Macclesfield

[bedale rover]

Kaput!

[graingrover]

Yet their debts equate to a monthly wage of your average Premiership player .

[since-1969]

Macclesfield Town Football Club has been wound up in the High Court over debts totalling more than £500,000.

bbc.in/2ZH7mOC

[Retdon1]

Another club gone.... very sad, all down to another con man as a owner.... when are the EFL gonna be held accountable for letting these owners buy clubs

[arkseyrover]

another sad day for the genuine fan who has lost his club. Suppose it leaves a hole in the National League fixture list and it will be left to the fans to try to resurrect the club by starting off at the bottom and coming back through the leagues.

[Campsall rover]

Unless an appropriate financial bond is put down when a new owner takes over a club then this is going to become a familiar story.

It really is time for the EFL to sort this out once & for all.
Surely it’s not rocket science. Or am i missing something here?

Another sad day for English football and a very sad indictment on the way it is run in this country.

[Alan Southstand]

If they had changed their name to MacBolton, they’d be ok now!

[Janso]

So is that it, are they just gone? they only announced signings this week as well. Bloody hell.

Can't say nobody saw it coming but Christ it's a real shame.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Why point the finger at the EFL? Cos it's easy?

As we know through S_M, club ownership and financial matters are currently under review including government involvement. Far wider reaching than what the EFL control!

[Campsall rover]

Why point the finger at the EFL? Cos it's easy?

As we know through S_M, club ownership and financial matters are currently under review including government involvement. Far wider reaching than what the EFL control!

Maybe it is easy, too easy to point the blame DBR but at the end of the day who are the governing body of the leagues below the Premier league.  It’s the EFL isn’t it? Now maybe they don’t have the constitution and powers they need to steer the ship.
I don’t know, I’m just a layman as far as this is concerned. What I do know is all is not well and not just since Covid 19. As we all know there are serious problems that have been very long running in the game.

It needs sorting and that seems to be something that’s not happening. How many more months, years or decades is it going to take?

[albie]

As an industry, football has the resources to intervene to prevent these events over small amounts of money.
One decent cup draw with fans present would cover it.
 
The trouble is that all the members are in it for themselves, and are much less concerned over the health of the game overall.

A bond is one solution. Another might be an interest free loan with a specified timetable for repayment as a first charge on the business.

It would be very helpful to set up a package of measures before the Covid dominoes start to fall.
Not expecting it, on past form!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/sep/16/macclesfield-face-extinction-after-being-wound-up-with-debts-of-500000

[sha66y]

maybe its that time.... when the cloth is cut and those facing extinction should be allowed to fade away....

i know its tough-love but i have always thought the efl would prefer to manage just the championship, were they can negotiate better tv deals without having to share it...

dont get me wrong, i love the lower league clubs, but can see that they cant be sustained without investments.......and yes i do feel for the Macclesfield fans

[Dr Fundlekrotch]

As an industry, football has the resources to intervene to prevent these events over small amounts of money.
One decent cup draw with fans present would cover it.
 
The trouble is that all the members are in it for themselves, and are much less concerned over the health of the game overall.

A bond is one solution. Another might be an interest free loan with a specified timetable for repayment as a first charge on the business.

It would be very helpful to set up a package of measures before the Covid dominoes start to fall.
Not expecting it, on past form!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/sep/16/macclesfield-face-extinction-after-being-wound-up-with-debts-of-500000

The problem with loans like that, Albie, is that they would turn into grants on 9 times out of 10 - would you loan money to someone who has shown they have no way of repaying what they owe?

[albie]

The idea is you make it first call on the club to repay.

So before they spend any other money, they must service the loan as per agreement. How long you extend the repayment period is a live question.

With HMRC, who brought Macc to court over £150k....all payments to HMRC should go by direct debit every month as a first charge.

No club should be allowed to use HMRC as a lending facility.
If this were written into EFL rules, there would be no debt to HMRC and no winding up actions brought by HMRC.

After that, you need a hierarchy of priorities for debt management.
Clubs should show that they have a funded plan to manage existing debt, and a strategy to reduce that debt to zero over a specified period.

Many club owners are chancers who have poor financial management skills.
The only way to prevent the Macc situation arising again is to prevent the reasons for the difficulty at source.

To be honest, some clubs need to rebase their business model on actual income. That might mean dropping down a league or two, and revising expectations.

If it is that or no club, which would most fans choose?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Much depends on where you want to draw a line with debt. A few thousands in debt like Macclesfield  or a few millions like many upper tier league clubs.

Would agree though, and prevention is always better than cure.

If course it isn't that simple Football finance is a minefield.

[the vicar]

All they have to do is borrow 5mill from a business pal and away them go and pay it back asap

[the vicar]

The owner has asked the court for some time to get sorted

[swintonrover]

Could work like a mortgage system, debt not allowed to exceed 5x income?

But I'll repeat what I've said previously, now we have limits on season budgets, that amount of money should be put in a bank account managed by the EFL/National League.

[Wiltshire Exile]

The idea is you make it first call on the club to repay.

So before they spend any other money, they must service the loan as per agreement. How long you extend the repayment period is a live question.

With HMRC, who brought Macc to court over £150k....all payments to HMRC should go by direct debit every month as a first charge.

No club should be allowed to use HMRC as a lending facility.
If this were written into EFL rules, there would be no debt to HMRC and no winding up actions brought by HMRC.

After that, you need a hierarchy of priorities for debt management.
Clubs should show that they have a funded plan to manage existing debt, and a strategy to reduce that debt to zero over a specified period.

Many club owners are chancers who have poor financial management skills.
The only way to prevent the Macc situation arising again is to prevent the reasons for the difficulty at source.

To be honest, some clubs need to rebase their business model on actual income. That might mean dropping down a league or two, and revising expectations.

If it is that or no club, which would most fans choose?

From the BBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54177582

Some very good points, Abbie. What really annoys me, as you allude to, is that clubs like Macclesfield, Bury and Southend, are using income tax paid by players and other staff as a means to fund day-to-day expenditure, including the owners’ dividend/salary. As you say, Albie, chancers...the lot of them.

[Draytonian III]

One of the creditors if that’s the right terminology is John Askey who’s been involved in Macclesfield for years, he’s owed something like £173k. He’s now the manager of Port Vale but he has 35 year connection as player and manager, he was voted their all time cult player .

[drfchound]

If I remember correctly, Sol Campbell said last December that he was owed around £180,000 by Macclesfield.
I don’t suppose he ever got that.

[BillyStubbsTears]

If I remember correctly, Sol Campbell said last December that he was owed around £180,000 by Macclesfield.
I don’t suppose he ever got that.

That post sums up how broken football finances are.

Macclesfield are/were 90th on the list of average attendances in the top four divisions. Campbell was manager for 9 months and somehow they've run up a debt equal to about 7 times average annual earnings.

[Metalmicky]

If I remember correctly, Sol Campbell said last December that he was owed around £180,000 by Macclesfield.
I don’t suppose he ever got that.

That post sums up how broken football finances are.

Macclesfield are/were 90th on the list of average attendances in the top four divisions. Campbell was manager for 9 months and somehow they've run up a debt equal to about 7 times average annual earnings.

Even with my basic maths that works out at £20k a month............ that is ridiculous.

[firestarter]

Apparently 20 premier league clubs each stumped up £250k for Scudamore when he retired a few years ago... shows the morals of those who sit at the top table

[SoundbiteBarmyArmy]

Very sad to hear. I was listening to Talk Sport on Wednesday when this was announced - then not even an hour later it was suggested that 'football' may have to stump up around the £35 million mark for fans to get tested to get back into stadiums.

Why can't 'football' help out with £500,000?!

[DonnyNoel]

If I remember correctly, Sol Campbell said last December that he was owed around £180,000 by Macclesfield.
I don’t suppose he ever got that.

That post sums up how broken football finances are.

Macclesfield are/were 90th on the list of average attendances in the top four divisions. Campbell was manager for 9 months and somehow they've run up a debt equal to about 7 times average annual earnings.

Even with my basic maths that works out at £20k a month............ that is ridiculous.

I think it wasn't just salary they owed him for - he'd paid a few expenses out of his own pocket I think.

[Campsall rover]

Very sad to hear. I was listening to Talk Sport on Wednesday when this was announced - then not even an hour later it was suggested that 'football' may have to stump up around the £35 million mark for fans to get tested to get back into stadiums.

Why can't 'football' help out with £500,000?!

The problem there though SBA is if clubs knew they would be bailed out if they were in difficulty then they would not have an incentive to run the club in a sound financial manor.

What we need is a proper system that doesn’t allow Football clubs to spend money that is beyond their means.
Macclesfield were obviously in trouble before Covid 19 and the pandemic has taken them over the precipice.

There is enough money in the game though to help out in the current crisis which of course is not the fault of any individual clubs financial cash flow.
That is what is wrong. The PFA is very wealthy as is of course the Premier League which unfortunately only sees themselves as a business and  “Football being a sport” is of no interest to their bank balances.

Very sad indeed. Money rules in today’s world even in Sport. We are all the worse off for it.

[Janso]

Very sad to hear. I was listening to Talk Sport on Wednesday when this was announced - then not even an hour later it was suggested that 'football' may have to stump up around the £35 million mark for fans to get tested to get back into stadiums.

Why can't 'football' help out with £500,000?!

The problem there though SBA is if clubs knew they would be bailed out if they were in difficulty then they would not have an incentive to run the club in a sound financial manor.

I disagree. Slap em with a 30 point deduction if they need bailing out. Soon stop em.

[German Rover]

Very sad to hear. I was listening to Talk Sport on Wednesday when this was announced - then not even an hour later it was suggested that 'football' may have to stump up around the £35 million mark for fans to get tested to get back into stadiums.

Why can't 'football' help out with £500,000?!

The problem was the owner, bailing the club out would just be kicking the can down the road.

AFC Macc is the way to go now, hopefully playing at Moss Rose, but I bet a developer has an eye on it.

[les@donr]

Sadly more clubs will follow their demise. Wigan, Southend and Dover to name a few.