Morecambe FC, Yeovil Town FC and Stratford Town FC

Worcester Warriors in serious financial trouble so there must be concern about Morecambe FC who have the same owners.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/62630861

Same old story of asset strippers running a professional sports club beyond its means for glory then profit as they acquire land.

Similar things going on at Yeovil with a very strange deal involving the Council.

gloverscast.co.uk/category/yeovil-town-news/

These people are linked and hopefully Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston, whose constituency is part of Worcester, takes notice and decides to take some action in line with the Crouch review.

I have been a supporter of Chester the city of my birth all my life and am a member of the supporters trust number 699.
I have lived in Worcester for 40 odd years and have been a ST holder of Warriors for over 25 years.
The current situation is tragic. Errol Ppoe appeared along with McCorry and bought the club from the Allen family who owned DHL. Supporters clearly have no say .  It was all a bit mysterious although we knew of McCorrys involvement with some unsavory happenings at Hereford FC. There were a lot of misgivings at the time. Shortly after Jason and Colin came along and McCorry left as had Pope, again all a bit odd. When the sale went through Warriors owned 27 acres of land adjacent to junction 6 of the M5, we now apparently own nothing. There have even been so rather dubious land swiches in the last few days. Colin Goldring was up before the law society recently and is barred from working for any law firm. Potentially Warriors was far larger than Morcombe.
If I was Yeovil, Morcombe or Stratford Town suppoeter I would be very concerned. Perhaps Jason and Colin should be looked at again to see if they are fit and proper owners ? There appears to be no such governance at PRL or RFU.
aka ROLLO

We may be where we are, but the model we have protects us against this. Investors, yes if the right people, but the concern is their ultimate objective, and their exit plan.

My biggest worry would be what happens when the footballing gods don't smile, and the investors don't need the grief or the burden? Who picks up the pieces then.

These pieces of shit who pick apart community assets for profit should be hung from the floodlights. Absolute twats.

Just look at the situation at Basingstoke Town. Saviour come in as Chairman. Transfers ownership of the ground to another company (also owned by him). Then evicts club from ground, proceeds to seek planning permission to develop the ground, which the local council turns down. Various appeals ensue against the rejection of planning. In the meantime the local paper uncovers a covenant from the original landowner who gifted the ground to the club on the proviso that it remains only as a sports venue for the community until at least 2053.

Further appeals from millionaire chairman. This then goes to some faceless planning official in Central government who ignores local council and legitimate covernent and grants planning permission.

Result: the rich get richer and stuff the local community. He still owns an entity called Basingstoke Town FC (which has no team). The football club, now called Basingstoke Town Community FC, having ground shared 20 miles away then moved back to the town at a facility which has no room for expansion if they move up the pyramid having dropped several levels because of this money grabbing lowlife.

The football club have resigned themselves to the fight being over as they can't afford to fight a millionaire businessman (who has presumably filled several brown envelopes along the way).

It's a familiar story and will keep on happening unless the asset strippers can be stopped from taking over football clubs (and rugby clubs and other sporting entities).

Watch out Wrexham, if they don't get promoted this season the reality TV show (with a two year contract) may well pull out of the financing of the venture. The club don't even own the ground, that belongs to the two people who bought it back from the University. What would they be prepared to do to recoup their investment?

Just asking!

DCMS report concludes at Worcester Warriors unscrupulous owners mismanaged club finances whilst attempting to strip the club of its assets.


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The same thing is happening at Morecambe and Yeovil but nobody is prepared to do anything about it. Football governance failing badly yet again.

I'd like to see "undisclosed fees" banned from the game. How much teams are paying for players should be public knowledge. 

I sneezed before. It's the government's fault.

There are already plenty of rules that apply to general businesses but not sport. Transfer fees in general actually, in what other sector are you not allowed to change employer unless someone pays for you? 

You could look at Wyll Stanway. As he's under 24, we'd be entitled to a fee for him if he left, but if nobody is willing to pay a fee, he has to stay here until he's 24. Meanwhile, most of us can just hand in a month's notice if we want to leave or change jobs. I always think there are a lot of rules in football that would not stand up if someone seriously challenged them. 

Vitanic Limited. The limited filings on Companies House won't fill anyone with confidence. 

But everybody knows the test is not fit for purpose.  How many times have there been unsuitable owners for whatever reason.

Does anyone actually know what the test consists of and who decides?  Or do they ask "Are you an upstanding citizen?"  and accept whatever they say.