United might be not too far behind them.
Didn't the Glazers do something similar with Utd i.e. load the club with massive debt and then use the profits to pay it off?
Doesnt bode well for United, who have already dramatically cut their transfer market activity.
How has the ManU manager spent the funds received from the sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid ? Or has the money gone to service the debt incurred by the Glazers ?
Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett claim they have won a temporary restraining order from the Texas State District Court preventing the sale of the club and are now seeking $1.6bn (€1.2bn)in damages.
The American businessmen, whose ownership of the club was thought to be approaching its end tonight as the Liverpool board met at the offices of a London legal firm with prospective new owner John Henry in attendance, have also claimed they are the victims of an “epic swindle”.
Henry tonight travelled to the offices of Slaughter and May and, when asked what it was like to nearly own the Reds, gave reporters a thumbs up gesture.
But the saga took a further twist when a statement posted on the American duo’s behalf by international law firm Fish & Richardson revealed the restraining order and counter-claim.
Read more: [broken link removed]
I'd prefer to be spending the money on every Brazilian under the age of 18 showing any kind of promise than giving it to soulless banks.
Problem with this strategy is that you end up spending to develop other clubs players. Underage players cannot sign contracts - there parents can sign on their behalf, but only until they turn 18. In effect, all teenage players become unrestricted free agents on their 18th birthday. This strategy relies too much on 'good will' i.e. that the teenager will have some loyalty to Man U and so will be willing to sign when they turn 18. However, as we all know, 'good will' means nothing when money is involved - if a better offer comes in from another club, the teenager will be tempted to take it.
Problem with this strategy is that you end up spending to develop other clubs players. Underage players cannot sign contracts
As for Liverpool. The rumours about Mill Financial are interesting. If they get Hicks' share then NESV would be backed in to a corner. RBS owe them nothing so I would expect them just to be happy to get their money back and walk away.perhaps unknown to many people United have an exclusive player trading deal with a Brazilian club owned by a company that specialises in such arrangements. Last November (2008) United struck a deal with Desportivo Brasil, a youth club owned by Traffic Football Management, that gives Ferguson first option on more than 120 teenagers being groomed for European football in a Sao Paulo academy in run by World Cup winner Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Traffic also wholly or part-owns the economic rights to another 90 or so professionals via two multi-million dollar investment funds founded expressly to profit from the transfer of promising Brazilian players.
United’s deal, designed to give them a competitive advantage in the global search for new talent, sheds light on the system of third-party ownership prevalent in Latin America.
It also demonstrates the methods being employed to accommodate Fifa rules forbidding the exercise of third-party influence, introduced in 2008 in the fallout from Tevez’s spell at West Ham.
Traffic also wholly or part-owns the economic rights to another 90 or so professionals via two multi-million dollar investment funds founded expressly to profit from the transfer of promising Brazilian players.
Within the next few years, Human Rights legislation and employment law is going to wipe out the concept of clubs, or anyone else 'owning' players. There will be no buying and selling of players. Salary levels on offer will determine where players play. Getting value for money on a salaries will determine the success and failure of clubs. The academy system will gradually break down as there will be no financial incentive to develop players when you can just sign the finished product - I expect the academy system of the future to be more broad based football association countrywide schemes rather than club specific. The top Premiership clubs are already less reliant on their academies than in previous decades. Its only a matter of time before a major club decides "why bother with academies, reserve teams, youth teams etc........we're just going to buy the best c.25 players we can afford to pay."
The new squad rules and turnover rules to play in Europe are weighed in United's favour. To be succesful in the next 10 years, buying 18 year olds now makes more sense than buying 25 years olds. United have been at that for years now. Having said that I want to see the back of the leprechaun just as much as any other fan. I'd prefer to be spending the money on every Brazilian under the age of 18 showing any kind of promise than giving it to soulless banks.
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