Quote Wooden Stand="Wooden Stand"So do you!'"
Actually, I agree with FA. You talk out of your back passage. Although it sounds more like diarrhoea than talk to me.
Quote Wooden Stand="Wooden Stand"The Bulls went bust. Full stop.'"
No. Bradford Bulls (Holdings) Ltd went bust.
Quote Wooden Stand="Wooden Stand"The Newco with the funny name bought the business and assets (but not the liabilities mind) of the Bulls from the Administrator. But not as a going concern
...only COMPANIES can be bought as going concerns.'"
So what were we watching on Saturday then? No, the "going concern" of any business activity can be sold. And very very regularly IS. As happened in this case. The alternative is to sell the assets piecemeal, and last time I looked I did not see one man walking off with the Coral Stand and a different man walking off with the goalposts. Now, FA is a lawyer with many many decades (
) of experience. I am an accountant with, likewise, more decades of experience than I care to remember. I'd suggest if you want to take us both on you had better be VERY sure of your facts, sunshine?
Quote Wooden Stand="Wooden Stand"The NewCo has effectively ditched the £1.5m debts the Bulls owed - the biggest element of which was owed to you, me and all other taxpayers as it was due to HM Revenue and Customs - not to mention the effect on all the small traders in the Bradford area who are struggling financially and have now been stitched up in this way .'"
Not having a good day, are you?
Firstly, the reported debts are not £1,5m. If you want to quote sloppy T&A reporting then do it on your own time. (The value in the Statement of Affairs is £1,328,864 - the T&A reporter clearly did not understand what share capital is. And I can see around £100k of the creditors that crystalised only on insolvency.)
Secondly, the NewCo has "ditched" NOTHING. It has no responsibility whatsoever for any of the existing creditors, and indeed did not even exist until last Thursday. And the NewCo is not in any way connected (as far as we are aware) with the former business, its directors or shareholders so we are not talking about a phoenix that rises under the same management like we see all too often, especially in pre-packs.
The debts remain with Bradford Bulls (Holdings) Ltd, and will be dealt with by the liquidator in due course.
Who has been "stitched up"? Had OK Bulls not come in, or a similar entity, the alternative was liquidation and piecemeal asset realisations. A worse, not better, outcome for the creditors. If you are going to make such libelous and outrageous statements, I suggest you explain very clearly just how you have reached your conclusion - and how you propose to back it up.
If the creditors and the taxpayer have indeed been "stitched up" that will have been because of the collective responsibility of the directors (in various configurations - remember the board that appointed administrators was not the same board that had been running the business while it got into the mess, but no-one forced them to oust the previous lot) and most especially the shareholders, whose actions and/or lack of actions are the real root cause of all this IMO. So how about you go spill your bile on THEM? Albeit you will be a long way back in the line. Seeking to pin any blame on Mr Khan is at best indicative of a total lack of understanding of the insolvency process and legislative background, and at worst dishonest trolling of the worst kind.
Quote Wooden Stand="Wooden Stand"Some Bradford fans can't seem to accept that they've had £1.5m worth of entertainment on the pitch that you weren't entitled to (as your Club couldn't afford the expensive players it had).'"
Where do you get £1.5m from? (See above).
Did you say the same about Wakey when they went bust (twice)? I recall their two-man catering supplier losing £19k the previous time time that club fell over. Or the £1/2m that London defaulted on to the taxman when THEY fell over? Or Widnes or Hull KR or any of the other clubs that have done likewise in recent times. Or is it just because it is Bradford? Hmm?
It rather seems that by the time the baord realised that 2012 income was going to fall well shoert of expectations, it was far too late to reduce the player spending - contracts were signed and in place. With other clubs up to salary cap or full quota, just how exactly was the club expected to cut its costs overnight? And there is sod all else anywhere that material savings could be made -the issue was not one of excessive costs, more of insufficient income. In the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s, in a city that has suffered more than most, and without the wealthy owner of most of our peers to underwrite the shortfall, I just wonder what the likes of you would have done?
And incidentally, the 2010 accounts showed a loss of around £300k. 2010 being the depths of the recession, you may recall? The general prognosis at the time was for a gradual pick up in the economy, so I suspect that that loss was not seen as any reason to panic at the time. Things clearly got a lot worse pretty quickly - it was only a very few seasons ago that we were remarking that Bulls were one of only two SL clubs to be reporting a profit.
I am on record as being violently opposed to a phoenix business under the same or similar ownership using insolvency as a way of clearing the decks and starting again with an unfair advantage. In any industry or field. This is not a phoenix though. It is actually a rescue to save a long-established business, and a considerable number of jobs, in precisely the manner envisaged by the Enterprise Act 2002 and the insolvency legislation and environment generally.
Creditors getting hammered is unfortunately part and parcel of business life - there are plenty far far bigger businesses that have contributed to that. It is not fair, but then neither is a lot else. And it is the repsonsibility of those who were running the show at the time. So, as I said earlier, I suggest you go and take your anger out on them. And not on anyone else who is blameless in the whole affair.
And if you insist on continuing to make yourself look such a total prat, do it someplace else on your own time, there's a good chap?
