal. The club still hasn't refunded season ticket money promised to fans from last season either, but they have sold 13,000 tickets for the new season which is a good effort considering the above.

The common denominator, useless foreign ownership, its a blight on football across the globe and it needs putting a stop to or great clubs like Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers will cease to exist.

Ps - Some good news, they got Wednesday home shirts delivered a month or so before we did, the bad news, many have been taken back due to stitching coming away.

When it rains it pours.....

And Moore has made some decent signings for that division already..........

Meanwhile down Lemon Drizzle Lane....

[Gav]

8 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

And Moore has made some decent signings for that division already..........

Meanwhile down Lemon Drizzle Lane....

Thats one positive thing he did say Sparks, you're right.

 

[Neil Weaver]

24 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

And Moore has made some decent signings for that division already..........

 

That's like saying you've found the ibuprofen is working when you've just been diagnosed with cancer.

[tomphil]

Football stinks but the first step to any kind of house in order attempt has to be getting wages to sensible levels. And crushing out the parasitic middlemen who infest the game, most of whom don't know a free kick from a corner.

That has to happen all across the board at EFL level, only then will income to outgoing ratios level out a bit and suspicious 'investment' can be followed closer.

Just far too easy for anybody foreign or otherwise to pour money straight through clubs without any real scrutiny.

Edited August 1, 2021 by tomphil

[Gav]

20 hours ago, tomphil said:

Football stinks but the first step to any kind of house in order attempt has to be getting wages to sensible levels. And crushing out the parasitic middlemen who infest the game, most of whom don't know a free kick from a corner.

That has to happen all across the board at EFL level, only then will income to outgoing ratios level out a bit and suspicious 'investment' can be followed closer.

Just far too easy for anybody foreign or otherwise to pour money straight through clubs without any real scrutiny.

Glorified salesmen tomphil and a blight on the sport, allowed to operate with impunity for the most part.

Footballing governing bodies have a lot to answer for, but whilst they're in the VIP section at Wembley, complements of the middlemen, fans of clubs like ours and Sheff Weds worry about the future and indeed if we have a future at all.