Just pinched this from Foxblogger's Twitter account;
Forbes estimates #lcfc Chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's net worth at $1.6bn. That's roughly £1.1bn. The debt #lcfc owe to the King Power Group (roughly £100m at the last accounts) represents 9.4% of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's net worth.
So we owe our owners £100m. Money which, unless the owners were ever prepared to right it off, we would have to pay back to them whenever they want it back. This far outweighs the mere £30m debt we had in 2002, which was enough to cause us to fall into administration. How exactly is this a serviceable debt? How the hell are we suppose to pay this back if we are not in the Premier League?
Also, it might be worth noting that the King Power Stadium is now owned by K Power Holdings Co, Ltd after they brought it from Teachers. The KP Stadium is not owned by Leicester City FC. We are, if I am assuming this correctly, merely leasing the ground, much the same as Coventry were at the Ricoh.
This should be a massive, worrying wake up call for Leicester City fans. We are now in a potentially perilous financial position for which I can see no way we can recover, other than if we are promoted which, in my opinion, is years away. This is a massive ticking timebomb which could go off the second the owners decide to call in their debts.
As fans I think we have gave these Thai owners far too much adoration and not kept our eye on matters and we are now in an awful situation whereby the only way we can pay off our debt is to achieve Premier League football, but because of FFP we cannot strengthen our team or squad. It's catch 22. We need to stop regarding the owners investment as if it is some sort of girft and remember that they are loading a massive debt on to the club for the ultimate goal of achieing Premier League football, something they have so far failed to achieve.
Fans, and particularly the local press, need to stop being blindly led by the Thais and start to question their plans more. We are potentially heading towards a Coventry/Portsmouth/Rangers style situation if something doesn't happen.
Most sobering thought of the day...
posted on 16/7/13
Ferry boy we are stuffed come January we won't be allowed to sign anyone unless we have take and i am guessing £30m off our costs!
posted on 16/7/13
"True Blue, you were the biggest, most tedious moaner on any LCFC forum when Sven was in charge so do me a favour - don't lecture me "
Yeah, but I was right!!!!
posted on 17/7/13
Dunge - I don't mind Pearson staying another season, providing he is 100% gone at the end of it with no chance of a return. Don't get me wrong, personally I would have been shot of him in February 2012. It's no secret that I can't stand the bloke and will be rejoicing when he finally does leave. But if we save £1m+ by just letting him run out his contract, then fine, I can live with that. I don't expect us be pushing for promotion this season, I expect mid-table, so who the manager is frankly irrelevant. Besides if we got rid of the grumpy old git now we'd likely end up with Pulis (who is anti-football) or Warnock (who would be a PR nightmare). If/when we replace NP at the end of the season (deja vu ....) then hopefully we'd either go for an experienced, ex PL manager who has previous experience of getting a team promoted, or a young, up and coming manager who plays football in the right way and can learn as he moves us forward (early frontrunners for me would be Robinson at MK, Davis at Crewe or Rosler at Brentford). And even then I think the new guy would need to be given 2 years to achieve promotion, so I for one do not expect Leicester City to be in the Premier League until the 2016-2017 season at the earliest. A bit depressing, innit?
Nev - I guess one of my big worries about the owners is how quickly they binned the Sven project. After a high profile pre-season, to give the guy a quarter of the season then sack him and replace him with a completely different person is...well, weird frankly and I just don't get it. They don't seem to have much conviction in their ambition, and I guess that makes me wonder whether their ambition to be promoted has also evaporated after 2 years of disappointment.
posted on 17/7/13
The only bright side is that most other teams aren't making significant improvements either. (Several shuffling the pack but not what I'd describe as genuine improvements.) So we'll now see how squad consistency suits us, although it is difficult to see beyond us being just contenders for a playoff place - particularly if rival clubs keep trying to unsettle our players with nonsensical bids and we do nothing to counter it.
As for why they sacked Sven, it feels like a case of horse, gate and bolted. They saw the amount of money that was going down the drain and decided upon a new approach. Unfortunately that money had already been spent. I agree that the timing was poor and Sven should have had the season to get it right though - it's hard to believe that much more damage could have been done over the rest of one year.
posted on 17/7/13
Nev - because it was 30m last season doesn't mean it will be this season. There was large expenditure both on player and infrastructure side last season. As I said above I wouldn't be surprised if they had bought costs forward into last season in anticipation of FFP.
My reading of the rules is if you break them this season you face a transfer ban in Jan14. But it only gets worse in future seasons. If we had no chance of raining it in, ie In that it's truly 30m per year every year, wouldn't you fill your boots in this transfer window knowing you wouldn't be able to do anything in the next anyway? I'd be more worried if I was a fan of a club signing lots of players now.
posted on 17/7/13
"I don't expect us be pushing for promotion this season, I expect mid-table,"
Didn't you make that prediction last season as well?
Rubbish the Club a bit more will you ( if you can ), maybe that'll push us that bit further into promotion this year!
posted on 18/7/13
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 18/7/13
Well I guess if not enough people agree with you when the season starts you can always run off again for six months, barring the odd appearance from LCFC69
posted on 18/7/13
"Please attempt to work out the difference between 'club' and 'individuals within the club'. There is a pretty substancial difference."
Well lets see, the Owners, the Manager, players who try and fans who don't agree with your own particular views, I thinks that about covers a very large percentage of the Club don't you?
posted on 18/7/13
True Blue