That was a while ago David! 25th November 2005 to be precise - I don't remember the date of the meeting, I just recall that we were setting things up when the news of George Best's death broke and we started the meeting with a fitting tribute.
The issue of clubs getting into difficulty should be addressed by the respective leagues. One start would be the mandation of an independent account for each club to deposit the relevant taxation payments into on a monthly basis. Most of those in trouble seem to use HMRC as an unauthorised overdraft facility.
I would not wish total demise on any club.
I would like to see some mechanism whereby an independent regulator can acquire the Ltd company ("the club") prior to its liquidation such that the history of a club can at least be saved. I'm tired of clubs simply starting again and again with different names. The issue there of course is what to do with the debts associated with the club and the lack of an incentive to not overspend, so it would need to come hand in hand with much more stringent oversight of each club's finances. They have proven time and time again they simply cannot be trusted to run themselves sensibly, so it's time for greater transparency and for the authorities to be able to FORCE to clubs to balance their books if they can't manage it themselves.
