MONEYBALL!
How a FREE financial monitoring program could help EFL stop clubs going bust
FORMER Brighton chairman Dick Knight has offered a revolutionary computer package to the Football League FREE of charge this season to help clean up the game.
The former Seagulls’ supremo wants to stop clubs from falling into financial ruin and has been working on a software system that will help prevent them going to the wall.
The game has been in the grip of a sustainability crisis recently – Bury no longer exist, Bolton were taken to the brink.
The pandemic has highlighted the crippling cash problems facing the overwhelming majority of the Football League (EFL).
Knight ( below) released details of the software last month – and now is ready to offer the service for nothing, after ironing out teething troubles at Oxford United.
He said: “After what happened to the likes of Bury and Bolton, olton, I began to think about stopping ping it from happening again.
“So for the last 15 months we have been working on a solution. Not just for the Football League’s benefit, but also for the clubs.
“We now have a system – called ‘Clubview’ – that will help clubs and the League do their job properly.
“We are trialling it with Oxford and the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We have been in contact with the EFL since July. They have taken an interest in it.
“However, coming from a marketing background myself, I know you have to test a product in situ. I don’t expect the EFL to embrace it and hand it over to all 72 clubs in one go.
“So we are prepared to offer them and its member clubs a free trial until the end of this season. We are not going to charge anything.
“We need to demonstrate this works the way we say it will. My colleagues and I want to prove how good this is for the EFL and its clubs.
“For the first time the EFL will lead for the benefit of the clubs. In the past, any action they have taken along these lines has been retrospective.
“They only ever get involved after the horse has bolted.
This is real-time information a snapshot of where a club is financially, at any given moment.
“This way, the club, the EFL, the supporters and the staff can all have assurance that it being looked after properly.”
The former advertising guru – best known for generating the idea for the Wonderbra ads ( below) back in the late 1980s – has first- hand experience of financial pressure, and was responsible for saving Brighton and Hove Albion and pushing them on an upwards curve.
He said: “Clubs who are transparent will sign up. They have nothing to hide.
“If EFL chairman Rick Parry said that each one of the 72 had to adhere to a new financial charter, then no club that had a shred of decency wouldn’t agree to it.
“If they do disagree, they have something to hide. Which immediately raises a red flag.
“And that’s the whole rationale behind this. Some owners have been getting away with blue murder.
“The EFL has to take a lead in this. Otherwise, we will have clubs going bust all over the place.
“This is a problem that came up long before the pandemic.
“This is where the EFL has to show leadership. They need to make it mandatory.
“It must be part of their League membership licence that they sign up to this.”
“The majority of clubs are well run. But why should they be penalised for others who are not prepared to go through the same checks and balances?
“If I was the chairman of the Football League, I’d have had this in place years ago.
“There needs to be proper financial governance by the EFL for its members.”