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Crystal Palace- 'On a knife edge'


spyinthesky

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Sad state of affairs as they seemed a better bet for a buyer than that lot down the road who have obviously made a pact with the devil as they seem unconcerned about coming out of their admin.

 

Presumably Cardiff FC will be in similar dire straits having not got promoted and due back in court for another liquidation hearing next month.

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I've got mates who are Palace fans and, having gone with them up to Selhurst many, many times in the past 20 years I'd hate to see them go out of business. And to see that barrel of sh!t down the road continue to exist in their moral vacuum makes it even worse.

 

Palace's debts must be 10% of that of Pompey. Yet they are readily admitting that everything is up for sale. Darren Ambrose, their star performer from last season, has just gone for 750K, which is massively underpriced, but they realise they have obligations so off he goes. The likes of Speroni, Cline, Danns and many others are all in line to follow in the near future, just to pay the bills.

 

Yet the scum from down the road continue to rack up enormous bills with a ridiculous wage bill, and nothing gets done. £138M in debt at the last count, and with no revenues for the next 3 months no chance of paying HMRC for the continuing tax bill.

 

Football makes absolutely no sense to me.

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I've got mates who are Palace fans and, having gone with them up to Selhurst many, many times in the past 20 years I'd hate to see them go out of business. And to see that barrel of sh!t down the road continue to exist in their moral vacuum makes it even worse.

 

Yet the scum from down the road continue to rack up enormous bills with a ridiculous wage bill, and nothing gets done. £138M in debt at the last count, and with no revenues for the next 3 months no chance of paying HMRC for the continuing tax bill.

 

Football makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

I don't want to see any club go out of business, but what I do want is fair treatment for all. At the moment, it is incredibly lopsided.

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Statement CPFC2010 – 31st May 2010

 

As you are aware we are endeavoring to acquire both Crystal Palace Football club and Selhurst Park. Everyone would agree Selhurst Park is pivotal to the long-term future of the club and CPFC2010 have always made it clear that they will not proceed without securing it.

 

We have now reached agreement with Agilo regarding their debt against the club and did have what we thought was an agreement with Bank of Scotland who are the major creditor of Selhurst Park Ltd. Subsequent to this agreement we have been sent a contract that does not reflect this agreement and is unworkable.

 

CPFC 2010 value Selhurst park as a football ground but have agreed to pay a significant premium on that. We also recognize that a property developer may pay even more for the ground on the chance that they may be able to change its use sometime in the future. The bank have made it clear that they want to help the club and don’t want to sell to a property developer now but are worried we may sell the land for development in the future, making a profit and embarrassing the bank in the process.

 

In order to put their minds at rest we have also agreed to an ‘anti embarrassment’ clause that allows the Bank to see a further return if we realize greater value from the ground in the future. In essence we need clarity on what that amount should be and how it is calculated. At the moment it seems the Bank want to make unlimited return in the future even if that value is created on the back of the success of the football club or money we have invested in a new infrastructure and not in appreciation of the value of the land. We believe that the maximum they should make is the difference between what we will pay for the land as a football ground and what a property developer will pay now as a development opportunity plus interest.

 

We are dealing totally through intermediaries and its very frustrating, as we don’t think the bank competently understand the situation we are in, or the urgency.

 

If we cannot reach agreement soon (we have a deadline of 3pm 1st June) Agilo have made their intention clear to sell the players and liquidate the club.

 

Please be assured we are doing everything we can to make this happen but as we sit today the future of Crystal palace hangs in the balance and is very much in the hands of a person in a bank in Scotland whom we have never met and it seems we are not allowed to speak to.

 

We note the new governments commitment to sport, particularly sport in the community, Bank of Scotland is currently government owned, as such we would urge the new Prime Minister to intervene personally to resolve the situation or see a club supported by many thousands with 100 year History consigned to the scrapheap.

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Looking at their plight and the lack of media interest and lack of interest from other fans brings home just much nobody else gave a **** about about our plight last year. If you're off the top flight radar you're not important.

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Looking at their plight and the lack of media interest and lack of interest from other fans brings home just much nobody else gave a **** about about our plight last year. If you're off the top flight radar you're not important.

 

Interesting point. But then why was there such a media outcry at the thought of Portsmouth FC going under..? I didn't see any interest from the general public. An anonymous club if there ever was one.

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apparently a group of palace fans have protested by breaking into the club and smashing up the offices.

 

excellent, that showed them.

 

i reckon we could see the first ''big'' club to go pop here.

 

Ummmm Wimbledon F.C??

 

Oooh they used to play at Selhurst park too.....coincidence?

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Ummmm Wimbledon F.C??

 

Oooh they used to play at Selhurst park too.....coincidence?

 

I understand where you're coming from, but Wimbledon was a slightly different scenario. They were allowed to simply relocate and change their name. There wasn't a situation that involved a league only having 23 clubs

 

As a footy fan I'd be seriously gutted to see a club of Palace's standing to go under

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Interesting point. But then why was there such a media outcry at the thought of Portsmouth FC going under..? I didn't see any interest from the general public. An anonymous club if there ever was one.

 

They have the best fans in the world. They're special.

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Would be an absolute travesty if Palace go under and P*mpey don't. No club should be given preferential treatment, and that is exactly what's happening with this situation at the moment. The FA aren't bailing Palace out, yet they've been pretty heavily involved with P*mpey's financial straits.

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Would be an absolute travesty if Palace go under and P*mpey don't. No club should be given preferential treatment, and that is exactly what's happening with this situation at the moment. The FA aren't bailing Palace out, yet they've been pretty heavily involved with P*mpey's financial straits.

 

and palace's overall debt. must be less than 30% of Pompeys total debt, yet they may sneak themselves out of it.

 

makes you sick really.

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There you go. It makes not a jot of difference that I also drink conventional coloured beer [not lager], so I'm damned by my open mindedness. I can also cook, which kind of seals the argument. ;)

 

You're not alone, i'm prone to succumbing to a Malibu and Pineapple Juice from time to time. Nothing to worry about.

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Looking at their plight and the lack of media interest and lack of interest from other fans brings home just much nobody else gave a **** about about our plight last year. If you're off the top flight radar you're not important.

I think there have been so many occasions where it has been stated that'we are minutes from extinction' and something positive has happened nobody really believes a club will go.If it does many will sit up next time the statement is made.

As for Pompey, more and more people from other clubs are now starting to throw their arms up in disbelief at the way they have got away with it.

I still feel that the sewerage is so deep and goes into so many circles of world football and perhaps even politics that Pomepy will be cleansed and allowed to survive. There is no other reason why they are still alive and kicking.

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Palace’s administrator does seem particularly useless though. Darren Ambrose sold to raise cash, and they got 750K for him. Even despite their money troubles he should have gone for at least double that. I understand that the administrator has to prioritise the creditors but this one doesn’t seem to care about the club and its survival one jot; he very much seems to be looking after his own interests and is completely prepared to throw the towel in from tomorrow onwards as its all getting a bit difficult for him.

 

Mark Fry wasn’t perfect for us by any means but he did at least prioritise Saints future life as well as that of the creditors; Palace’s unfortunately doesn’t seem to have the same level of care.

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Palace’s administrator does seem particularly useless though. Darren Ambrose sold to raise cash, and they got 750K for him. Even despite their money troubles he should have gone for at least double that. I understand that the administrator has to prioritise the creditors but this one doesn’t seem to care about the club and its survival one jot; he very much seems to be looking after his own interests and is completely prepared to throw the towel in from tomorrow onwards as its all getting a bit difficult for him.

 

Mark Fry wasn’t perfect for us by any means but he did at least prioritise Saints future life as well as that of the creditors; Palace’s unfortunately doesn’t seem to have the same level of care.

There's a key difference between our situation a year ago and the situation Palace now find themselves in.

 

Their stadium will be infinitely more valuable as property real estate for a developer than it is as a football stadium (location location location etc).

 

Brendan Guilfoile (the Palace administrator) is doing his legal duty to maximise return for the creditors, but there's only so long he can run the business for before it ceases being a viable proposition - that seems to be the case from tomorrow, unless he can sell any more players relatively quickly.

 

Re the fee for Ambrose, ultimately the most the administrator can get for him is whatever someone's willing to pay. If the highest bid is £750k and they're a few days from beginning the liquidation process, it's his duty to grab that money while he can.

 

Arguably Mark Fry did the same with David McGoldrick and Andrew Surman, which allowed the club to continue trading for an extra few months. It doesn't bear thinking about what might have happened had those sales not taken place (even though we did ultimately get "fair" prices for them).

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There's a key difference between our situation a year ago and the situation Palace now find themselves in.

 

Their stadium will be infinitely more valuable as property real estate for a developer than it is as a football stadium (location location location etc).

 

Brendan Guilfoile (the Palace administrator) is doing his legal duty to maximise return for the creditors, but there's only so long he can run the business for before it ceases being a viable proposition - that seems to be the case from tomorrow, unless he can sell any more players relatively quickly.

 

Re the fee for Ambrose, ultimately the most the administrator can get for him is whatever someone's willing to pay. If the highest bid is £750k and they're a few days from beginning the liquidation process, it's his duty to grab that money while he can.

 

Arguably Mark Fry did the same with David McGoldrick and Andrew Surman, which allowed the club to continue trading for an extra few months. It doesn't bear thinking about what might have happened had those sales not taken place (even though we did ultimately get "fair" prices for them).

 

I'm fully aware how it works; I just think the level of competence in the football market shown by the Palace administrators has been well below par. I've said before my mates are Palace fans so I've been giving the whole situation a fair bit of attention. And the actions of Guilfoile in the media have smacked of a completely desperate man who seems wholly overwhelmed by the situation he is in.

 

As for your comment about the fee for Ambrose, of course he can only get what another team is willing to pay. But that's my point, it is the job of the administrator to be able to attract a market value for all of his assets, despite the situation the club is in. Saints and Palace were in similar scenarios when Ambrose was sold and we sold Surman & McGoldrick. Yet we still managed to get sums well in excess of the figure Palace got for Ambrose, and I would place Ambrose as a much more valuable player than either of those (especially McGoldrick).

 

My point is that, despite Saints completely abject financial position at the time, we managed to obtain completely fair market prices for our players. Palace have failed to do that for their top attraction, and instead of insisting they will sell just one or two more players to keep the club running in the short term they are giving up the fight, suggesting liquidation tomorrow and encouraging a general fire sale to ensue, which will also ensure below-value prices for the rest of the departures.

Edited by The Kraken
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If they do go under, I'd assume Sheffield Wednesday would be given a reprieve and avoid dropping to our league, and then Gillingham would be given a reprieve from relegation in our league.

 

Gillingham instead of Wednesday? Probably makes it an easier league from a purely selfish point of view, but it would be a shame to see them go under.

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Palace will be fine.

 

I will bet anyone my left testicle that they will be in business at the start of next season. Football clubs just don't go out of business.

 

Aldershot did. Chester did.

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How on earth can Pompey still continue? Grrrrr....

 

Patience friend... (sorry, been playing FAR too much Red Dead Redeption...)

 

They haven't fallen under the jurisdiction of the FL yet, they still have the Creditors meeting to come, and HMRC still haven't shown their hand yet... they have a LOT of hurdles to overcome to start next season.

 

What seems to have done Palace in is the fact that their ground is too valuable as housing land...

 

Fratton Park is difficult in terms of potential for building right now unless a developer is patient, so they still have a ground to play at. That's what's keeping them going day to day right now.

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Seems as though if Palace do go bust, Sheffield Wednesday would not get a reprieve. The Championship would be made up of just 23 teams next season.

 

Assuming, of course, Pompey make it to August...

 

Really?

 

Would have thought they would be as relegation and promotion hasn't officially happened yet...

 

That's just my thoughts though.

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Seems as though if Palace do go bust, Sheffield Wednesday would not get a reprieve. The Championship would be made up of just 23 teams next season.

 

Assuming, of course, Pompey make it to August...

 

Here is the actual rule...

 

12.2 Cessation of membership. If any Club ceases to be a member of The League for any

reason (including, without limitation, pursuant to Article 4 of the Articles of Association or

by way of relegation or expulsion for disciplinary reasons):-

 

.........

 

12.2.3 during the period between the conclusion of the last Play Off Match and the start of

the following Season, its playing record shall not be expunged but the number of

relegation places from the Division in which a Club would have played but for its

cessation of membership, shall be reduced by the number of Clubs ceasing to be

members and, during that Season, the relevant Division shall operate with a

reduced number of Clubs.

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