I find it amazing that Utd can run up these eye-watering debts, because banks are willing to support them based on the name/brand status, and that the football authorities turn a blind eye to the sheer level of debt in which they find themselves.
And yet teams lower down in the leagues get huge point deductions and are effectively crippled because of debts of a mere (in the grand scheme of things) £250,000 or so. Yes, these clubs got themselves into debt and problems, but all it takes is the withdrawal of backing from either a bank or the multimillionaire owner and the club goes tits up.
Can you imagine what would happen if the banks behind Man Utd starting calling in their debts, rather than just accepting interest payments? Utd would be fucked, absolutely fucked.
And they’re not alone in running up massive debts, or relying on the never-ending pockets of their owners. To varying degrees, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, practically every big team, is in the same boat.
I like to think that Arsenal’s debt is a little more structured, having been taken on voluntarily in order to fund the stadium move, and with a solid plan regarding paying it off, but we’re as equally enslaved to the banks as anyone else.
Yet we see clubs, famous clubs with lots of history, go to the wall. Luton Town got screwed over, and now that area has no league football team. Teams like Southampton, Chester, Bradford, all of them got points deductions for relatively small financial issues.
It’s a shame that the hypocrisy is so brazen, it really is.
