Post by Zamoraaaah on Dec 11, 2008 18:32:25 GMT
Found this link posted on the QPR 606 board by RBlockShepherdsBush
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A44726916
As a couple of posters noted, "We were lucky it wasn't a Top 10"
The 5 worst run football clubs
Posted: 09 December 2008, 12:12
www.shortlist.com/sport/article/the-5-worst-run-football-clubs
Bad management on and off the pitch
For all the money in football - ticket sales, sponsorship, and most of all, TV rights - it's amazing just how few football clubs turn a profit. Making money from the beautiful game is very much a dark art, and not every club, owner or even manager is up to the task. Here are what we think are the five most inexplicably badly run teams in the land. Disagree? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below.
1. Bradford Park Avenue
Ever heard of them? Us neither but for many years, they were bigger than Bradford City, who are still going strong today. In the 1910s, Park Avenue was a mainstay in the First Division, but a decline set in, and over the next three decades the team dropped and dropped, until in 1970 it fell out of the Football League altogether. Financial problems followed, and a ground share with Bradford City did little to help matters. Finally in 1974, BPA suffered a fate worse than the MK Dons' relocation and collapsed with debts of almost £60,000, despite not having to pay for their own stadium. Ironically, that's now less than a week's salary for some Premiership stars.
2. Newcastle United
Perhaps not the worst run club financially (though owner Mike Ashley is keen to let people know how much money he's losing), but for failing to capitalise on their potential on the pitch, the Magpies surely deserve a spot on the list. One of the most passionately supported clubs in the country, United haven't one a major domestic honour since 1955. Just over a decade ago, Kevin Keegan took the club to within a hair's breadth of the title and seeds of hope were sewn. They were the second best team in the country and the most entertaining. Then Keegan left to mis-manage England and things went rapidly downhill. Directors of football, the board making signings, no patience with managers (some of them allegedly sacked by senior players), and an impatient crowd have insured a return to the culture of underachievement.
3. The entire Nigerian football league
If you think all the alleged bungs and questionable transfer deals that still dog the Premiership are bad, you obviously don't follow the Nigerian football league. It's not just the money that tempts the nation's top players abroad: it's the chance to play a game that hasn't been rigged. Corruption is so bad, it's not just dodgy administrators sucking the sport dry, it's politicians. Teams are run by state governors, and one local sports editor even claims that when one owner asks another to throw a game, the other asks how many goals by. Such is the state of things, this year the manager of league winning team the Kano Pillars resigned. Which makes you wonder how they won in the first place.
4. Leeds City/Leeds United
Technically two different clubs, but were it not for the bunglings of one, the second one-day-to-bungle-too club would not have come into existence. Leeds City were on a roll before the first World War. Herbert Chapman, the not yet Arsenal legend, had guided them to fourth in the second division and everything was looking (white) rosey. Then they made illegal payments to players during the war and ended up being dissolved eight games into the 1919-20 season. This led to the naissance of United who in turn managed to have their own organisational fall from grace. In 2001 they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and subsequently took large loans out against a lucrative return to the competition the following season. They failed to qualify, leading to a fire sale of their best players and eventual relegation to the Championshipin 2004 and League One in 2007.
5. New York Cosmos
The MLS in America is starting pick up pace and popularity globally, but there were experiments with bid budget "soccer" in the States before. in the 1970s and 80s, the North American Soccer League tried to do for the sport what the Indian Premier League is doing for cricket now and leading the media charge were the New York Cosmos, famous for signing Brazilian legend Pele and paying him silly amounts despite being well past his prime. Beckham comparisons aside, the club only stayed viable through Warner bankrolling it heavily. When Warner pulled out, a group led by former team player Giorgio Chinaglia took control, and unsurprisingly couldn't afford it, failing to even make the playoffs in the seasons before the whole league collapsed.
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A44726916
As a couple of posters noted, "We were lucky it wasn't a Top 10"
The 5 worst run football clubs
Posted: 09 December 2008, 12:12
www.shortlist.com/sport/article/the-5-worst-run-football-clubs
Bad management on and off the pitch
For all the money in football - ticket sales, sponsorship, and most of all, TV rights - it's amazing just how few football clubs turn a profit. Making money from the beautiful game is very much a dark art, and not every club, owner or even manager is up to the task. Here are what we think are the five most inexplicably badly run teams in the land. Disagree? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below.
1. Bradford Park Avenue
Ever heard of them? Us neither but for many years, they were bigger than Bradford City, who are still going strong today. In the 1910s, Park Avenue was a mainstay in the First Division, but a decline set in, and over the next three decades the team dropped and dropped, until in 1970 it fell out of the Football League altogether. Financial problems followed, and a ground share with Bradford City did little to help matters. Finally in 1974, BPA suffered a fate worse than the MK Dons' relocation and collapsed with debts of almost £60,000, despite not having to pay for their own stadium. Ironically, that's now less than a week's salary for some Premiership stars.
2. Newcastle United
Perhaps not the worst run club financially (though owner Mike Ashley is keen to let people know how much money he's losing), but for failing to capitalise on their potential on the pitch, the Magpies surely deserve a spot on the list. One of the most passionately supported clubs in the country, United haven't one a major domestic honour since 1955. Just over a decade ago, Kevin Keegan took the club to within a hair's breadth of the title and seeds of hope were sewn. They were the second best team in the country and the most entertaining. Then Keegan left to mis-manage England and things went rapidly downhill. Directors of football, the board making signings, no patience with managers (some of them allegedly sacked by senior players), and an impatient crowd have insured a return to the culture of underachievement.
3. The entire Nigerian football league
If you think all the alleged bungs and questionable transfer deals that still dog the Premiership are bad, you obviously don't follow the Nigerian football league. It's not just the money that tempts the nation's top players abroad: it's the chance to play a game that hasn't been rigged. Corruption is so bad, it's not just dodgy administrators sucking the sport dry, it's politicians. Teams are run by state governors, and one local sports editor even claims that when one owner asks another to throw a game, the other asks how many goals by. Such is the state of things, this year the manager of league winning team the Kano Pillars resigned. Which makes you wonder how they won in the first place.
4. Leeds City/Leeds United
Technically two different clubs, but were it not for the bunglings of one, the second one-day-to-bungle-too club would not have come into existence. Leeds City were on a roll before the first World War. Herbert Chapman, the not yet Arsenal legend, had guided them to fourth in the second division and everything was looking (white) rosey. Then they made illegal payments to players during the war and ended up being dissolved eight games into the 1919-20 season. This led to the naissance of United who in turn managed to have their own organisational fall from grace. In 2001 they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and subsequently took large loans out against a lucrative return to the competition the following season. They failed to qualify, leading to a fire sale of their best players and eventual relegation to the Championshipin 2004 and League One in 2007.
5. New York Cosmos
The MLS in America is starting pick up pace and popularity globally, but there were experiments with bid budget "soccer" in the States before. in the 1970s and 80s, the North American Soccer League tried to do for the sport what the Indian Premier League is doing for cricket now and leading the media charge were the New York Cosmos, famous for signing Brazilian legend Pele and paying him silly amounts despite being well past his prime. Beckham comparisons aside, the club only stayed viable through Warner bankrolling it heavily. When Warner pulled out, a group led by former team player Giorgio Chinaglia took control, and unsurprisingly couldn't afford it, failing to even make the playoffs in the seasons before the whole league collapsed.
