Today’s entry: Stockport County FC
The Hatters will sustain a 10 point deduction either this year (if it will relegate them, a scenario that’s unlikely given the current League One standings), or next season (along with the other relegated/in administration club, Southampton). They have been unable to pay back less than 1 million pounds of debt, but nevertheless, it required them to enter administration.
I’ve been wondering if the situation at Southampton would just be the beginning, and sadly, it appears that it may just be. The financial reports coming out of European football lately, including the debt amounts of some of the top clubs, has been sobering at best. At worst, it paints a bleak picture altogether. When the bubble bursts, someone needs to clean up the mess. It may be bursting right in front of our eyes, folks.
It’s going to be an interesting (read: disturbing, frightning) summer to watch the finances of sports. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a big kid (outside of the apparently inevitable Valencia) collapsed this year.
What would be really interesting is determining which teams are poised to take over when (and, really, it’s “when” more than it’s “if” at this point; the debt amounts are staggering and will quickly become unmanageable with just one bad season) the current regime falter. Who’s got the least debt and the most turnover?
I think that we may see a situation where France starts to become more of a dominant force, frankly. The only thing holding them back is that they’re not able to accrue debt; that leaves the whole league poised to snap up players as teams start going down.
I think we’ve already seen the collapse of Newcastle; once they go down, I can’t see them ever getting it together to come back up without the extra cash. Unlike other clubs, their players don’t get wage reductions on relegation (Sunderland, for example, has a standard 40% wage reduction on relegation for all players written into the contract); that means it’ll be a firesale on their talent as soon as the window opens and they can’t pay the wages.
But what about Ameobi like?
The list is endless of the teams in some trouble. Newcastle will be in complete disarray even if they do stay up. Ashley wants an unreasonable price for them (even at a loss from what he paid, the prat) and if they go down…hoo boy. I shudder to think what might happen to my sister’s club.
Word is that there are a great deal of teams- most outside of the SPL- north of the border that are in bad shape. Not necessarily on the verge of going into administration, but of having to rapidly reorient their finances if they want to avoid it. My beloved Ross County, for example, has refused to resign any players with expiring contracts or to re-up their manager until they are assured of avoiding relegation. Eventually, the whole “thing” is going to collapse in Scotland and across Europe. My guess is that some clubs will cease to exist, some will merge as a way of surviving, and others will “lower” themselves to become amateur or “part-time” clubs.