Post by Macmoish on Jan 14, 2012 7:27:18 GMT
Telegraph/Mark Ogden
Bolton Wanderers must avoid Premier League relegation to tackle £110m debt
Bolton Wanderers face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday with manager Owen Coyle conceding that Premier League survival is crucial to the club’s attempts to drive down their £110million debt.
The fact that the outcome of Bolton’s battle to avoid relegation will resonate in Bermuda and the Isle of Man as much as the Lancastrian town which has supported a Football League team since 1888 emphasises the high stakes at play for a club attempting to avoid servicing such a mountainous debt without access to the riches of the Premier League.
With Bolton controlled by Isle of Man-based owner Eddie Davies through the Fildraw Private Trust, a company registered in Bermuda, Coyle admitted after a meeting with Davies recently that the club’s financial health rests in the hands of the Bolton-born millionaire.
“Eddie isn’t one who seeks the limelight,” Coyle said. “But everyone at this football club is indebted to him. He can see the bigger picture and that football always gives you an opportunity to turn that on its head.
“But in the modern game, and accepting Eddie has poured £100million in to get this club to this level, I understood when I came in that I had to get this club back on an even keel.”
While concerns grow over the ability of Blackburn Rovers, under their Indian owners, Venky’s, to survive the financial body blow of relegation this season, the picture at the Reebok appears equally worrying.
With accounts for the year ending June 30, 2011, revealing a £17million rise in the debt of parent company Burnden Leisure to £110.6million — despite a reduction in the net loss from £35.4million to £26.05million — the ramifications of relegation for Bolton are clear.
Servicing the debt – Bolton pay five per cent interest on a loan of £99 million from Moonshift Investments Ltd, a company in which Davies has a beneficial interest — would be an obvious post-relegation conundrum considering that the club received £44.69million from broadcasting revenue in 2010-11.
Yet while monies owed to financial institutions following relegation from the Premier League ultimately proved ruinous for the likes of Leeds United, Bradford City and Portsmouth, Bolton’s debt is at least owed solely to their most generous supporter.
The long-term commitment of Davies, who made his £60million fortune producing kettle thermostats, appears strong, yet there is an open acceptance that the club would readily embrace new investment.
But despite rumours of strong interest from a local consortium involving boxer Amir Khan three years ago, which came to nothing, prospective buyers have been thin on the ground.
Seemingly an unappealing investment as a Premier League club, despite owning the Reebok, training ground, academy and DeVere Hotel at the Reebok, Bolton’s prospects of attracting wealthy new owners while playing in the Championship would further diminish. Hence Coyle’s admission that the next six months are crucial to the club’s future.
Twelve first-team players are out of contract this summer, including Kevin Davies, Jussi Jaaskelainen and Zat Knight. Gary Cahill, whose contract also expires in June, is set to leave for Chelsea in a £7million move this month.
Should Bolton suffer relegation, the blow would be softened by the removal of 12 playing contracts which amount to more than £10 million in annual wages, but a recent 16 per cent growth in gate receipts would be difficult to maintain, while turnover would also be hit hard.
Coyle, however, insists that the picture is not as bleak as it may appear. “I’m privy to a lot of things that other people aren’t,” he said. “I know the big picture at the club. We’re in a fantastic position for how we want to progress, but you can’t hide the fact that, first and foremost, we have to stay in the Premier League and I believe that we’ll do it.
“There’s a degree of difference [between Premier League and Championship], but with the parachute payments, the differences aren’t insurmountable providing you look to get yourself back up. We don’t contemplate that. All I’m looking for is that we stay in the Premier League and then I believe we’ll be in an unbelievable position for the club to move forward in terms of having a better, younger team year by year. Come the summer, we’ll be in the best position we’ve been in for many years to move on and be positive.”
The days of Bolton competing for the likes of Nicolas Anelka, an £8million buy from Fenerbahce in 2006, or paying the wages to attract global stars such as Youri Djorkaeff and Fernando Hierro appear consigned to the past.
Davies’s support ensured those marquee names were added to former manager Sam Allardyce’s squad and European qualification was the reward for that investment.
Coyle has been forced to operate under different terms since succeeding Gary Megson as manager in January 2010, however.
In two years, Coyle’s net transfer spend is just over £4million and his signings last summer were funded by sales and the removal of Johan Elmander’s £40,000-a-week wages following his decision to leave at the end of his contract.
Coyle said: “Last summer, we sold Matty Taylor and Ali Al Habsi to fund moves for Chris Eagles, Tyrone Mears and David Ngog. Gary Cahill is out of contract in the summer and nobody is trying to disguise that fact, so from a financial point of view, does it benefit the club to sell now? Of course it does.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/bolton-wanderers/9014275/Bolton-Wanderers-must-avoid-Premier-League-relegation-to-tackle-110m-debt.html
Bolton Wanderers must avoid Premier League relegation to tackle £110m debt
Bolton Wanderers face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday with manager Owen Coyle conceding that Premier League survival is crucial to the club’s attempts to drive down their £110million debt.
The fact that the outcome of Bolton’s battle to avoid relegation will resonate in Bermuda and the Isle of Man as much as the Lancastrian town which has supported a Football League team since 1888 emphasises the high stakes at play for a club attempting to avoid servicing such a mountainous debt without access to the riches of the Premier League.
With Bolton controlled by Isle of Man-based owner Eddie Davies through the Fildraw Private Trust, a company registered in Bermuda, Coyle admitted after a meeting with Davies recently that the club’s financial health rests in the hands of the Bolton-born millionaire.
“Eddie isn’t one who seeks the limelight,” Coyle said. “But everyone at this football club is indebted to him. He can see the bigger picture and that football always gives you an opportunity to turn that on its head.
“But in the modern game, and accepting Eddie has poured £100million in to get this club to this level, I understood when I came in that I had to get this club back on an even keel.”
While concerns grow over the ability of Blackburn Rovers, under their Indian owners, Venky’s, to survive the financial body blow of relegation this season, the picture at the Reebok appears equally worrying.
With accounts for the year ending June 30, 2011, revealing a £17million rise in the debt of parent company Burnden Leisure to £110.6million — despite a reduction in the net loss from £35.4million to £26.05million — the ramifications of relegation for Bolton are clear.
Servicing the debt – Bolton pay five per cent interest on a loan of £99 million from Moonshift Investments Ltd, a company in which Davies has a beneficial interest — would be an obvious post-relegation conundrum considering that the club received £44.69million from broadcasting revenue in 2010-11.
Yet while monies owed to financial institutions following relegation from the Premier League ultimately proved ruinous for the likes of Leeds United, Bradford City and Portsmouth, Bolton’s debt is at least owed solely to their most generous supporter.
The long-term commitment of Davies, who made his £60million fortune producing kettle thermostats, appears strong, yet there is an open acceptance that the club would readily embrace new investment.
But despite rumours of strong interest from a local consortium involving boxer Amir Khan three years ago, which came to nothing, prospective buyers have been thin on the ground.
Seemingly an unappealing investment as a Premier League club, despite owning the Reebok, training ground, academy and DeVere Hotel at the Reebok, Bolton’s prospects of attracting wealthy new owners while playing in the Championship would further diminish. Hence Coyle’s admission that the next six months are crucial to the club’s future.
Twelve first-team players are out of contract this summer, including Kevin Davies, Jussi Jaaskelainen and Zat Knight. Gary Cahill, whose contract also expires in June, is set to leave for Chelsea in a £7million move this month.
Should Bolton suffer relegation, the blow would be softened by the removal of 12 playing contracts which amount to more than £10 million in annual wages, but a recent 16 per cent growth in gate receipts would be difficult to maintain, while turnover would also be hit hard.
Coyle, however, insists that the picture is not as bleak as it may appear. “I’m privy to a lot of things that other people aren’t,” he said. “I know the big picture at the club. We’re in a fantastic position for how we want to progress, but you can’t hide the fact that, first and foremost, we have to stay in the Premier League and I believe that we’ll do it.
“There’s a degree of difference [between Premier League and Championship], but with the parachute payments, the differences aren’t insurmountable providing you look to get yourself back up. We don’t contemplate that. All I’m looking for is that we stay in the Premier League and then I believe we’ll be in an unbelievable position for the club to move forward in terms of having a better, younger team year by year. Come the summer, we’ll be in the best position we’ve been in for many years to move on and be positive.”
The days of Bolton competing for the likes of Nicolas Anelka, an £8million buy from Fenerbahce in 2006, or paying the wages to attract global stars such as Youri Djorkaeff and Fernando Hierro appear consigned to the past.
Davies’s support ensured those marquee names were added to former manager Sam Allardyce’s squad and European qualification was the reward for that investment.
Coyle has been forced to operate under different terms since succeeding Gary Megson as manager in January 2010, however.
In two years, Coyle’s net transfer spend is just over £4million and his signings last summer were funded by sales and the removal of Johan Elmander’s £40,000-a-week wages following his decision to leave at the end of his contract.
Coyle said: “Last summer, we sold Matty Taylor and Ali Al Habsi to fund moves for Chris Eagles, Tyrone Mears and David Ngog. Gary Cahill is out of contract in the summer and nobody is trying to disguise that fact, so from a financial point of view, does it benefit the club to sell now? Of course it does.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/bolton-wanderers/9014275/Bolton-Wanderers-must-avoid-Premier-League-relegation-to-tackle-110m-debt.html