Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:04 am  

..... and hoping it will just go away?

I'm referring to the club's balance sheet which has been much posted by the FCHT crowd but is readily available from the Companies House website and show's that the club is a quarter million in the red!

Now I run a Limited Company myself and know that the published accounts don't always tell the full story (I'm a Techie and leave that side of things to my accountant) but a deficit of that size should surely be a cause for concern. As we have announced a profit for the last couple of years I assume that we have been carrying this negative balance for several years now.

Anyone care to comment? In particular, someone from the club?

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:12 am  

I'd imagine that the creditors due<1 year are amounts owed to directors. This balance sheet is in line with (if not much better than) all other RL clubs apart from Leeds probably. It's the nature of our game and actually, of UK sport in general. Read some of the Premier League/Football League balance sheets and you'll shudder.

The company that I work for has £1m in long term liabilities. What the published balance sheet doesn't tell you is that the amount refers to preference shares of the parent company. FRS rules stated a few year ago that such amounts had to be moved from Shareholders Capital to LT liabilities.

If the directors pulled out and wanted their "investment" back then yes, they could take the club to the HC. I'd say it's a typical RL club balance sheet.

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:14 am  

Financial reports are one view on the business - without the context (e.g. are these 'loans' given by the directors?) then it's difficult to tell whether this is an issue or not. From my knowledge, the guys in charge are competent business people, they have my faith that they know what they are doing.

Even if it is a genuine loss it shouldn't be surprising - the state of rugby league at present doesn't exactly facilitate profits even if you try to cut your cloth accordingly.

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:16 am  

Cheers for that, guys. I hadn't noticed the other thread on this subject when I posted.

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:01 pm  

You made a profit in 2012 - albeit a small one - so that's good.

Whether the huge deficit is a problem depends on who is owed the money and whether they want it back.

Eventually, most of these loans need to be repaid. Even if it's to the lender's estate.

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:37 pm  

I believe quite often when money is put into a sports club by an individual, for tax purposes it is done in the form of a loan, this can then later on be turned into shares. (Roman Ambramovich did that at Chelsea) or like at some other clubs, following a breakdown with investors. The club goes bust and they get very little or nothing back (Portsmouth FC is an example)

I don't think it's a major worry. We managed to turn a small profit. And if things were so bad would Tony Abbott really have kept paying money to buy shares?

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:27 am  

Man Utd owe over £400M!

Re: Is everyone ignoring it.... : Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:50 am  

I think a big congrats should go out to the people at the club because from what we know the club is not in a bad situation at all.