Skip to main content

Decline of Bradford City is another tale of owner mismanagement

An interesting analysis of the decline of Bradford City who have been relegated to League Two: With a whimper rather than a bang

Financial losses topped £2m for the last financial year and the club’s decline on the pitch has been matched by steadily falling support, with season ticket sales having dropped by 4,000 and one home match, against Coventry City in October, attracting the club’s lowest league attendance in the last five years.

It's another story of incoming owners who thought that football success could be easily achieved: 'The owners of the club attempted to make too many changes too quickly, in spite of their initial statement when taking control of the club three years ago, whilst the apparent motivation of the man placed in control of the day-to-day running of the club seemed directed more by ego than the best interests of the club.'

'Failures in recruitment at all levels have been a clear signal of the shortcomings of the ownership, but Stefan Rupp – who had been largely an absent owner, having left the running of the club to Rahic – will presumably only leave at a time that is beneficial to him, and it’s difficult to believe that Bradford City’s value could be worth more now than he paid for his 78% shareholding in the first place at present.'

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do