Does this explain our owners' activities in Europe?

Dunno if I've copied the link right but this is a very interesting read...

https://business.financialpost.com/...ds-eu-loophole-to-keep-access-to-young-talent

 

Interesting article, it makes sense,football is changing and we have to change with it.

 

"You're seeing the end of the independent football club"
A worrying comment for community clubs like Barnsley etc who rely on the support of local people for survival. These business people could disenfranchise themselves entirely from the community resulting in clubs going to the wall due to lack of support a la Bury FC.

 

Ultimately though isn't this just about securing the continuing source of cheap inputs who can be sold on the minute they demonstrate any ability?

 

This does make you wonder if the end game for our owners is to sell on to a larger franchise for a profit (such as Red Bull or someone else of an equivalent size). This thought has crossed my mind before , particularly when reading up on the Red Bull involvement with the clubs in Germany and Austria. Also to extend the feeder club concept to feeder 'franchises' then that is what Chien Lee may see himself as and of course he makes a profit as part of the deal too.

It also kind of fits with what Conway says when the aim is to establish the club in the Championship but he has never stated any targets beyond that. Therefore that could be their perceived end game point when they would then look to sell . This is not going to plan currently of course in terms of the clubs position but if like others have stated, the owners see this as a 5 year project then they still have a couple of years left to at least have us back as a Championship club.

These are just my opinions of course but food for thought, particularly with Conway's comment in this article about saying we are at the end of independent football clubs. Clearly he has some kind of strategy in mind.

 

Sure they alluded to something similar at the point of takeover in relation to Nice and ourselves.

 

Highly unlikely, if they become part of a group as an entity it can go the other way.
As an example if we were part of same group as say Liverpool, we could afford to be a loss leader but the profit from Liverpool going into the group could counter that.
BFC would still operate as BFC so would keep the local community aspect, it would just be owned by a bigger group.

 

No.

 

If the above is true would they have sold Nice?

im guessing they sold Nice because the price was right however and the above supposition could still be true

 

Thank you for this.

 

Suspect Nice was to be their jewel in the crown and they sold it because of the offer that came in.
The good thing with that is we are currently the ‘bigger’ club in the group, in terms of value and potential(league,TV monies etc)

 

Not sure as a L1 club we can really justify that claim. As a current Belgian premier League club, albeit in the lower reaches, there's probably more potential for noticeable success in Belgium.

 

In Belgium yes, but English football has far more money and in turn more potential, unless they can turn the Belgium team into a last 16 CL team there will always be more potential in an English team in top 2 leagues.
IMO

 

I may agree if we were an English team in the top 2 leagues, but they don't seem interested in maintaining that.

 

The way I see it, is it’s just life.

You’ve got to move with or just ahead of the times to stay relevant and perhaps even secure as a business.

We know there’s not enough money from supporters and commercial activities to sustain the club on its own. We also know when P Cryne looked to sell, no suitable local business folk came forward.

We are what we are - a traditional English football club, but one that should perhaps embrace these changes and be part of something that’s exciting or become left behind.

Take off the rose-tinted glasses and look at clubs like Crewe, Oldham, Chesterfield, Darlington and Notts County. Teams that years ago were in similar leagues to us each year, but have just fell away and dropped into a pit of ‘nothingness’ and ‘invisibility’. Old stadiums, poor training facilities, poor owners, cash-strapped and scraping to survive.

We don’t want this, and we have to fight to ensure that we remain on an upward curve, even if it is long term.

The reasons above are why I back the current owners. They won’t get it right all of the time, nobody does. But at least (for now) we’re relevant, moving with the times and are mostly self-sufficient.

 

I would be done if we became a Premier League club's bitch, but I don't think it will come to that.

 

My thoughts too.