Cardiff City’s Financial Woes
Football clubs seemed to have been hit by a delayed credit crunch, with the debt finally catching up with them. Portsmouth is a prime example of this, with them going from winning the F.A. Cup in 2008 to facing massive amounts of debt and certain relegation two years later and Cardiff City are currently circulating the financial plug hole too. Cardiff City always seem to be in some sort of debt, and it seems even the Queen wants her money back from the South Wales side. Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs have been chasing Cardiff City down for a tax bill that now stands at £1.9 million. Cardiff City have been to court several times, each time they have managed to buy a couple of extra months by paying off small amounts of the debt.
However at the latest court hearing Cardiff city were told in no uncertain terms that they have to pay the £1.9 million by 5th of May or face a winding up order. They were given this extra time due to their lawyer promising overseas investments in the form of Malaysian businessman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee. Ghee has been working with Cardiff and is reported to be investing £6 million by the end of April this year. The property tycoon has been in Cardiff recently trying to sort out a deal and has been reported saying, “I look forward to playing my part in the future success of Cardiff City.”
Come May it will be Cardiff’s fourth visit to the high court to face a winding-up order and if they don’t produce the money owed then they’ll be follow the path of Chester City took this season and cease to exist.
This whole sorry episode has been handled poorly by Cardiff chairmen Peter Ridsdale. The man who ran both Leeds United and Barnsley into the ground has angered the crowd with his dishonesty so much that he’s been nicknamed The Riddler due to his uncanny ability of twisting the answers of our questions so much that we forget what we asked in the first place. You may have or may not have heard of the “pre-season ticket” scandal that he ran over Christmas, promising the fans that if they brought season tickets early then the money generated from sales would go towards players in the January transfer market. However this was never his intention and the clubs form has suffered due to the lack of new faces.
So if Cardiff seals the deal with Ghee then we might be out of the danger until our next dip into the red sea of debt. Dave Jones, the manager of Cardiff City, seems confident though after being recorded saying, “I'd be surprised if things don't go right.” I think we’ll just have to await Judgment Day and hope that Arnie doesn’t come and terminate us.
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