Considering who your owner is 'just cheat' might be more appropriate 😅
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Considering who your owner is 'just cheat' might be more appropriate 😅
We fell foul of using a depreciation method that is perfectly legal under FRS102 (source a UK Bank Manager friend of mine). Boro decided
they didn't like it. An EFL disciplinary committee containing some accountants found us not guilty. On appeal, a committee containing zero accountants found us guilty. As it was an accounting matter, isn't that a tad questionable? Even more so when, after the case, the EFL introduced a rule to prevent that particular depreciation method being used....
We got fined and instructed to change 3 season's accounts which led to the extra 9 point deduction. Would an appeal committee containing accountants have reached a different decision? I suspect they would.
He didn't try diddling everyone, he did what a lot of business owners do which is use various accountancy methods to get the figures looking as they require. I mean even Tesco did a bit of number manipulating and got caught for it, and don't get me started on Philip Green and his shenanigans!
The sale and lease back of the ground is a common thing, over half the care home companies in the UK work on that principle, not that i think its a good idea.
What MA says is the bare facts as applied to the EFL penalty. In fact one could argue that that the interpretation of an accounting rule, which the appeal panel made, led to MM putting the club into administration and hence the financial fall out which affected the tax man and other creditors.
It seems MM lost in the region of £125 million of his own money.
I'm not defending the way he operated, it was clearly unsustainable, but its no different from how a lot of businesses operate until something unexpected, as in Covid - 19 comes along and basically destroys the income stream.