Club watch

Premiership football has been given the green light to return (behind close doors) on the 17th June. Apparently, only four clubs
will be scheduled to play on that day. Doubleheader featuring Manchester City playing Arsenal and Aston Villa at home to
Sheffield United. Generally good news but some would say the earlier start for the four clubs gives then a match fitness
advantage over the rest of the league who might be scheduled to play the week following.
Favouritism by officials towards Manchester City and The Arse we accept are regular occurrences...

Got to take your hat off to premiership officials for being so very consistent.

 

Or maybe they just have a game to catch up on before the league restarts proper?

just a thought but ya know, conspiracies and all that

 

And cocede after 3 minutes and Kane goes off injured after 7

 

You know how in horror movies about awakening an ancient, unknowable evil how there's that one character who says "A few peasant superstitions won't get in the way of progress" who inevitably meets a gruesome demise in act two?

That's the role the Premier League shareholders are currently playing

 

Wrong decision for many reasons

 

I can think of twelve reasons why it's wrong off the top of my head

 

The restart with empty stadiums......might feel like the restart of 1939-40 but with a crowd and the title War League. Weird!!??

 

"First of all, we have to be very, very careful with the, erm... the players' wealth." He's gone full Levy!

 

That's really what it's all about in the PL today. Ask our former right back, now playing for City!

 

First point of order: find out who is using this as their away kit

 

Apparently somebody doesn't like it...

 

BURN

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For context...

 

...I'll just ignore the white privileged knobheads replying to it

 

Twitter is full of idiots

 

Honestly, I think Facebook is so much worse than Twitter - it's just nobody notices as the majority of it you really have to look for

It certainly can be said that Facebook really don't give a **** about their community standards whatsoever, as it's incredibly rare for them to act when there's a clear breach. Case in point, a few years ago some scumbag was in a group I'm in threatening to post photos of any member who disagreed with him to a paedo hunter group, which is clearly a violation of FB's community standards (and, you know, highly illegal) yet FB responded with the boilerplate response that they didn't think anything wrong had occurred

Staffordshire Police, on the other hand, disagreed with this assessment...

 

Imagine this guy and Gazza in the same team at their best

 

It seems like good business to me and only possible because we are a properly run business...

Tottenham Hotspur have moved to ease some of the financial pressure they face as a result of the coronavirus outbreak by borrowing £175 million from the Bank of England, The Athletic understands.

The north London club met a set of strict criteria to qualify for the government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), which will provide an unsecured loan — repayable in full at a rate of 0.5 per cent — to give them financial flexibility and additional working capital during the crisis. Spurs estimate they may stand to lose more than £200 million of revenue in the period from the start of lockdown to June 2021.

The CCCF was set up on March 17 to support large credit-worthy companies affected by the pandemic. The Bank of England intends the scheme to be utilised as a way of assisting firms to bridge disruption to their cash flows.

It is only available to firms with an investment grade credit rating — the highest level of credit rating, which reflects at least an adequate capacity to meet financial commitments — and who make a material contribution to the UK economy.

Manchester United are thought to be the only other Premier League club who would be eligible for the CCFF scheme by virtue of having a formal credit rating from an agency. The CCFF is thought to have loaned more than £20 billion so far to around 100 companies, including EasyJet, Marks & Spencers and Greggs. The Bank of England is expected to confirm a list of the companies to have borrowed from it on Thursday afternoon.

Spurs satisfied the CCFF stipulations after they had £525 million of stadium debt refinanced last year. As first reported by The Athletic, Spurs confirmed in September that Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC had helped to refinance the debt on the private placements market in the USA, over long maturities and at low-interest rates.

Under the scheme, the Bank of England has purchased £175 million of “Commercial Paper” — a short-term obligation sold from one company to another for immediate cash needs — from Tottenham. It is not free money, although it comes at a low, commercial interest rate.
Tottenham will have to repay the loan in April 2021, unless they re-draw it for another year, but the cash will assist in seeing them through what is expected to be a highly challenging period. The finance will not be spent on player transfers, with the club unlikely to have any budget for signings in the next window unless they sell.

In a climate of such uncertainty for football and the economy, Spurs view taking this loan as a prudent move that still gives them financial capacity and flexibility through the next year. The money will also enable Tottenham to continue supporting their local communities and stakeholders.

Throughout the coronavirus stoppage, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been made available for North Middlesex Hospital’s women’s outpatient services. In the coming months — except when matches are taking place — it will continue to offer antenatal services, COVID-19 testing and a food hub. The antenatal facilities have been moved to the NFL section of the ground to free up medical rooms for use by football staff once fixtures resume.

Tottenham, like all football clubs, have seen their revenues severely impacted since coronavirus halted sport in mid-March. Manchester United, for example, made a £22.9 million loss in the last financial quarter. But Tottenham have been especially badly-hit given the money they expected to make through their new stadium.
Spurs have not played since they were knocked out of the Champions League by RB Leipzig on March 10 and have missed out on revenue from their postponed five remaining Premier League home games — including Manchester United and derbies against London rivals West Ham United and Arsenal. Last month, they announced a pro-rata refund for season ticket holders.

There is still uncertainty as to how much the Premier League’s rebate to broadcasters will cost its clubs, and at which point next season they can have paying fans back in the stadium. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is especially keen to explore new scientific and technological solutions — such as digital health passports and smartphone apps currently being worked on by start-up firms — that might help pave the way for fans to attend games.

As well as those postponed football matches, Spurs have lost out on huge sums from the cancellations of non-football events this year. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was meant to host Saracens against Harlequins in Premiership rugby union in March, two Guns N’Roses concerts in May, Capital Radio’s Summertime Ball concert this weekend, Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight title fight against Kubrat Pulev later this month, a night of Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball world tour next month, England against Australia in the rugby league Ashes in November, as well as two money-spinning NFL games this autumn.

Against such blows to income, Tottenham’s outgoings have still been significant in recent months. A decision to have some non-playing staff salaries paid by the government furlough scheme was reversed following widespread criticism,meaning the club have continued to pay those wages in recent months. And there has been no agreement with the players about a wage deferral or cut, with Levy waiting to assess the broader Premier League situation. The only cut has been to the salaries of the club’s board.
Before play was suspended, Tottenham were one of the most financially secure clubs in the Premier League.
Their accounts for last season, published at the start of the coronavirus crisis, announced that the club made a post-tax profit of £68.6 million for last season, with a pre-tax profit of £87.4 million, the highest in the league.

 

Cue another round of West Scam fans bellowing "spErS caHnt Pey fuR Der stadYum"