It’s Eddie Nkehtiah’s day, Villa won’t pay, Palace won’t say, Chelsea lose their way

By Tony Attwood

It is a total tragedy that the bloggettas and the rest of the media largely ignored last night’s under 21 game between England and Scotland, or else if reporting it hardly registered Eddie Nkehtiah’s contribution of two goals and a perfect assist. The game was life and free on TV in England so journalists should have seen it, and for anyone who did the ability and class of Eddie was there for all to see. Eddie 3 Scotland 1 in fact, and worth watching the final of the tournament which I imagine will also be on the Free Sports channel.

But if Eddie plays like that again, don’t expect any media coverage.

Meanwhile the stories are all about money. Aston Villa have run out of it, Crystal Palace have failed to submit any tax returns at all for reasons that will soon be explained as an “administrative error” (because that’s what everyone says, as if that makes it all right), and Chelsea were the only one of the 19 Premier League clubs that did manage to put their tax returns in on time, who made a loss.

What is interesting about Villa is that they used to an owner who ran things according to the law and by the book, but protested like mad about him. He had enough of the abuse and sold out, and now they find that their chief executive Keith Wyness has been suspended allegedly after suggesting that there was a hole in their accounts.

Of course if Villa had beaten Fulham they would have had the windfall of a season in the Premier League, but with that not materialising they have to look forward to another year of Championship income. And they seem to be in breach of the regulations in position in that League as well – which presumably means they will be selling a few players, thus making it harder to get out of the division.

In fact the club is squeezed: the rich man isn’t delivering the cash, while they have managed to break the League’s rules on finances. It is reported in some papers that Villa have been asking those who owe them money to pay up before the due date, in return for discounts.

It looks now as if the money to pay HMRC (the UK’s tax collector) has turned up and so there will be no winding up order, but that leaves Villa still in crisis mode, and this is interesting because it has been a little while since we had this sort of situation – to a large degree thanks to the fact that the Championship’s rules on Financial Fair Play have stopped clubs spending beyond their means.

But although Villa seem to be able to pay the current bill, there will be more cash turning up in the coming months, and it would appear that once again there won’t be any money to pay. All they can do is sell their star players (and apparently the staff car park too).

What this story also seems to be showing is that there won’t be any more mega rich Chinese buyouts of English clubs, because of the new regulations stopping capital being removed from the Chinese economy by the mega rich. Birmingham, West Brom and Wolverhampton also have Chinese owners and these clubs might see a slightly less bright future (although Birmingham and WBA haven’t looked that bright of late anyway).

Meanwhile we have been hearing strange things about Crystal Palace and tax for a while. In April the story emerged that their defender Pape Souare had run up huge tax bills because (it is claimed) the club were not deducting the right amount of tax from his pay. It was said the bill was so huge the player has been forced to declare himself insolvent.

Palace blamed the Revenue for not sending through the right tax code, but employers have a duty to check such matters – that is what accountants do – not least because UK law says that you have to pay up, even if the Revenue makes a mistake.

The player was also silly if he hasn’t employed his own accountant to handle his tax affairs given what he earns. Had he done so a decent accountant would have spotted the problem in a jiffy, and advised him to put a certain amount aside each week while the matter was resolved.

Now it seems Palace has not even managed to file their own accounts with Revenue and Customs – which they should have done by 31 March this year. The Registrar of Companies has stated that the company that runs Palace will be dissolved shortly unless it sorts itself out. Crystal Palace would then cease to exist.

Companies also have to have a firm of auditors checking their books, although the recent scandals in England concerning the way to accounts of Carillion (the company that undertook government contracts) were audited has brought the big auditing companies into disrepute.

Anyway, Palace lost £7m according to their last reported accounts – those for 2015/6, and now we have the figures for the other 19 clubs for 2016/17 and I’ll take our usual look at those shortly. Of the 19 clubs whose accounts we can inspect, only two made a loss: Chelsea who won the league, and Sunderland who were relegated out of the league.

6 Replies to “It’s Eddie Nkehtiah’s day, Villa won’t pay, Palace won’t say, Chelsea lose their way”

In 2016/17 or put another way in the accounting year to 30/6/2017 Chelsea made a profit of £15.3 million

https://mobile.twitter.com/swissramble/status/952823774889562113?lang=en

Why does Untold open up in mobile mode on my desktop, it’s been happening for a couple of weeks. Anyone else having the same problem, is it Untold or is it my computer?

I believe Chelsea owe Fordstam (Romans Company) just over £1.3 billion. With the squeeze on the Russian Oligarcs and their attempts to hide their’dodgy’ money, this could end badly.

Interesting times ahead, financially, for Chelsea now Roman has decided he can no longer bank roll Chelsea and outspend everyone.

Such a shame the media choose to fornicate over clubs that ‘buy’ success and their managers like Mourinho and Guardiola but ridicule those who try to make the books balance. Seems Leeds Utd is forgotten along with all the other clubs, including Aston Villa, who have found that irresponsible over spending comes with a huge cost.

Sanity may one day prevail but I won’t be holding my breath.

We had to make changes as a result of the introduction of the GDPR regulations in Europe and that seems to have had some side effects. Thank you for telling me. I am reporting it on to the department of our advertising agency responsible for this.

Tony

about the media: i can’t resist the pleasure of sharing this masterpiece:

(“analysis” of the nigerian world cup team):

Which player is likely to disappoint?

Alex Iwobi’s poor form for Arsenal will leave many wondering whether he can deliver. After a breakout season in 2015-16 the attacking midfielder has failed to kick on, often stuttering when presented with opportunities. Too often he appears on the fringes of a game and he needs to be more assertive.

Which player is going to surprise everyone at the World Cup?

Francis Uzoho. For a goalkeeper who has only two made senior appearances for Deportivo La Coruña, Uzoho is perhaps fortunate to get into the World Cup squad but has a good command of his area and impressive shot-stopping ability. The 19-year-old may to start, despite his mistake against England – putting him in illustrious company with keepers such as Peter Rufai, Ike Shorunmu and Vincent Enyeama.

(https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/05/nigeria-world-cup-2018-team-guide-tactics-key-players-and-expert-predictions)

just so everyone remembers:
this was “written” right after the england-nigeria game, during which alex was, by a mile, the best “eagle” on the pitch – he scored the goal, actually
uzoho (i wish the young guy well, mind you)let in a howler that, had it been ospina’s or cech’s, the guardian would have kept it as a headline for ages … actually, any centre-forward but kane would have sympathised with the lad, and wouldn’t have celebrated the goal … but good ol’ harry hopped like a regular wallaby, as though he had scored against, let’s say … juventus at wembley, perhaps?

i do love those guardian guys … get myself a fix of ’em any time i’m starting feeling down a bit

warning: “has only two made senior appearances”, as well as “may to start” are in the original syntax … solomon, please, come back soon!

The mobile / desktop issue has been ongoing for a while. Sometimes it rectifies itself & sometimes it persists.

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6 Replies to “It’s Eddie Nkehtiah’s day, Villa won’t pay, Palace won’t say, Chelsea lose their way”

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