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Bolton Wanderers' disastrous and perilous financial situation has provoked sympathy and fear in equal measure. I have the utmost sympathy for the fans of this club: they don't deserve this.
I have no sympathy with the people who have run the club over the years, and I am disgusted that the Football League's hands-off approach to debt management at clubs has led directly to this crisis.
In December 2013 Bolton announced debts of almost £164million. The club issued a statement at the time that basically said everything is fine and that Eddie Davies, the main benefactor, would make sure the club is OK. What a worrying way to run a football club.
And so it proved: two years on and Bolton have a tax bill of £600,000 which has been left unpaid, and a winding-up order has subsequently been served.
Salaries have gone unpaid, and some staff may not be given their wages over Christmas. Even the players have not been given any guarantees.
Davies wants out and the fans seem torn between the good times he funded, and the bad times he's walking away from now.
But why didn't the alarm bells ring at Football League HQ when the news came through two years ago that Bolton's debt had risen beyond belief from a manageable, but worrying, £38m in 2002, to more than four times that? And if the alarm bells did ring, why didn't anybody do anything about it?
Right now I declare a personal interest: Bolton beat my club Peterborough United back in February 2013. I remember the game clearly, it was at that moment I knew Posh would be relegated.
We lost 1-0 to a goal scored by Craig Dawson, who scored for West Brom at Liverpool this weekend. Peterborough – a very well run club, with minimal, manageable debts - had tried to sign Dawson on loan, but he ended up going to Bolton.
Most chairmen will tell you that clubs secure players in those situations with extra financial incentives either for the player or the parent club. Posh couldn't compete for the player, simply because they ran themselves properly. Bolton were only good at running up debt.
In the midst of all their shocking finances how could Bolton afford to take on the wages of a player on loan from the Premier League? At the same time, they spent £300,000 on a striker, Craig Davies.
How could the Football League let these deals go ahead knowing the ridiculous amount of debt Bolton were building up?
Dawson's goal (Davies missed a chance late on as well in that game) helped send Posh down. One more point and we would have survived.
The relegation cost the club millions, set the development back considerably, led to the manager losing his way, players having to be sold, and crowds naturally dwindling.
The chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, became disillusioned and considered selling up this summer. Thankfully he has rediscovered his appetite, and is back making noises, generously giving the full force of his indefatigable personality to the game of football.
But the whole situation from back then still smells rotten: a club that cut its cloth accordingly suffered, another that just won games by amassing even more debt, merely put off its crisis temporarily.
My message to Bolton fans is to stay strong, and keep hoping. With or without points deducted, the club may well end up relegated, but League One is not the end of the world. Life goes on.
The Football League need to sort themselves out though: they pay lip service to any kind of governance or care for football clubs. It's an insult to fans.
To allow a club to keep spending and spending with debts rising to astronomical proportions is a disgrace. Owners and executives deciding to spend even more merely postpones the inevitable. In the meantime, collateral damage is caused, and others suffer.
Bolton's wounds are well and truly opening and haemorrhaging. The Football League has blood on its hands.
Source
I have no sympathy with the people who have run the club over the years, and I am disgusted that the Football League's hands-off approach to debt management at clubs has led directly to this crisis.
In December 2013 Bolton announced debts of almost £164million. The club issued a statement at the time that basically said everything is fine and that Eddie Davies, the main benefactor, would make sure the club is OK. What a worrying way to run a football club.
And so it proved: two years on and Bolton have a tax bill of £600,000 which has been left unpaid, and a winding-up order has subsequently been served.
Salaries have gone unpaid, and some staff may not be given their wages over Christmas. Even the players have not been given any guarantees.
Davies wants out and the fans seem torn between the good times he funded, and the bad times he's walking away from now.
But why didn't the alarm bells ring at Football League HQ when the news came through two years ago that Bolton's debt had risen beyond belief from a manageable, but worrying, £38m in 2002, to more than four times that? And if the alarm bells did ring, why didn't anybody do anything about it?
Right now I declare a personal interest: Bolton beat my club Peterborough United back in February 2013. I remember the game clearly, it was at that moment I knew Posh would be relegated.
We lost 1-0 to a goal scored by Craig Dawson, who scored for West Brom at Liverpool this weekend. Peterborough – a very well run club, with minimal, manageable debts - had tried to sign Dawson on loan, but he ended up going to Bolton.
Most chairmen will tell you that clubs secure players in those situations with extra financial incentives either for the player or the parent club. Posh couldn't compete for the player, simply because they ran themselves properly. Bolton were only good at running up debt.
In the midst of all their shocking finances how could Bolton afford to take on the wages of a player on loan from the Premier League? At the same time, they spent £300,000 on a striker, Craig Davies.
How could the Football League let these deals go ahead knowing the ridiculous amount of debt Bolton were building up?
Dawson's goal (Davies missed a chance late on as well in that game) helped send Posh down. One more point and we would have survived.
The relegation cost the club millions, set the development back considerably, led to the manager losing his way, players having to be sold, and crowds naturally dwindling.
The chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, became disillusioned and considered selling up this summer. Thankfully he has rediscovered his appetite, and is back making noises, generously giving the full force of his indefatigable personality to the game of football.
But the whole situation from back then still smells rotten: a club that cut its cloth accordingly suffered, another that just won games by amassing even more debt, merely put off its crisis temporarily.
My message to Bolton fans is to stay strong, and keep hoping. With or without points deducted, the club may well end up relegated, but League One is not the end of the world. Life goes on.
The Football League need to sort themselves out though: they pay lip service to any kind of governance or care for football clubs. It's an insult to fans.
To allow a club to keep spending and spending with debts rising to astronomical proportions is a disgrace. Owners and executives deciding to spend even more merely postpones the inevitable. In the meantime, collateral damage is caused, and others suffer.
Bolton's wounds are well and truly opening and haemorrhaging. The Football League has blood on its hands.
Source
