Why are we in such a financial mess relative to other clubs our size? (2 Viewers)

[Colonel Mustard]

OldSkyBlue:

There are clear reasons why most of the fans lay the blame at Richardson's feet. In the span of a few years, CCFC went from a top flight club that owned its ground to a second-tier club that was homeless and around £60m in debt. That was entirely under Mr Richardson's tenure. This isn't scapegoating. If any business underwent that cycle, shareholders would demand to know what the hell the CEO was doing.

If you want to make the case that Richardson is some kind of scapegoat, then the burden really is on you to provide the evidence to support your case. Maybe most of us are dead wrong, but you need to provide the narrative and facts that prove that. All you have done so far is make a lot of assumptions and produce some very muddled figures. I'd be amazed if the paragraph quoted below has actually enlightened anyone in painting a clear picture of things.

You're the one who said that the club had been accumulating debts for decades. Fine. But what was the debt figure before Richardson's stewardship? And what was the debt figure on his departure?

How is it that we could be homeless and so deep in debt after 1) selling our stadium, 2) receiving Premier League payments for years, 3) receiving more in transfer fees than we spent, 4) even receiving parachute payments for two years.

I mean, really, how is that possible? I'm not sure any of us would be able to contrive such a situation. It's like a story from Brewster's Millions, and it's nicely topped off with that 'confidentiality agreement'.

You know what I mean? Tell me the story of what went wrong, and give the numbers to support it. Don't just throw out a bunch of random numbers from random years which switch between turnover, liabilities, debt, figures that include transfer fees and those that don't, no acknowledgement of parachute payments, assuming there is no difference between the debt on SISU v CCFC etc. If you want to whitewash, then paint in clear lines.

Just for info the facts are the current CCFC Limited was formed in 1995. In 1996 Turnover was £6.4m and losses of £15m due to transfer fees, net liabilities were £15m. By 2002 it had accumulated losses/debts of £13.9m. Turnover was up to £13.7m in 2002 and £20.4m in 2001(excluding player sales). It made a loss of £1.1m in 2002 and a profit of £0.7m in 2001 including Transfer dealings. So the majority of debts/accumulated losses by 2002 were made in 1996 (ie the other years of Richardson about broke even - some were in profit). The latest accounts to 2010 show accumulated losses/debts of £48.2m and turnover at £9.2m, losses of £3m and £7m the previous year (and thats without paying interest on the debt). Richardson was removed by the club 30th January 2002 ... I wont be doing further research just because you and others cant be bothered.

 

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[TheSnoz]

Easy to blame Richardson. I don't know the financial ins and outs of it all from those days. But I do know most fans considered him a brilliant chairman at one point. Look back at the letters pages of the Telegraph then, full of praise for him. Around the time we were fleetingly called 'the entertainers,' he could do no wrong. But the Coventry public must take some of the flak. They just haven't turned up in enough numbers. He bought in Robbie Keane, a sure sign of ambition, for his home debut 18,000 turned up. In a city with a catchment population of at least half a million that is pathetic. I'm not defending him, but he was battling a wave of apathy in Coventry. He oversaw moving from Highfield Road, at least the early stages, a big, big mistake in my view. That I'll never forgive. The central location of Stoke was ripe for ground expansion, buying up of houses to build etc. But its history. He's not wholly to blame, there is a list of reasons why. One of Richardson's biggest problems was we got relegated. Stating the bleeding obvious but true.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I remember the fans singing "There's only one Bryan Richardson" (in a positive sense!)

There's no question he was once a popular chairman, and equally no question that many of the fans want too much of everything. Even after all the club has been through, there are still calls to 'break the bank', cries for 'investment', questions over SISU's investment (the fact the club is still running is a hint).

And sure. The rest of the board from Richardson's era need to be held accountable for failing to keep the health of the club in-check and sound.

That there is a certain irresponsibility throughout football, from top to bottom, is unquestionable.

But only one guy had ultimate responsibility for the decisions the club made, and that was Richardson. Whatever the demands of the fans may have been, it's up to the CEO to direct the club as best possible. Former chairmen like Alan Sugar and Doug Ellis are now lauded for their prudence at the time of football's crazy era. It blows my mind that there could be a single apologist for Richardson's rotten legacy.