Post by Macmoish on Mar 31, 2011 6:39:48 GMT
Guardian - The Digger/Matt Scott
Ray Ranson's resignation will not end probe into Cardiff City loan
• Former Coventry City chairman holds shares in club
• Football League questions his influence on transfers
Ray Ranson has this week stepped down as Coventry City chairman, with the former Southampton chairman Ken Dulieu taking over the role. In a statement published on the club's website Ranson confirmed he will remain a "football consultant" but indicated his skills did not fit the "new phase where the commercial side of the company will need dedicated focus under a new chairman".
Ranson resigned from the chairmanship on Monday, less than four weeks after Digger revealed that the Football League is investigating the circumstances of a loan agreement held between Cardiff City and Sport Asset Capital.
SAC is a company controlled by Ranson, and the League has sought his explanation about a new loan that emerged after the SAC agreement was renegotiated. The new loan is held with the Player Finance Fund, a Cayman Islands-registered company, and carries a "negative pledge" that, along with statements in Cardiff's accounts, might suggest Cardiff may not sell players without Ranson's prior approval. Cardiff's lawyer, Alan Whiteley, who was in the news last week, having been suspended from his firm upon his arrest by the Serious Fraud Office in a separate matter unconnected to Cardiff, insists Ranson cannot dictate any element of transfer policy to his club.
Still, the League wants to find out for itself and is considering the responses it has received from both Cardiff and Ranson. Clearly it would be a serious problem for the chairman of one Championship club to have an influence over the transfer activities of another. But the resignation of Ranson, who did not return Digger's call on Wednesday, is not the end of the matter. Coventry's most recent annual return, from six months ago, stated that through his company R2 Sports Group, which describes itself as pursuing "sources of income in relation to the football industry", Ranson holds 16% of the club's shares.
Birmingham's £5.2m loss
Birmingham International Holdings, the parent company of the Carling Cup winners Birmingham City, this week announced its interim accounts for the six months to 31 December last year. The results show another big loss for the relegation-threatened Premier League club. With the wages-to-turnover ratio running at 68.5% for the period, the club made a £5.2m loss on £30m of turnover. The continued losses might explain why last Saturday the company gave itself another two months to fulfil its "best efforts" share placing, after raising only the underwritten, £6.8m element of a £23.4m total rights issue. As Digger revealed in January, since May 2008 the shareholders of BIH (or Grandtop International, as it was previously known) have agreed to inject £83.1m into the company in various forms. On average they have been asked to pump in £26.9m of fresh equity in each of the past four years, despite losses over that period amounting to more than double that sum. To give him his side of the story, Peter Pannu says that reports of Birmingham's "financial uncertainty [are] journalistic-induced scaremongering".
Pandol leaves the FA
Christine Pandol is leaving the Football Association after 13 years, a period during which she became one of its most respected employees. As secretary to the chairman, Pandol was the strong woman behind both Geoff Thompson and Lord Triesman. She had also outlasted the chief executives Adam Crozier, Mark Palios, Brian Barwick and Ian Watmore. But upon the arrival of David Bernstein as chairman, Pandol has chosen to leave the FA. It would not divulge whether she had received a severance payment or whether she had signed a confidentiality agreement, since it does not discuss individual staff contracts. But one thing is for sure: Pandol will take with her a huge amount of knowledge that could have been useful to Bernstein in his new job.
Bosnia facing expulsion
Manchester City's Edin Dzeko could have a lot more spare time on his hands this summer than is currently scheduled. Dzeko's Bosnia-Herzegovina is on the brink of being suspended from Fifa after the national federation refused to change its statutes under orders from Uefa and Fifa. Unless things are sorted soon, then Dzeko's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Romania and Albania in June will be cancelled. The football authorities want a single, elected president of the federation and are unhappy with the compromise agreement that sees the presidency handed round the nations' three ethnic groups by rotation. Given the strife that Croats, Serbs and Bosnian muslims have endured throughout the Balkans and in Bosnia-Herzegovina in particular, their expulsion from world football seems excruciatingly harsh.
Ferguson wastes his ire
Sir Alex Ferguson's remarks about the "absolute chaos" of his side's FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City at Wembley on 16 April were futile. Ferguson must know that the Football Association is contractually obliged to hold its FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley under the terms of its 10-year seat licences, without which the FA would be bankrupt. So there is no chance of the Manchester derby taking place anywhere other than Wembley. Perhaps what drove his comments, almost a fortnight since his five-match touchline ban for impugning the integrity of the referee Martin Atkinson, was anger at the FA. "I had a strong feeling that we'd get City," he added. "I'm not saying there's a hot ball and a cold ball, but it's maybe the kind of draw that a lot of people wanted – and maybe a lot of people didn't want." So for the avoidance of doubt, he is not saying there's a hot ball and a cold ball, because that would be impugning the integrity of the FA, and Ferguson would surely not do that.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/31/ray-ranson-cardiff-city
Ray Ranson's resignation will not end probe into Cardiff City loan
• Former Coventry City chairman holds shares in club
• Football League questions his influence on transfers
Ray Ranson has this week stepped down as Coventry City chairman, with the former Southampton chairman Ken Dulieu taking over the role. In a statement published on the club's website Ranson confirmed he will remain a "football consultant" but indicated his skills did not fit the "new phase where the commercial side of the company will need dedicated focus under a new chairman".
Ranson resigned from the chairmanship on Monday, less than four weeks after Digger revealed that the Football League is investigating the circumstances of a loan agreement held between Cardiff City and Sport Asset Capital.
SAC is a company controlled by Ranson, and the League has sought his explanation about a new loan that emerged after the SAC agreement was renegotiated. The new loan is held with the Player Finance Fund, a Cayman Islands-registered company, and carries a "negative pledge" that, along with statements in Cardiff's accounts, might suggest Cardiff may not sell players without Ranson's prior approval. Cardiff's lawyer, Alan Whiteley, who was in the news last week, having been suspended from his firm upon his arrest by the Serious Fraud Office in a separate matter unconnected to Cardiff, insists Ranson cannot dictate any element of transfer policy to his club.
Still, the League wants to find out for itself and is considering the responses it has received from both Cardiff and Ranson. Clearly it would be a serious problem for the chairman of one Championship club to have an influence over the transfer activities of another. But the resignation of Ranson, who did not return Digger's call on Wednesday, is not the end of the matter. Coventry's most recent annual return, from six months ago, stated that through his company R2 Sports Group, which describes itself as pursuing "sources of income in relation to the football industry", Ranson holds 16% of the club's shares.
Birmingham's £5.2m loss
Birmingham International Holdings, the parent company of the Carling Cup winners Birmingham City, this week announced its interim accounts for the six months to 31 December last year. The results show another big loss for the relegation-threatened Premier League club. With the wages-to-turnover ratio running at 68.5% for the period, the club made a £5.2m loss on £30m of turnover. The continued losses might explain why last Saturday the company gave itself another two months to fulfil its "best efforts" share placing, after raising only the underwritten, £6.8m element of a £23.4m total rights issue. As Digger revealed in January, since May 2008 the shareholders of BIH (or Grandtop International, as it was previously known) have agreed to inject £83.1m into the company in various forms. On average they have been asked to pump in £26.9m of fresh equity in each of the past four years, despite losses over that period amounting to more than double that sum. To give him his side of the story, Peter Pannu says that reports of Birmingham's "financial uncertainty [are] journalistic-induced scaremongering".
Pandol leaves the FA
Christine Pandol is leaving the Football Association after 13 years, a period during which she became one of its most respected employees. As secretary to the chairman, Pandol was the strong woman behind both Geoff Thompson and Lord Triesman. She had also outlasted the chief executives Adam Crozier, Mark Palios, Brian Barwick and Ian Watmore. But upon the arrival of David Bernstein as chairman, Pandol has chosen to leave the FA. It would not divulge whether she had received a severance payment or whether she had signed a confidentiality agreement, since it does not discuss individual staff contracts. But one thing is for sure: Pandol will take with her a huge amount of knowledge that could have been useful to Bernstein in his new job.
Bosnia facing expulsion
Manchester City's Edin Dzeko could have a lot more spare time on his hands this summer than is currently scheduled. Dzeko's Bosnia-Herzegovina is on the brink of being suspended from Fifa after the national federation refused to change its statutes under orders from Uefa and Fifa. Unless things are sorted soon, then Dzeko's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Romania and Albania in June will be cancelled. The football authorities want a single, elected president of the federation and are unhappy with the compromise agreement that sees the presidency handed round the nations' three ethnic groups by rotation. Given the strife that Croats, Serbs and Bosnian muslims have endured throughout the Balkans and in Bosnia-Herzegovina in particular, their expulsion from world football seems excruciatingly harsh.
Ferguson wastes his ire
Sir Alex Ferguson's remarks about the "absolute chaos" of his side's FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City at Wembley on 16 April were futile. Ferguson must know that the Football Association is contractually obliged to hold its FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley under the terms of its 10-year seat licences, without which the FA would be bankrupt. So there is no chance of the Manchester derby taking place anywhere other than Wembley. Perhaps what drove his comments, almost a fortnight since his five-match touchline ban for impugning the integrity of the referee Martin Atkinson, was anger at the FA. "I had a strong feeling that we'd get City," he added. "I'm not saying there's a hot ball and a cold ball, but it's maybe the kind of draw that a lot of people wanted – and maybe a lot of people didn't want." So for the avoidance of doubt, he is not saying there's a hot ball and a cold ball, because that would be impugning the integrity of the FA, and Ferguson would surely not do that.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/31/ray-ranson-cardiff-city