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The spate of clubs going into some form of adminsitration recently has provided a fascinating look at the ways in which clubs operate through looking at who they owed money to. Hull achieved some notoriety by owing over ‘6000 to Mr Chan’s Chinese takeaway, who they used to cater for Board meetings. David Conn has written at length of the scandal of unpaid bills to St John’s Ambulance, even at Bradford City, where they saved many lives in the 1985 fire.
All this prompted by Exeter City’s recently secured agreement from most clubs it was in debt to. Mostly they’re payments for player transfers, or the away club’s split of the gate money in cup matches, or the value of tickets sold to away fans by the away club on behalf of the home club.
Most clubs have been good members of the football family and agreed to a 50% cut, though quite why Reading – owned by multi-millionaire John Madejski – can’t help is beyond me. Must be that said millionaire is a Tory git or something.
But what really catches the eye is Rochdale. Exeter City owed them ‘7, which they have kindly agreed to write off ‘3.50. Obviously, the offer was a blanket one, with everyone urged to accept 50%. No, the confusion isn’t why they’re accepting ‘3.50 but what on earth Exeter hadn’t paid for that comes to seven quid. I know the transfer market has collpased, but really. Unpaid pies in the Boardroom? Did they borrow some Vaporub?