“Michel Platini, with all of the elegance that one might expect from a man with such a playing career, describes it as ‘financial doping’. It is, in short, the accumulation of debt to purchase success on the pitch. Some clubs do it as a result of the egos of their chairmen, some do it from the fear of what might happen if they don’t, and some do it in the genuine but misguided belief that somehow everything will be okay if they manage to get the team winning on the pitch. The result, however, is usually the same. The players and the manager leave when things turn sour, there is a desperate rush for new investors and, when these can’t be found, it ends in either administration or a close shave with administration.” (twohundredpercent)

“Just when Chester City fans thought their club might finally be put out of its misery in its present state — its ownership having wrecked the club’s finances to the extent that they could not field a team, thus now facing a vote on expulsion from the Blue Square Premier — things have taken a turn for the even more bizarre. Last week, Chester’s supporters’ trust said they hoped they would be given the chance to start the club over, but now it seems a Danish consortium claiming to be saviours might make things even worse.” (Pitch Invasion)

Chester City Reportedly Sold To The Danes
“Chester City, according to widespread reports today, are to be sold to the Danish consortium that expressed their interest in buying the club a couple of weeks ago. This sale comes less than three days after a meeting of Chester Fans United at which it was made perfectly clear that CFU had a business plan in place to start up a new club when the new one expires. They have, as we suspected they might, run utterly roughshod over the desires of Chester’s supporters in doing this and deserve nothing more than our contempt for their own contempt of the club’s supporters.” (twohundredpercent)

” A few years ago you never got to hear what football supporters thought. Players, presenters and pundits told us black was white and right was wrong. All we could do was scream at the TV so loud we frightened the kids or whack the off button on the radio so hard it wouldn’t go on again. Now it’s phone-ins, discussion programmes, reality TV and invitations to text your views, email your comments or reply to some blog or other.” (WSC)

“Hardly a season goes by in Belgium without one club or another encountering a severe financial crisis and plunging down the divisions as a harsh consequence. Will they never learn? This time it was the turn of little Excelsior Mouscron – a club that had punched above its weight for years – to follow the likes of Aalst, Lommel and La Louviere in suffering the punishment of failing to pay the tax authorities.” (World Soccer)