Eddie Hitler

Well it appears that Henbury Gas is considerably richer than yowse. http://gaschat.co.uk/thread/13206/82ers-debt?page=2 I expect he's a billionaire as well.

Apparently his original quote before their media department reworded it was: "I don't trust any of our lot with a football"

A quick perusal of related companies: DWANE DEVELOPMENTS UK LIMITED Not a lot going on here; first required accounts filing 30 September 2019. WIZTEK LIMITED Now this is odd. The company is 100% owned by Hani Al Qadi but without apparently trading it now has losses of £1.0m which are covered by a debt to to Hani Al Qadi. There is nothing dodgy about this, it's just odd and why would you want to do it? My guess is that an asset valued at £1m and currently owned by a AQ company will be transferred into it. The land, or part of the land, for the "training ground" is the obvious candidate.

Definitely - all good ex league clubs not burdened by massive debt. Torquay don't own their own ground but it's on long term lease from the council; this has the advantage that nobody can run up a huge debt against it. You'd pay a tenth of the price for any of those that you would have to pay for Rovers and spend a bit more and you'll be in L1 in five years with your own ground and no debt. The one advanatge of Rovers over these is that they currently have a 6,000 crowd but you can grow that.

Not that I want a football club but if I did then I would want something with, as you say, decent crowd, own ground and little debt. As when Vince bought FGR. Aldershot is averaging just under 2k crowds in the National League, own their own ground, have a decent amount of league history and as they've been in admin won't have much debt. If you have £20m burning a hole in your pocket buy them and take them back into the league with the £12m you save not refunding the Al Qadis debt in order to get the stadium back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldershot_Town_F.C. Where clubs are as debt ridden as Rovers then the usual approach by a potential purchaser is to drag out the negotiations until the club finally tips into administration and then can be bought cheaply as Mike Ashley did with House of Fraser. I can believe that there are interested parties at the right price but I would be very surprised if they wanted to buy them as is.

It actually looks like that visit from the real world in the form of the police has served to curb his usual liar liar pants on fire tendencies of late.

It's strange how quickly your idols fall. To me this man was a legend for his note perfect rendition of "Thank You Matty Taylor" but now he has revealed himself as being unable to spell, punctuate, or use words for numbers when they are twenty or below. The arch buffoon.

I'm rather more amused by his claiming that "BRFC has minimum debt"; £10m - £12m is the current estimate. Asset value against which this is charged: £10m. This is on a par with Henbury Idiot claiming that the way the Al Qadis are running the club is "sustainable". Losing £2m a year is "sustainable". Either these people are incredibly stupid or they are incredibly wealthy.

That genuinely looks like nothing so much as my local tip. I particularly like the way that they have reused the sign from somewhere else (see slots for fittings) and not even bothered to attempt to mount it on what looks like a Portakabin, as I hesitate to call it a building, but just stood it on the floor instead. I would call it amateurish but its plumbing new depths below that. Shambolic maybe.

Simebody else did a few years later. But they were the first.

I think you have it there. The £12m that went into Dwane Sports may be Al Qadi family money or another bank loan that they're guaranteeing. We don't know that one.

That's better than my last lot of homebrew!

This thread needs some culture; from A Shropshire Lad: Why, if 'tis dancing you would be, There's brisker pipes than poetry. Say, for what were hop-yards meant, Or why was Burton built on Trent? Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man. Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows whom it hurts to think: Look into the pewter pot To see the world as the world's not. And faith, 'tis pleasant till 'tis past: The mischief is that 'twill not last. Oh I have been to Ludlow fair And left my necktie God knows where, And carried half way home, or near, Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer: Then the world seemed none so bad, And I myself a sterling lad; And down in lovely muck I've lain, Happy till I woke again. Then I saw the morning sky: Heigho, the tale was all a lie; The world, it was the old world yet, I was I, my things were wet, And nothing now remained to do But begin the game anew.

Oh. I will very carefully sit corrected.

Nobody can. It's not unique to the Rovers; I would be saying the same about Swindon. But there are several local people who support the club who will want to come in, put their hand in their pocket to keep it going and run a tight ship like the Dunfords did. The Al Qadis made a big mistake in buying it and they are now on the cusp of having to put their own money in unsecured. If I was them I would be desperate to get a quick sale whilst they can still get their money back before the £2m a year losses inevitably drive the club into administration in two years' time. Tick tick tick.

Was it the Dolman that used to give out clouds of concrete dust when people did the bounce around the ground? I'm very glad that was demolished and rebuilt. History shows us time and again that you compromise on safety at football grounds at your peril and I really hope that they haven't.

If you take on the loan then you have no net assets, annual loss of £600k, and loan interest of ?£400k. Marvellous. Fianncially you would have to be paid big money to take that on.

Good point. I was assuming share capital but being a Channel Islands company I don't actually know. Your guess of a loan into the company does sound more likely than share capital.

As I understand Dwane Sports is owed that £12m (not sure if it's quite there yet, maybe in £10m - £11m range as thye've had season ticket sales and player sales and they should be outweighing costs at this stage in the season) and owns 92% of Bristol Rovers 1883 which owns the rest of the group including the ground; without looking I'm not sure if they own it directly or in a subsidiary but I don't think it matters. Dwane Sports also directly owns the training ground. I flagged this on Ziderheads as there are two types of sale and they will leave Rovers in very different positions. 1) If Dwane Sports is sold then the new owners get a ground, a training ground, and no debt (as Rovers owes the ?£12m to Dwane Sports, and this would then just be an intercompany balance that cancels out on consoldiation). This leaves the new owners and Rovers in a strong position 2) If however the sale is of Bristol Rovers 1883 then the new owners get a ground which is mortgaged to the hilt with the £12m debt owed to Dwane Sports and no training ground. Bristol Rovers 1883 by now (there is a big lead time for the accounts) is likely to have zero or negative net assets. This is a lame duck club; unable to borrow any more money against its assets and even with serious cost cutting will be losing £600k a year. If the scenario is (2) then gasheads would do to be very careful about wanting their current owners out.

I think (stand to be corrected) that the only time we haven't been either in the same division or one away from Rovers (meaning as now we are Div 2 they are Div 3 so one away) was when they were relegated into firstly Div 4 and then non-league under Nick Higgs.

Fair enough, I don't know from where he obtained his figures though. The main company Bristol Rovers 1883 (bless) accounts, into which the other accounts consolidate, give: 2017 Headline loss £3,046k Note 7: Impairment of tangible fixed assets (UWE write off, this is the non-recurring cost) £916k Ongoing loss £2,130k 2016 Headline loss £2,942k Note 7: Impairment of tangible fixed assets (UWE write off, this is the non-recurring cost) £2,339k Ongoing loss £603k Companies' House website for BRFC 1883 Companies' House accounts - PDF

If @Mr Popodopolous is correct about Kieran Maguire's excellence then they have very much caught him on an off day; maybe he'd just woken up. This is a guess right? One delapidated stadium mortgaged to the hilt for its land value. Eh? Operating loss has pretty much quadrupled from £600k - £700k per year to £2.7m and then add £0.3m interest in 2017. I suppose you could call it "proper management" rather than a absolute shambles but you'd be in a minority with that view. My suggestion Kieran, next time you get a call from the Post about Bristol Rovers' finances, is that you say you will call them back when you have had a look rather than guessing and hoping that you successfully wing it; because you haven't.

Although musing upon my own post if they get it rocking enough then they could enter the record books as being the first time that there has been a pitch invasion by an entire stand.

I don't think that it would be the A1 best idea to get that stand "rocking" tbh.

In that case I'm not going, I don't visit foreign countries where I have to have a yellow fever jab or whatever.