The Price of Football - Bristol Rovers discussion

Just listening to the Price of Football podcast this morning on my daily dog walk!

There was a question about the Gas, so if you haven't heard it then you can listen in here:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/national-league-season-axed-sunderland-takeover-confirmed/id1482886394?i=1000510096782

It's also available on pretty much all podcast platforms too

If you don't fancy listening in to the whole show, I had it transcribed just for the bit about us as follows:


The Price of Football

Kevin:

Steve Cutler asks
“Until recently Rovers have only been one bouncing cheque away from a crisis.
Any information on the club and their seemingly forward thinking and big picture board.
And how do footballers pensions work. What is the value and who pays it?”


Keiran:

Bristol Rovers have been owned Wael Al Quadi for the last 5 years, he acquired the club in Feb 2016.
If you are from a middle east background the first reaction from a fan base is wahey we are the new Manchester City.
And it turns out he is by your and my standards a wealthy man, but by your standards and mine, most people are wealthy compared to us.

So, he does have some money without doubt.

Bristol Rovers have been losing around £60,000 a week pre-pandemic.

So, they were certainly being funded by him and I think the club is operated and controlled by a company via Jersey called Dwayne Sports,
and this is where I always start getting slightly twitchy when people are using offshore companies. But the money has consistantly come in, in 2020.

I think initially things were not great in terms of the relationship. There was a striking off order which came from Companies House in 2019 that was dealt with.


Kevin:

What is a striking off order?



Keiran:

Auditory striking off orders are effectively for the company to be wound up.

So you know they hadn't submitted documentation, it was late with this that and the other,
people were not happy with the way it was running itself from it from a governance point of view and what clubs always say is oh it's an admin error blah blah blah.

It's a bit like when the tax man asks you for some money, they normally ask three or four times.

They start off politely and move to slightly more knarky before they will finally say, right we will meet you in court and he takes the same approach.


Kevin:

Sorry Kieran just whilst we are on the subject that striking off order, this is something that's completely new to me even after a year of doing this pod,
is that something, without mentioning the names of these clubs that we've talked about recently that haven't provided account details, is that something that they should be worried about?

I mean are you talking about three or four years of nothing or you know just a year of not providing accounts.
Is that enough to start getting companies house twitchy?


Kieran:

Theoretically it could happen to any club.
It did happen to Crystal Palace a couple years ago and I was surprised at the time because Palace had normally submitted their accounts on time.

They were late one year, and it does not appear to be done automatically and there are other companies who have not submitted any accounts for five or six years and the striking off order does not apply.

So, I don't know how the algorithms or the systems work but they do seem to be very good.


Kevin:

Back to Bristol Rovers


Kieran:

So, in 2020 they did set up a new board of directors and these people appeared to believe in communication which is always good.

There was a fans representative on the board things were clear that there was some bad blood between the fan’s representative on the board and the club
I have tried to get further into this, but I am still not certain what is going on.

The fans Rep ended up resigning and has not been replaced, I think that was due to a bit of a toxic relationship which in my understanding is starting to thaw.

So that that would be good if we do have fan communication on board.

The other sort of elephant in the room within respect of Bristol Rovers is the stadium.
They have been playing at the memorial ground now since, ah well I can remember going to bath to see them play at Bath Rugby club and I sadly I never got to Eastland, so it is one of my big regrets as a train spotter.


Kevin:

Eastville Kieran, it was called Eastville.


Kieran:

There has been talk about a new stadium and that has sort of come and gone.

I think if that progresses that would certainly help to push the club forward but at present,
they are towards the wrong end of League One, they just sacked the manager, which has affected things going not great on the field,
which tends to make tensions between owners and fans grow even worse.


Kevin:

So just to clarify this, Steve Cutler talks about the new forward thinking and big picture
But that's not as a result of a takeover by new owners it is just a different approach by the current owner?


Kieran:

That is right so, Wael Al Quadi has been seen and he has spoken to the local press,
But I think he feels now that having people on side with a dedicated commercial director and chief executive
Who want to be more fan facing is beneficial and you know that's an approach I would always encourage for all clubs because you can solve an awful lot of problems by talking to people.


Kevin:

It is a mystery Bristol is it not? Because we always talk about Plymouth, why on earth is Plymouth without huge gates when they are blah blah blah a sleeping giant?

I mean Bristol should be able to sustain two Premier League clubs let alone one and the championship club shouldn't it?

But it never seems to quite happen for Bristol football for reasons we probably have not got time to explain.


Kieran:

Back a few weeks ago I think we were asked to name four or five clubs who were or who had never been in the Premier League,
Who could get there? and we said Plymouth for one and I think we said Bristol City were another one.
It's certainly got the infrastructure there, Bristol City are owned by funny enough a guy that lives in the Channel Islands who is who is a billionaire.
That area of the country is rugby focused as much as football something we don't really discuss because we are so football orientated.
We don't realise that actually it is not just a split between the two football clubs there is rugby as well,
But then you could say the same about places in Yorkshire with the strength of the Super League.


Kevin:

Before we do that I think we should acknowledge disgruntled Bristol City fans if you're looking for someone to blame for your recent terrible run of form it's Keiran Maguire for suggesting that you should be a Premier League club so that will teach you