Macclesfield Town: Help a local club in need

Carolina Red

Moderator
Staff
Joined
Nov 7, 2015
Messages
36,294
Location
South Carolina
I’ve brought this over from the Newbies as I think it merits a wider audience. Hopefully some United fans and just fans of football in the area can help these fellas out.

Please support a local team in trouble. With no game on Saturday this is an appeal to all United fans to help a local team in real financial difficulty but performing out of their skins on the pitch. Macclesfield Town are 5 points clear at the top of the National League (Conference) despite having one of the smallest budgets in the league. Trying to survive on crowds of 1500 is almost impossible and the players and staff weren’t paid on time in January. Despite all this, the team have been working wonders, culminating in the 4-1 demolition of Tranmere Rovers away from home on Tuesday night to move clear at the top of the table https://www.mtfc.co.uk/news/video-tranmere-1-4-macclesfield-highlights.


There are long standing links between United and Macc Town particularly through former manager Sammy McIlroy who successfully got the club promoted into the league in 1997 and was manager for six years.

If you want something to eat or drink in the McIlroy suite before the game you would be very welcome.

Under manager John Askey, Macc Town play a passing game and are regarded as probably the best footballing team in the league. This is good old fashioned real football, you can still stand on the terrace and there are no prima donnas at this level. Only 20 minutes on the train from Piccadilly any support from real football fans would be fantastic as Macc take on Maidenhead on Saturday 3pm (less than 100 away fans expected). The extra gate money could make all the difference to the club so please consider coming along on Saturday. Ticket details can be found here https://www.mtfc.co.uk/news/ticket-news-for-maidenhead-visit
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ion-after-being-wound-up-with-debts-of-500000

Received a winding up order. Surreal to think that Gareth Bale's weekly pay could cover for their debt. By my count that's three clubs in the reigion - Bury, Macclesfield and Bolton screwed.
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
 

Acole9

Outstanding
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
12,503
Always sad to hear about clubs going bust. I used to pass the stadium quite often.
 

Chipper

Adulterer.
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Messages
5,464
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
Sounds tempting in principle but possibly more complicated when it comes down to it. Ethically would you want to reward the current owner for his mismanagement or do you insist he leaves if you do it? If you want him to leave do you now own the club/have power within it and what do you do next? If you want to immediately sign it over to someone else, how do you know who to trust not to screw up? Do you want a bash at running it yourself with no experience? Bit of a headache when it comes down to it.

May even be some kind of conflict of interest rules should he join Spurs. Not sure.
 

The Red Thinker

Full Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
4,149
Location
Knowhere
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
I agree. A week's wage to save people's dreams and footballing heritage.
 

Classical Mechanic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
35,216
Location
xG Zombie Nation
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
It would create a moral hazard for lower league clubs if rich footballers were expected to bail them out of trouble if they get into financial difficulties. It isn't the answer. Far from it really.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
I agree. A week's wage to save people's dreams and footballing heritage.
Yeah, these are the advantages.
Sounds tempting in principle but possibly more complicated when it comes down to it. Ethically would you want to reward the current owner for his mismanagement or do you insist he leaves if you do it? If you want him to leave do you now own the club/have power within it and what do you do next? If you want to immediately sign it over to someone else, how do you know who to trust not to screw up? Do you want a bash at running it yourself with no experience? Bit of a headache when it comes down to it.

May even be some kind of conflict of interest rules should he join Spurs. Not sure.
It would create a moral hazard for lower league clubs if rich footballers were expected to bail them out of trouble if they get into financial difficulties. It isn't the answer. Far from it really.
While these are the disadvantages. The worrying thing would be the precedent set.

P.S. I doubt there would be a conflict of interest Chipper. Kane himself sponsors Leyton Orient, who Spurs are literally about to play next week.
 

Chipper

Adulterer.
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Messages
5,464
P.S. I doubt there would be a conflict of interest Chipper. Kane himself sponsors Leyton Orient, who Spurs are literally about to play next week.
Fair enough, just thought there might be some sort of rule like that. I don't think you can own 2 clubs who could in theory play each other in the same competition so wondered if it might apply to having a business interest in one while playing for another too. If Kane is doing that then there musn't be.
 

drdoityourself

Full Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
2,392
Dragging Bale into this or any other top athlete makes no sense to me.

A club badly run by an owner, the FA should be able to remove these owners once they display such disregard for the future of a club.

High wages at the top end have nothing to do with this, nor should they feel obliged to pay the debts accumulated by a poor businessman.
 

12OunceEpilogue

In perfect harmony
Scout
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Messages
18,392
Location
Wigan
Dragging Bale into this or any other top athlete makes no sense to me.

A club badly run by an owner, the FA should be able to remove these owners once they display such disregard for the future of a club.

High wages at the top end have nothing to do with this, nor should they feel obliged to pay the debts accumulated by a poor businessman.
Agreed, or preferably don't let them take it over in the first place. Maybe put in place some kind of test where they have to prove they have the funds and the good intentions to the club, like a Well-Functioning and Decent Individual Evaluation or somesuch thing...

There is no moral case for teams registered to the National League, the Football League, the Premier League, the FA etc. facing financial hardship, none. As soon as the big money started to roll into English coffers, arguably before to be honest but anyway, football clubs should have been given special protected status as community organisations and promised they would not go the wall if the various footballing authorities could help it, with a cast iron rulebook to stop these vampiric feckers we have now getting on the gravy train to leech off clubs. Instead we've given clubs over to gangsters and we have the understandable quandary now of which shite businessmen do we bail out and which do we not? The trouble is the lifeblood of people's communities is the collateral damage in those calculations, which tend to concern sums of money that the average PL dressing room could find in a whip-round, and inevitably it is the suits who get off scot free while ordinary people suffer, twas ever thus.

As for Macclesfield I hope they get themselves sorted. I just had a little look for a fundraising initiative but couldn't find one, let me know if there's one about.
 

Reducation

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2007
Messages
1,521
Location
Northern England
A briefly thought-up idea.
I imagine a scenario whereby somebody of Bale's financial standing sets up a company to own the failing club's ground and leases it to the club for a peppercorn rent on the proviso that the club first becomes fan-owned (or starts up as a fan-owned new company). Bale (or whichever wealthy person...) is then simply a property owner and thereby does not have the headaches associated with running a football club. Over time the club might even become profitable in a small way, and maybe become gradually part-owner of the ground.
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,155
Location
Oslo, Norway
Why do people love to shift blame and/or drag unrelated wealthy people or businesses into these discussions? This is of no concern to Bale nor any PL club.
 

K Stand Knut

Full Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
5,167
Location
Stretford End
Why do people love to shift blame and/or drag unrelated wealthy people or businesses into these discussions? This is of no concern to Bale nor any PL club.
Nor anybody bar MTFC.

It’s horrendous when these things happen but it’s made worse by the immediate clamour that *rich footballer/person* should bail them out.
 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,155
Location
Oslo, Norway
Because of the obscene wages. Because it would be nice to help.


He's helping in his own way. Just because someone has obscene wages doesn't mean they have to solve every problem in the world with their own money.
 

Piratesoup

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Messages
6,939
Supports
Bayern München
Because of the obscene wages. Because it would be nice to help.
It's easy to say what we would or would not do if we had millions upon millions. But I guess most of us would do absolutely nothing about this if we were in Bale's place. Imagining that we would do something "nice" just gives us a warm fuzzy feeling.

Edit: About how much the rich should do: I wouldn't go hungry if I donated a week's wage every year to the homeless, but I don't do it. Do you? Should we?
 

Rood

nostradamus like gloater
Scout
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
21,230
Location
@United_Hour
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ion-after-being-wound-up-with-debts-of-500000

Received a winding up order. Surreal to think that Gareth Bale's weekly pay could cover for their debt. By my count that's three clubs in the region - Bury, Macclesfield and Bolton screwed.
Wigan Athletic struggling too, all North West clubs which is sad to see - also the contrast between rich and poor clubs in same area is mad, within an hour or so of all these clubs you also have 3 of the 4 English CL clubs (United, City and Liverpool).

And covering the debt alone is not enough, someone has to pay for the runnings costs to keep the club going - no matchday revenue obviously doesn't help
 

dove

New Member
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
7,899
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
No, you wouldn’t. Just like I or anyone else here wouldn’t too.
 

hubbuh

New Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
6,110
Location
UK, hun?


He's helping in his own way. Just because someone has obscene wages doesn't mean they have to solve every problem in the world with their own money.
I mean... the top 1% have a lot of fecking making up to do. A sponsored FIFA sesh is a drop in the flaming ocean.
 

The Boy

Full Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
4,317
Supports
Brighton and Hove Albion
Having seen my club very nearly go to the wall because of terrible owners (they bought the club for 60 quid, promised to pay off an 800,000 winding up order, did that through a loan which the club ended up being responsible for, using the ground as collateral, then actually sold the ground and surrounding land for development, then pissed off with the cash, leaving us broke and homeless) I feel for the Burys and Macclesfields of this world and am sure many Brighton fans would have gone to support them as so many clubs did for us during our fans days in 1997, when fans from across England and Europe filled our ground to watch us play.

We've tried to do the same for clubs since, in 2011 about 1000 of us travelled to Home Park to support Plymouth Argyle after they went into administration, its a great thing for fans to do and shows real solidarity among the smaller clubs who know what this is like.

But forget Bale or other rich footballers, it's not their responsibility in the slightest. The FA should carry out stringent fit and proper tests on new owners and have the funds to bail out clubs in need with maybe interest free loans etc. They should also have the power to remove or at the very least sanction owners that deliberately feck up.

The FA is not exactly poor and has a responsibility for England's football heritage. The EPL and EFL could also contribute to loan pot to help out. there is so much money at the top of football's tree, but everyone just jumps straight on the players, when actually there's a lot of people who should actually hold some responsibility for this sort of thing, yet they are never held to account.

Hancock calling them out during the pandemic and Bale in this thread are obvious examples - they're an obvious and easy target and in my mind the wrong one.

Makes me fecking mad when small clubs end up like this and the people that suffer are the fans and the local community! :mad:
 

yumtum

DUX' bumchum
Joined
May 10, 2009
Messages
7,117
Location
Wales
That’s the point. I would use one week of my money to keep hundreds of innocent people’s jobs and thousands of fans’ livelihoods.
You realise there are many causes to donate to than handing over money to a business man that can't run a business? I'd hazard a guess if you ever get rich you won't stay that way for long.

Bale, who you've thrown under the bus for having the audacity to get to the pinnacle of sport, donates and gives away lots of money on good causes that help, not helping a business man save his ass after he run his club into the ground shouldn't be used as a stick to beat Bale.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
You realise there are many causes to donate to than handing over money to a business man that can't run a business? I'd hazard a guess if you ever get rich you won't stay that way for long.

Bale, who you've thrown under the bus for having the audacity to get to the pinnacle of sport, donates and gives away lots of money on good causes that help, not helping a business man save his ass after he run his club into the ground shouldn't be used as a stick to beat Bale.
Now that you mention it, I just put myself in Bale’s shoes and if I was him and I read this piece of news, I’d just personally pay it off. Each to their own though. Of course, I’m not saying he has to or that he’s a bad person if he doesn’t as he’s worked his bollocks off for his money, but I’m just saying.
Guess what, I did not throw anybody under the bus. Read it properly ffs.
 

Red00012

Full Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
12,087
A few Strange replies to OP , paying off the debt would only solve that payment I would imagine they need a lot more money than just clearing an overdue bill.
 
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
21,604
Location
Behind the right goal post as "Whiteside shoots!"
Don't see what it's got to do with Bale (or any fortunate wealthy person).

It's sad for the staff and fans but some random wealthy person paying it off (1) could just defer an issue until the next time they rack up debts and don't pay them and (2) while I love football, I wouldn't give it priority for wealthy people's earned money.

The owner of Macclesfield showed the court a screen shot showing £1.1m of funds so appears he COULD have paid it but didn't.

Also the winding up petition started in Jan 2019... this isn't HMRC or some random Creditor having no patience.

And imagine if it was ABC Ltd not HMRC, why should they lose that due payment (and possibly struggle/fail)? Why should they possibly lay staff off because someone doesn't pay them?

Footballs a sport (that I love) but football clubs are businesses so should follow same rules as any other business... thousands of which are failing every month.
 

Haddock

Full Member
Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
729
Wigan Athletic struggling too, all North West clubs which is sad to see - also the contrast between rich and poor clubs in same area is mad, within an hour or so of all these clubs you also have 3 of the 4 English CL clubs (United, City and Liverpool).

And covering the debt alone is not enough, someone has to pay for the runnings costs to keep the club going - no matchday revenue obviously doesn't help
I only flagged up the Bale thing because his transfer/loan has been in the news lately and higlights the disparity between the haves and the have nots. I didn't mean to suggest that Bale ought to help Macclesfield or that he's in any way responsible. If I'd known the comments were going to descend into bickering about Bale I'd never have mentioned it.

It's terrible. The North East is not much better. A few years ago I used to accompany a friend to watch Gateshead play and it was a similar story there. The sad part is Gateshead were doing quite well on the pitch. This is about the poor governance structure in English football. I think @12OunceEpilogue and @The Boy said it best.
 

The Boy

Full Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
4,317
Supports
Brighton and Hove Albion
Why Bale and not De Gea, Pogba or one of your own, actually local living players who earn a feckload?

Strange folk on here.
Why any player, why are they responsible? A lot of people also seem to forget that when clubs get into trouble often it is the players that suffer first. When Argyle went into administration no players got any wages from September through to December and then they only got part of the September wage when they threatened to strike before a game. Peter Reid (manager at the time) apparently paid the clubs electricity bill out of his own pocket.
 

WeePat

Full Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Messages
17,182
Supports
Chelsea
I thought about the Premier League setting up some kind of fund to help out football clubs in such dire situations. In sporting terms, there is literally nothing more devastating and sad than seeing a football club that has stood in it's community for over 100 years fold. The sticky point I encountered was, would it be rewarding bad owners or giving them a free licence to be reckless if they know there is a safety net to fall back on?
 

The Boy

Full Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
4,317
Supports
Brighton and Hove Albion
I thought about the Premier League setting up some kind of fund to help out football clubs in such dire situations. In sporting terms, there is literally nothing more devastating and sad than seeing a football club that has stood in it's community for over 100 years fold. The sticky point I encountered was, would it be rewarding bad owners or giving them a free licence to be reckless if they know there is a safety net to fall back on?
I think if you had the fund and the FA actually had some balls it could work well, you need to give the FA the legal ability to fine owners without that fine coming out of the club. They also need to the ability to turn down potential owners that don't stand up to scrutiny. At the moment I think its the league that does the fit and proper test (I could be wrong it might be the FA, I cant remember) but time and again its been proved to be pointless. Too many people take over clubs hoping to make a quick buck and feck the consequences.
 

12OunceEpilogue

In perfect harmony
Scout
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Messages
18,392
Location
Wigan
Having seen my club very nearly go to the wall because of terrible owners (they bought the club for 60 quid, promised to pay off an 800,000 winding up order, did that through a loan which the club ended up being responsible for, using the ground as collateral, then actually sold the ground and surrounding land for development, then pissed off with the cash, leaving us broke and homeless) I feel for the Burys and Macclesfields of this world and am sure many Brighton fans would have gone to support them as so many clubs did for us during our fans days in 1997, when fans from across England and Europe filled our ground to watch us play.

We've tried to do the same for clubs since, in 2011 about 1000 of us travelled to Home Park to support Plymouth Argyle after they went into administration, its a great thing for fans to do and shows real solidarity among the smaller clubs who know what this is like.

But forget Bale or other rich footballers, it's not their responsibility in the slightest. The FA should carry out stringent fit and proper tests on new owners and have the funds to bail out clubs in need with maybe interest free loans etc. They should also have the power to remove or at the very least sanction owners that deliberately feck up.

The FA is not exactly poor and has a responsibility for England's football heritage. The EPL and EFL could also contribute to loan pot to help out. there is so much money at the top of football's tree, but everyone just jumps straight on the players, when actually there's a lot of people who should actually hold some responsibility for this sort of thing, yet they are never held to account.

Hancock calling them out during the pandemic and Bale in this thread are obvious examples - they're an obvious and easy target and in my mind the wrong one.

Makes me fecking mad when small clubs end up like this and the people that suffer are the fans and the local community! :mad:
I agree 100 percent, and as a fan who's been through this yourself you know what you're talking about. Nobody with any sense is asking any one player (Bale seems to be the fall guy here for some reason so let's go with him :lol:) to foot any particular bills, we're just pointing out the rank inequality between clubs in this country and the terrible missed opportunity when you have clubs going to the wall over relatively small amounts of cash with the richest league in the world operating on the doorstep.

He's got a reputation as a bit of a pie in the sky merchant and a blowhard but this John Nicholson article on F365 spells out some of shit clubs have got themselves into. Fleetwood Town for example are paying 128% of their income on wages, propped up by loans that will never be repaid. They're copying the PL model of wages as by far the largest outgoing in the hope of attracting better players, but it's all built on sand and while you could say the owners are at fault for living outside of their means it's a fact that the insane money at the top of the pyramid has set up a comply or die environment lower down. Some of the remedies Nicholson suggests include abolishing the PL, bringing the top 20 back into the Football League and effectively calling time on the current bonanza. There's no way that will happen, but I'd like to think a stringent Fit and Proper Persons Test and a fund made up of a small means-tested tax taken from each of the 92 clubs is possible, so that clubs (not owners, they should be forced out as soon as they prove themselves incapable of running the club) have a safety net from going out of existence.

The same article has a link to this conversation between Nicholson and a current PL footballer (if I had to guess I'd say it was Troy Deeney), which highlights the madness of the money at the top of football for players, agents and directors while others nearby (this conversation was held in the context of lockdown so it's about furloughed staff, but could easily be talking about lower league clubs too) are in constant financial strife.

I'm not going to pretend I'm particularly knowledgable about any of this and I'm sure there would be many challenges to face in trying to clean up the game now money is the be all and end all but the current state of play is clearly unsustainable. For now at least I'd take a safety net for clubs and proper rules to keep literal gangsters out of boardrooms.
 

Offsideagain

Full Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
1,683
Location
Cheshire
I don’t think anyone earning £500k pw would pay of an individual debt of any kind as it would open the floodgates. Every club/person would be knocking on his door for a sub. He should pay 40% tax on that as well but I bet he doesn’t. Somebody started a campaign to get footballers to donate a small percentage of their salaries to charity. I think only Mata does it at United.