Notts County football club has been acquired by an offshore syndicate, part of which is suffering significant legal problems in Jersey right now.
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has said of the cash that can have been the only attraction of the lowly rated club to him:
I don't know where the money comes from and I think that's the job of the chairman to find out. I'm not interested in that. The important thing is that the money comes.
You’re wrong Sven. You’re very, very wrong. Illicit cash isn’t something you want to stand near. It stinks, and leaves a stain on those who go near it.
It’s possible the Notts Country cash is not illicit. Bt who knows? And how can you know without asking?
No one can afford Sven’s blind eye. Not now.
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so is that guilty until proven innocent?
I hadn’t realised there was that connection.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
One thing for sure – this will end in tears.
The EU countries are now working on a plan to get the US to reveal all the names of the rich Europeans that have money in “secret” US bank accounts so that these people can pay tax in their home country.
The US did all the countries a favor by “invading” Switzerland and forcing the Swiss to give up US account holders. Now it is Europes turn.
The rich Europeans will pull their money out quick and there will be a run on US banks.
I wonder if the site has development potential? Brighton and Hove Albion got acquired and the site was flogged off for use as a retail park. Which in itself was no bad thing as it was a better use of the land. But now the club has been homeless for about a decade.
Sven has a record of not caring as long as the cash is there etc. He was appointed manager at Manchester City when the former Prime Minister of Thailand bought the club….and this was whilst there were concerns over the source of his funds, human rights abuse allegations (Amnesty International were on his case) in his home country, fraud and tax allegations hanging over him (which ended up with court proceedings) and this fella allegedly passed the Premier League’s fit and proper test. It later transpired that very little in way of background checks were taken out on him…which was very poor considering how much information was freely and publicly available on him at the time.
@tim vanovickoyo
I hadn’t read anything about this but if true it will be interesting to see what happens. Personally, I think if every country signing up to the same standards and regulations (ie a level playing field) it would be a good start. The good ol US of A is quick to jump up and down about offshore tax havens, Switzerland and everything else yet appear very reluctant to do anything about Costa Rica, Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada…I wonder why?
@Henry Law
If I remember rightly the chairman/ owner bought into the club knowing the potential of the site. He then ran the club on a shoestring before selling the site for a lot of money without relocating the club or finding it a home. A new stadium is finally being built for them. There are plenty more stories of skullduggery going on within football. You could try reading David Conn’s book “Searching for the soul of football” it will open your eyes to some of the stuff that has gone on behind the scenes.
Professional football is just a branch of the mass entertainment industry and has been for probably the past 80 years. It offers a spectacle and trades on local loyalties. It has some of the functions previously provided by religion.
One should not have any high expectations of it.
There you go, here is the connection.
Surprise surprise, guess which jurisdiction is implicated?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/24/russell-king-notts-county-qadbak