I'm largely accountancy illiterate. X comes in and Y goes out, this I can understand.
But just when I think I'm getting the hang of a financial report I stumble across values that are written down or boosted by seemingly intangible, largely unfathomable and fantastical mathematical formulas. This is usually the point where I lose my way because this is where I lose interest. Amortisation this and depreciation that. To an untrained financial eye such as my own they may as well pluck half of their figures out of the air.
What I really don't grasp though is how someone can allegedly make £27,000,000 (or whatever the amount is) disappear into thin air as though it never existed. Just move it from company A to company B and essentially pretend it doesn't count before trousering the lot. It really is a big fk off chunk of cash. All of this without either the taxman or Shareholders 4 Albion's former spokesman Neil Reynolds (and former associates) copping wind, questioning where it's all gone and wanting to know where their slice of the pie is.
JP repeatedly publicised us as a financially stable and well run club which reported marginal operating profits over a period of time. Our incomings and outgoings would have been noted with interest by the powers that be. The taxman is a hungry beast with an insatiable appetite and a nose for blood. If they were expecting a cut of anything (be it from the club or JP) and it suddenly disappeared into the ether I think they’d have something to say. Further to this if there was any way of wagging a sh itty finger in JP’s general direction regarding financial irregularities, I’d imagine Mr Reynolds would be winging his way to the financial ombudsman via the nearest news reporter. Yet to my knowledge neither have raised an eyebrow in relation to JP’s ‘secret dividend’.
I’m quietly relieved I haven’t got a clue what’s going on and I’m not going to even try and understand it for now. I just hope all is well with West Bromwich Albion and JP gets his just desserts if he turns out to be a thieving two hat after all.