Excellent post Mark Anybody reading that should now shut up on the anti Bates stuff and give 100% support to the club. If they dont then in my opinion they have their own different agenda.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Humphries" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Terry Emmott'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'Jim Moran'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'LUList'" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2007 7:36 PM Subject: [!! SPAM] Re: [LU] IF we'd gone into Admin this season > -----Original Message----- > From: Terry Emmott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 04 August 2007 10:46 > To: Mark Humphries; 'Jim Moran'; 'LUList' > Subject: Re: [LU] IF we'd gone into Admin this season > > > > Second point - if Bates was only interested in the money, why is he > even > > appealing the fine? Surely his goal is to destroy Leeds and > therefore the > > 15pt deduction gives him a scapegoat when we stay down? > > > Bates has tried to pull a fast one. He saw a chance to get a debt free > club > for very little money when the taxman obligingly told him to pay up or > suffer the consequences and he therefore put us into admin. Actually Terry I am not sure that is what happened here. You (and others) seem to think that only Bates is the cynical and conniving one, but consider this scenario. Leeds (Bates) planned their finances for last season on a reasonably successful season, if not automatic promotion then certainly playoffs again. Worst case scenario, just outside the playoffs. Come January and it is looking increasingly like we might go down. This has a negative impact on the finances, not necessarily the day to day finances (lower gate revenue offset by lower wages) but certainly by sponsorship revenue. Faced with that prospect a tightening of the belts was required. Bates had agreed a repayment plan with IR, but that was based on championship football, in other words LUFC's circumstances were probably going to change. Bates therefore asked for a payment holiday which would offset the reduced cashflow due to the inevitable lower sponsorship & season ticket revenues - the club has to be financed over the close season. IR (now HMRC) could agree to this, 2 months or so without their 200k a month is nothing to them. They look ahead and see a potential opportunity to finally challenge football's preferential status. There is no better club to play with (that is likely to run into financial trouble) than Leeds Utd. So they refuse the payment holiday and hope LUFC default on the payments. LUFC do and HMRC issue the winding up order knowing that LUFC would go into administration and need to go through a CVA process. They know they will challenge this regardless, because it isn't the money from Leeds they are after (they could have allowed the payment holiday and got it all back, just a bit later), they are pissed off that they lost preferential status yet football has it. Think of it this way, HMRC collected £125 billion in income tax and £85 billion in national insurance contributions via PAYE in 2006-07. We are ignoring VAT and other duties here. £17.5 BILLION a month. What difference to them would £200k a month make for a few months? They knew that if they issued a winding up order LUFC would go into admin and they would then lose a large percentage of what they were owed. It just doesn't make any kind of financial sense to write off that much debt for the sake of a few months 'payment holiday', especially given HMRC's cashflow (I repeat 17.5 billion pounds per month and that is just Income Tax and NI). Why on earth would they do it? HMRC had bigger fish to fry and we were just used as a stepping stone to get there. Yes you could argue that Bates used shady tactics during the CVA, but if you think HMRC would have been happy with ANY of the offers on the table, given that football got 100% paid, then I think you have swallowed the anti Bates rhetoric hook line and sinker. To reiterate my opinion, HMRC were going to challenge any successful CVA bid because they weren't interested in the money, they were interested in getting football to stand alongside creditors just like them and everyone else. They were prepared to sacrifice the whole debt (which included a disputed amount) to do so. Bates isn't an angel, but the way everyone else in this saga is painted to be so does get on my tits. Insolvency is a business practice, business uses whatever means possible to win. Why do you lot think Astor invested in Leeds United if not on the back of knowing Ken Bates? _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist Join The Leeds United Supporters Trust at www.lufctrust.org _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist Join The Leeds United Supporters Trust at www.lufctrust.org
