SkyBlueSwiss
New Member
I seem to remember Leeds tried this trick and got heavily punished for it, and the FL then changed their rules?
I may well have some points wrong, but to me it appears that SISU have basically done the following:
- per the published accounts for the prior year (the latest ac counts that we have), all of the business was in CCFC Ltd., as was the lease.
- while SISU were still in negotiations with ACL, SISU moved all of the assets, players registrations etc. from Ltd. to Holdings, leaving just the lease and the debt (and the Golden Share - but not on purpose) in Ltd.
- SISU, while still in negotiations with ACL, employed specialist estate agents to start looking for suitable properties to build a new stadium.
- SISU threatened that it would have no option but to liquidate, forcing ACL to apply for administration. SISU then put the club into admin itself at the last minute. Anyone who believes that this was not planned by SISU to try and put the blame for administration onto ACL needs to take another look at exactly what happened.
- the SISU-appointed administrator chooses Otium - a company in the process of being struck off, with no assets and not having published accounts on a timely basis - as the best bid.
- the administrator does not sell CCFC Ltd. to Otium. They cherry-picked the items to be sold, leaving Ltd. basically with just the rental lease.
- it is quite clear that once this process has been completed, CCFC Ltd. will be liquidated, thus legally avoiding any further liability under the rental lease.
-I am leaving the deliberate stressing of ACL, judicial revue, trying to get the Ricoh on the cheap etc. out of this as that will not concern the league.
Now surely even the most avid pro-SISU fan must recognise that this has all been planned specifically to get rid of the lease. No matter how pro-SISU you are, the facts cannot be denied.
So now we have to ask ourselves, will the Football League for the sake of not causing waves "accept" that SISU did all this "in good faith", or will they acknowledge that SISU did this to void the lease?
If the Football League acknowledge the facts of the matter, then our club would probably be in deep, deep trouble. I have no idea what the penalty would be, but I can imagine it would be severe, and might lead to being dropped a couple of divisions?
Then there is the political impact. Politicians at various levels are becoming ever more aware of what has been going on, and generally they seem disgusted by the way a hedge fund has acted in football circles. I cannot imagine that they will let this continue if the league do not make a harsh example of our club. This has all become too public for someone not to take punitive action against SISU and/or our club.
The problem with that is, it is - as always - us fans that bear the brunt of the punitive actions.
I do not know enough about league rules or the laws of the land to properly judge where we are going with this, but I worry greatly as to the consequences that we fans are going to be forced to suffer.
I may well have some points wrong, but to me it appears that SISU have basically done the following:
- per the published accounts for the prior year (the latest ac counts that we have), all of the business was in CCFC Ltd., as was the lease.
- while SISU were still in negotiations with ACL, SISU moved all of the assets, players registrations etc. from Ltd. to Holdings, leaving just the lease and the debt (and the Golden Share - but not on purpose) in Ltd.
- SISU, while still in negotiations with ACL, employed specialist estate agents to start looking for suitable properties to build a new stadium.
- SISU threatened that it would have no option but to liquidate, forcing ACL to apply for administration. SISU then put the club into admin itself at the last minute. Anyone who believes that this was not planned by SISU to try and put the blame for administration onto ACL needs to take another look at exactly what happened.
- the SISU-appointed administrator chooses Otium - a company in the process of being struck off, with no assets and not having published accounts on a timely basis - as the best bid.
- the administrator does not sell CCFC Ltd. to Otium. They cherry-picked the items to be sold, leaving Ltd. basically with just the rental lease.
- it is quite clear that once this process has been completed, CCFC Ltd. will be liquidated, thus legally avoiding any further liability under the rental lease.
-I am leaving the deliberate stressing of ACL, judicial revue, trying to get the Ricoh on the cheap etc. out of this as that will not concern the league.
Now surely even the most avid pro-SISU fan must recognise that this has all been planned specifically to get rid of the lease. No matter how pro-SISU you are, the facts cannot be denied.
So now we have to ask ourselves, will the Football League for the sake of not causing waves "accept" that SISU did all this "in good faith", or will they acknowledge that SISU did this to void the lease?
If the Football League acknowledge the facts of the matter, then our club would probably be in deep, deep trouble. I have no idea what the penalty would be, but I can imagine it would be severe, and might lead to being dropped a couple of divisions?
Then there is the political impact. Politicians at various levels are becoming ever more aware of what has been going on, and generally they seem disgusted by the way a hedge fund has acted in football circles. I cannot imagine that they will let this continue if the league do not make a harsh example of our club. This has all become too public for someone not to take punitive action against SISU and/or our club.
The problem with that is, it is - as always - us fans that bear the brunt of the punitive actions.
I do not know enough about league rules or the laws of the land to properly judge where we are going with this, but I worry greatly as to the consequences that we fans are going to be forced to suffer.