Ownership Structure

Yes cheap words and were we taken in :
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/14514214.exclusive-new-bradford-city-owners-promise-no-hidden-agenda/

Edin Rahic and Stefan Rupp have assumed control at Valley Parade and believe the club tick all their boxes.

In an exclusive interview with the Telegraph & Argus, Rahic stressed they were happy to continue City's steady progress and had no plans to make big changes.

Rahic said: "I am 42 and Stefan 47. For us it's a long-term investment. We are not interested in thinking about an exit plan.

"We want to develop the squad and reach something. It takes time.

"We feel the mix between German and English football and business can be successful – but we don't want to run Bradford City as a German club.

"The Germans probably steer a club or company a little bit different but we will see.

"As long as we have an open and transparent relationship with the fans and the press, it would be great for me. We are not interested in anyone with a hidden agenda.

"For us, it's important not to have any pre-judgements."

 

Thank you.

 

I’m a bit conflicted on this one. The accounts do (just about!) meet the required filing obligations. Giving more information than is necessary could put us at a disadvantage by giving competitors more information than required. A lot of league 1 clubs own their stadiums which mean their balance sheets are too large to qualify for the exemptions. As city don’t currently then their balance sheet is small enough to qualify. For a normal business I would definitely say don’t produce more than you need to. However, given the stakeholder interest I can see the argument for being more transparent.

 

You have more chance of Michael Howard answering a question from Jeremy Paxman

 

Sorry Dennis been away for a few days and just catching up . Great effort looking into what’s been going on . I wouldn’t know where to start . Just Reading two of your posts . They seem to contradict themselves . Yesterday it was all made up twitter rubbish and today your concerned enough to contact the FSF ? Genuinely interested to know if your opinion has changed on the matter over the last 24 hours. When I originally posted regards how the club was purchased it wasn’t too bat edin with any stick . It’s a genuine concern that I think as fans we deserve to know what’s going on . From what I can make it seems that something isnt as clear cut as it should be

 

The days of small academy-based teams like Crewe surviving in the Championship are long gone.

 

I have always understood that any business plan was obviously geared to making profits and that some of that profits would be reinvested. What has really shocked me is that you can in theory loan yourself money to buy the club, then take that back from the club you have bought. I know you and others have said this is legal. It is just nuts to me, you are not investing but using the business for a vehicle to make money whether the business can afford it or not. I would have thought that they would be waiting and investing in the club until such time as the club can afford.

 

Also picking up on a few things here...as highlighted in red.

Don't want to run it as a German club but then completely wants to do that at a later stage....

Quoted as saying 'The Germans'....@brisbanebantams have you noticed that?

They also say that they have no plans to make changes but later in the interview Edin says 'We have a strategy in our mind and a concept. We have to see if it's possible to have success in England.'

So again for me, words and actions do not tie up!!

 

The more I read about this other company etc, the more I think the owners are here to stay and will take some serious offer to get them out

 

Well fair play to them for one thing. They have seen if it's possible to have success in England with their approach, it's not!

 

with the changes in academy structure, finance and development fees if you do eventually manage to sell a youth player to a bigger club, i think academies will soon be gone in the majority of lower league clubs - the costs just don’t outweight the benefits anymore unless you have owners who can afford to absorb those costs.

over the last few years many clubs have cut their youth programme due to the financial limitations that they have.

here’s an article on brentford and their pathway:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.football.london/championship/brentford-rasmus-ankersen-transfer-plan-14136285.amp

long gone are the days of picking up a few hundred grand for an ollie mcburnie and having good sell-on clauses, and that was only a couple of years ago.

 

i hope we stay up this season.

 

It has been suggested the loan owed at the holding company has gone up, possibly due to interest. How do we know it is not because of the possibility that they might have injected more cash into the holding company to fund further cash needs of the club?

From what has been said on here, I don't think there is enough information to draw any conclusions.

 

Yep, as I suspected, they're screwing us.

 

What does it say about shareholders? If Rupp is a shareholder he will hold voting rights and still be able to control the direction of the entity by virtue of his voting rights. It's strange that he's not a non-exec director or something though.

 

Should have read the whole thread - it's made pretty clear above. My bad

 

I did consider that, however, cash in the German Holdco only increased by 100k in the year whereas the loan amount grew by 700k. There has been no equity injection into either of the UK companies as that would show in the UK accounts. There is also no loan to the UK companies as that would show in both the UK and German accounts and I can see no evidence of that. I agree that there is insufficient information to be 100% certain about all of this, however, I am still reasonably certain based on my research that what I have said is materially accurate.