Post by hendo on Apr 8, 2020 8:30:18 GMT
Who owns whom?
Gareth Bull won £40 million pounds on the lottery and instead of sensibly frittering it all away on wine, women and song, he ploughed some of his wealth into helping his local non-league club, Sherwood Colliery.
Unfortunately, if any G supporter has had a big lottery win, they have kept the news to themselves, but it does make me wonder how many ‘bulging wallets’ there are out there who decided that they had far too much of the stuff and were desperate to flush their money away by owning a football club.
Glancing through the owners list for the Premier League, the big boys have made their piles through oil, gambling, publishing, airlines, paper, currency trading, cheap sports good or, in at least two instances, oppression and exploitation of the poor and needy in their own countries.
Sliding down the divisions, I see large software companies and haulage being big investors. Along with them, Blackpool Tower, rather perversely, finance Preston North End. Huddersfield’s money comes from greetings cards, Blackburn’s from chickens, Colchester from Jobserve and Doncaster Rovers from cosmetic surgery.
Talking of which, Port Vale is financed by the Shanahans who make their money from a company that provides data services to Government departments worldwide, and not, as Wikipedia states, from a company supplying the raw materials needed for breast and buttock enhancement.
At the lower levels, where a desperate last-ditch hand to mouth policy is all that is available for most of us, occasionally some wealthy local person unbalances the scales and steps in to help. Sounds good, but unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily work well, as some of the affluent club’s players then get paid quite a chunk, which causes unrest and jealousy from others turning out for teams without a fairy godperson. More pressure is then put on the poorer teams to find money from somewhere if they are to retain any decent player and avoid relegation, and that pressure can then result in them over-extending and going out of business. If a butterfly flaps its wallet in Hong Kong….etc.
It can go horribly wrong in other ways too.
Most long-term G fans remember the sad debacle with the former owner of Croydon Athletic, Mazhar Majeed and his chairman, David LeCluse. Over ten years ago, we played them at their ground, losing 3-2, but the result paled into insignificance compared to our open-mouth wonder staring at the stadium upgrades that Majeed had introduced. Obviously having been given a ridiculously long shopping list by a very drunk manager, and having almost no knowledge of football, Majeed spent his money on completely the wrong things.
Firstly, behind the goal was a huge electronic scoreboard complete with elaborate light-show explosions that would do justice to any major league baseball team. But the object that really proved he was way out of his depth, was his purchase of one of those expandable tunnels, painted in club colours, leading from the dressing rooms to the pitch.
Dutifully, this was dragged out before and after every game to give safe passage to the players just in case any of the twenty or so crowd present got a bit leery.
Majeed was arrested in 2010 for cricket match fixing during Pakistan’s tour of England. He then admitted that he had only bought Croydon as a means for money laundering, causing the club to be cleansed, and eventually closed, by HM Revenue and Customs.
LeCluse shot himself in the head later that year. I don’t know what happened to the player’s tunnel.
So, the moral of this tale is that having some money injected into the club is great, having too much could prove the end of non-league football as we know it. However, if any loyal G man or woman has actually picked up a few bob on a scatchcard, we need a new loo. Thanks in advance.
Gareth Bull won £40 million pounds on the lottery and instead of sensibly frittering it all away on wine, women and song, he ploughed some of his wealth into helping his local non-league club, Sherwood Colliery.
Unfortunately, if any G supporter has had a big lottery win, they have kept the news to themselves, but it does make me wonder how many ‘bulging wallets’ there are out there who decided that they had far too much of the stuff and were desperate to flush their money away by owning a football club.
Glancing through the owners list for the Premier League, the big boys have made their piles through oil, gambling, publishing, airlines, paper, currency trading, cheap sports good or, in at least two instances, oppression and exploitation of the poor and needy in their own countries.
Sliding down the divisions, I see large software companies and haulage being big investors. Along with them, Blackpool Tower, rather perversely, finance Preston North End. Huddersfield’s money comes from greetings cards, Blackburn’s from chickens, Colchester from Jobserve and Doncaster Rovers from cosmetic surgery.
Talking of which, Port Vale is financed by the Shanahans who make their money from a company that provides data services to Government departments worldwide, and not, as Wikipedia states, from a company supplying the raw materials needed for breast and buttock enhancement.
At the lower levels, where a desperate last-ditch hand to mouth policy is all that is available for most of us, occasionally some wealthy local person unbalances the scales and steps in to help. Sounds good, but unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily work well, as some of the affluent club’s players then get paid quite a chunk, which causes unrest and jealousy from others turning out for teams without a fairy godperson. More pressure is then put on the poorer teams to find money from somewhere if they are to retain any decent player and avoid relegation, and that pressure can then result in them over-extending and going out of business. If a butterfly flaps its wallet in Hong Kong….etc.
It can go horribly wrong in other ways too.
Most long-term G fans remember the sad debacle with the former owner of Croydon Athletic, Mazhar Majeed and his chairman, David LeCluse. Over ten years ago, we played them at their ground, losing 3-2, but the result paled into insignificance compared to our open-mouth wonder staring at the stadium upgrades that Majeed had introduced. Obviously having been given a ridiculously long shopping list by a very drunk manager, and having almost no knowledge of football, Majeed spent his money on completely the wrong things.
Firstly, behind the goal was a huge electronic scoreboard complete with elaborate light-show explosions that would do justice to any major league baseball team. But the object that really proved he was way out of his depth, was his purchase of one of those expandable tunnels, painted in club colours, leading from the dressing rooms to the pitch.
Dutifully, this was dragged out before and after every game to give safe passage to the players just in case any of the twenty or so crowd present got a bit leery.
Majeed was arrested in 2010 for cricket match fixing during Pakistan’s tour of England. He then admitted that he had only bought Croydon as a means for money laundering, causing the club to be cleansed, and eventually closed, by HM Revenue and Customs.
LeCluse shot himself in the head later that year. I don’t know what happened to the player’s tunnel.
So, the moral of this tale is that having some money injected into the club is great, having too much could prove the end of non-league football as we know it. However, if any loyal G man or woman has actually picked up a few bob on a scatchcard, we need a new loo. Thanks in advance.