Thetownend.com

Liverpool Echo are reporting that Liverpool will avoid the 9pt penalty for going into administration by having their holding company going into admin and claiming that the football club is unaffected by this:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/10/01/liverpool-fc-safe-from-nine-point-deduction-100252-27377261/

Which is exactly what Southampton tried and rightly were not allowed to do. But then they're not on Sky every week are they?

Different juristiction- Football League rules on Southampton, Premier League on Liverpool.

Besides, it would be a case of kicking them while they're down.

"..Richard Scudamore."

Why am I not surprised   this fucktard is involved in letting a big club off the hook. Cheats.

I know but this is more about saving the PL's face after the Portsmouth debacle.
And? Doesn't bother the FL/FA/PL when it's Luton, Swindon or Portsmouth does it?

I'm not saying it's right at all, I'm just amused that its come to this at Liverpool.

I'm looking forward to seeing Andronikou taking charge at Man Utd

You're not the only one. :D

TBF the 9 point penalty on Pompey was a waste of space as they were on their way down anyway.

Meh
football has been bankrupt for ten years or more, its finally catching up. Good news for everyone.

Yep, the sooner the PL implodes, the sooner we can get back to having something like a proper sporting competition in English football. Won't happen though, the greedy bastards will always find a way of bailing our their own to keep the gravy train rolling. Like this, for example

yeah I can't see it lasting forever though, the reality of the situation is when 90%+ of professional clubs run at a loss there really is only so long it can go on for. Football clubs have never made money but its the sheer scale of the losses today which mean it cannot go on forever. And it will be the 'big clubs' I believe who start the ball rolling.

Thats why when liverpool, or manchester united or whoever it happens to be, finally face up to the reality that they are running an unsustainable business, and do something about it, then the shockwaves will filter down through the pyramid.

Many smaller lower league clubs are trying to make a stand and run as a going concern but until the balance is redressed from the top it will never happen as there will always be a competitor at your level paying better wages than you.

When it does all go tits up presumably Arsenal, Villa, will rule the top division as I believe they have been running as a going concern for years so will be adept at existing in the real world. I thought this year might be arsenals year but it might take a couple more seasons.

English football is fucked until then.

Not sure I'd read too much in that article. Southampton were convinced they'd avoid the points deduction, they were wrong. If any of Liverpool's businesses goes in to administration and they're not docked points the shit will hit the face, expect a £50m lawsuit to be filed by Portsmouth against the PL within minutes for starters.

Besides, that article doesn't seem to contain too many hard facts and it's most likely someone at Liverpool that is behind it to get the idea out there and see what the reaction is like. Not even sure that Liverpool would have to go in to admin if their bank took them over, I'd imagine there are ways they could avoid it especially as the bank only want to do it to force a sale through.

The Liverpool case is a bit different though, in that their debt was incurred by the owners using the club's money to finance the take over which they couldn't afford themselves. Think the only other club in that position is Man Utd.

That's a good point about the article probably just being a bit of "trying it out in public"  (and quelling the restless natives too I suspect). I still think Scudamore would bend over backwards to avoid another PL club going into admin, especially one like Liverpool, so the idea of an under the counter deal being done to paint it as just some holding co not the club going into admin, hence no issue for the PL and no points deduction, does ring true

It's looking more and more likely that Liverpool will end up in administration. Whilst they've got a buyer lined up who will cover their debts, Hicks and Gillett and trying to block it as they will get nothing from it and so lose the £140m they've invested of their own money. Unless a deal is agreed by the 15th it's likely that RBS will put them in administration to force the sale through, with the points deduction seemingly guaranteed - no one else seems to be saying they can avoid it.

The one good thing about this is that people like Hicks and Gillett trying to make a quick buck out of a football club are likely to thing long and hard about getting involved in the future, which can only be a good thing.

I don't think that will happen jonny they gave a written undertaking that only broughton could change the board, they wrote that into the articles of the two companies Kop Football and Kop Holdings.

They also gave a written undertaking to RBS that they would not frustrate any reasonable sale. I think they will avoid any trouble

Assuming by "they" you mean Hicks and Gillett, they've already announced they're taking legal action

There was talk of the legal action being fast tracked to be heard next week before the RBS deadline

Yeah i know they have but it won't stand up will it.

Not by the Premier League :

However, the Premier League says it is happy with the business plan of the NESV and has confirmed that the club would not suffer a nine-point penalty if it were to enter administration as the club would remain fully solvent.

"The aim of the regulations is primarily to capture clubs who have gone into insolvency. This is manifestly not the case with Liverpool Football Club," a Premier League source told PA Sport.

"For example, last year West Ham's Icelandic owners went into administration but that did not lead to any Premier League action as the club itself was solvent."


No disrespect, but the club is not solvent when RBS are owed £280m, and the holding companies are adjoined to the club.

Of course, the PL are going to use the same argument when the Glazers are chased for the £700m+ by the hedge funds and the banks a few years down the line.

Doesn't matter, they could still delay the sale process for months by tangling it up in legal proceedings. Whether they ultimately win is almost immaterial, the damage they can do just by legal obstructions and delays is immense

Think the PL were misquoted slightly So69. Here's what they actually said:

No doubt the same source that was talking to the Liverpool Echo a few days ago. If there was anything official it would be said officially, it hasn't been so it is most likely bollocks. The West Ham thing was completely different and was a text book case of when a club shouldn't be deducted points when its parent / holding company goes in to administration - the FL would have come to the same conclussion as the PL.

Everything I've read suggest that administration will be followed by the points deduction, unless they can prove the club is a separate entity from the holding company which they can't, because it isn't. Liverpool = Southampton.

I don't know much about the West Ham case. How did they get away without a points deduction?

I think the difference is that it was an actual holding company that owned West Ham and that the club were just one of many assets they owned. The holding company got in to financial problems in other areas, nothing to do with West Ham, so there was no points penalty - which is what the rules say (in the FL at least).

Whereas with Liverpool (and Southampton before them) the holding company's only asset is the club and it's just a sham to avoid a points deduction or structured that way for financial reasons.

jonny's point is an extremely salient one and very well made. How come the entire sports/news/financial press covering this story haven't, that I've seen, managed to make it? The coverage of this story has been shockingly bad, and without the usual excuse of it being a fairly low-level club, they've all had their big guns on this. That kind of ignorance may well be what allows the PL to stitch up a deal over the points deduction, because they can get away with statements like the one jonny pulled apart because none of the media are questioning it and the public largely don't know they should be.

Also, it was mostly caused by the Icalandic banks going bust. West Ham's holding company had borrowed money from Icelandic banks, and the liquidators wanted money back as soon as possible,

You can sort of see how they may not want to shoot themself in the foot, sales wise, by upsetting the Liverpool fans. Maybe. O its a weak argument.

But in that regard what have the Sun and the Times got to lose? The already hate the former and I can't believe many read the latter.

A bank wouldnt even consider taking over a club like Swindon. But they will with Liverpool and thats what will avoid admin?

From TwoHundredPercent :

It seems all but impossible that Gillett and Hicks will actually be able to get the funding in place to pay off the bank by next Friday, at which the point the bank will effectively be able to “repossess” Liverpool Football Club. This repossession may be just the news that Liverpool supporters have been waiting for. This isn’t the same as entering into administration (which is a legal process entirely of its own), so Liverpool supporters don’t need to worry about someone coming into the club, selling all of its assets and straddling them with a nine point deduction. A move by RBS to take full control of Liverpool Football Club would entitle the bank to sell the bidder that it believes to be the most appropriate.

http://www.twohundredpercent.net/?p=9286

Long way to go on this....multi millionaires generally get the best lawyers in.....Hicks and Gillette wont just sit on this...140 million reasons why they will do all they can to stop this takeover.

Beeb reporting today they are likely to face points deduction if holding company does go into administration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9074311.stm

At the rate Man Yoo are going, they might join them...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11499023

Also, if Hicks and Gillette do get burnt in this (as looks likely), at least it will hopefully stop all leveraged buyouts.

You mean like Lehman Bros collapsing brought about major reform of the world banking system and a new era of self-restraint from bankers? Similar story here - stupid greedy people and a regulatory authority (the PL) that has no interest in preventing even the worst excesses

It looks like the press are now picking up on Liverpool needing to be docked 9 points if they go into admin

On another subject it was rumoured in one of the Sunday's that Peter Ridsdale was involved in an american consortium looking to take over Hull

So NESV have completed the purchase of Liverpool and administration has been avoided.

I very much doubt we've heard the last of Hicks and Gillett, especially as they've said they're going to be suing (RBS and the other Liverpool directors, I guess) for £1bn on the basis that they've sold the club too cheaply. They appear to have a point as if the press are to be believed there were others willing to pay in excess of the £300m that NESV have and other options were on the table.

You have to wonder why there's never and English people lining up to buy our top clubs. Are they too stupid to see the potential profit, or too clever to piss their money away?

Football clubs are money pits, looks like you can only make money out of it if you buy the club very cheaply, turn them into a force and then sell to a Yank/Russian/Sheikh before you run out of cash.

No one was willing to pay the £800m Hicks wanted. The only alleged offers were only around £20m more than NESV paid for Liverpool.

The fact is if RBS wasn't paid their money today, they could've taken ownership of the club and put the club into admin and could've potentially sold for less than the £300m that NESV paid, and Hicks and Gillett would've still lost their £144m. Personally Hicks and Gillett have no case. They knew that they had 6 months to sell the club in April, but no solid offers came in until NESV did. Hicks tried to borrow money to pay off RBS from a hedge fund, but Broughton and co. refused to go down that road again as they would've been in the same place in a few months time.

I'm now waiting for the Glazers trying to find £700m in a few years time to pay off the loan and hedge funds.

I would quite literally piss myself if Liverpool got points deducted. It won't happen of course. They're not a bunch of lower league carrot crunching village idiots from down the M4 ::)

Didn't know Bristol City had points deducted ;)

 :)