West Brom - auditors report

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ClaretTony
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West Brom - auditors report

Post by ClaretTony » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:25 am

I've just been reading a piece on West Brom. Their owner borrowed £5 million almost two years ago but has failed to pay it back. It's now been written off as show in their accounts. They are not in a healthy position and below is from the report which includes the view of their auditors.

The accounts cover the Midlands-based club’s first season back in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in 2021. They actually made a profit of £171,000 but it would have been a £16.7m loss but for the sale of Matheus Pereira to Saudi side Al-Hilal.

And further sales of that magnitude are the only way the auditors see the club surviving as a going concern. In fact, they even go so far as to say they believe there is a “material uncertainty” about West Brom’s future.

Noting that the club has already taken — and fully drawn down — a £20m loan from the UK arm of American private equity firm MSD, the auditors warn: “Given that such funding or player trading is not guaranteed, these events or conditions indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group and company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by IanMcL » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:27 am

After years of safe and studious management, the new guy blew it all.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Swizzlestick » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:28 am

You don't need to be from an audit background to know that that kind of disclosure is...not good. What a mess.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by NottsClaret » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:31 am

Just by looking at them and Sheff Utd.. and possibly us - you get a maximum of two seasons to get back in the Prem or you're screwed.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Big Vinny K » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:35 am

Not sure it’s been written off Tony.
I’d need to see the full accounts but I thought they had failed to repay it. I thought the loan was provided by the owner so maybe he’s agreed for it to be written off ?
Given they took this £20m loan out from MSD at what looks like short notice it seems like they are in pretty serious trouble. With what looks like an outside chance of promotion now would not be surprised at all to see them go into administration in the next few months.
I’d take Jed Wallace off them for five hundred quid and a bag of footballs.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by RVclaret » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:38 am

Here’s Matt Slater’s full article on the topic in the Athletic.

https://theathletic.com/4365308/2023/03 ... -lai-loan/

The auditors don’t believe Lai will ever repay the loan so it’s been impaired to nil.

Also, I’m failing to see which ‘stars’ WBA have in their squad which will attract a decent transfer fee tbh.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by ClaretTony » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:40 am

Big Vinny K wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:35 am
Not sure it’s been written off Tony.
I’d need to see the full accounts but I thought they had failed to repay it. I thought the loan was provided by the owner so maybe he’s agreed for it to be written off ?
Given they took this £20m loan out from MSD at what looks like short notice it seems like they are in pretty serious trouble. With what looks like an outside chance of promotion now would not be surprised at all to see them go into administration in the next few months.
I’d take Jed Wallace off them for five hundred quid and a bag of footballs.
I've not seen the accounts and I wouldn't understand them if I did but it was the owner who borrowed the money from the club. The accounts report: "“At 30 June 2022 and at the date of the approval of the financial statements, the company has yet to receive payment and so the full amount totalling £5,059,000 has been impaired to a carrying value of £Nil,”

There has subsequently been no receipt of any of the loan from Guochuan Lai who is the owner. The money was paid to Hong Kong-based Wisdom Smart Corporation to get them through temporary difficulties.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by claptrappers_union » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:47 am

This is not a way to run a football club. Owners need to be custodians and respect that a club is an integral part of its community and it should be able to operate comfortably, no matter what level they are competing at and shouldn’t be betting on the ranch just to get promoted.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by footballdiedin92 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:51 am

He's only "borrowed" $5m. Sounds like an amateur to me.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:00 am

Big Vinny K wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:35 am
Not sure it’s been written off Tony.
I’d need to see the full accounts but I thought they had failed to repay it. I thought the loan was provided by the owner so maybe he’s agreed for it to be written off ?
Given they took this £20m loan out from MSD at what looks like short notice it seems like they are in pretty serious trouble. With what looks like an outside chance of promotion now would not be surprised at all to see them go into administration in the next few months.
I’d take Jed Wallace off them for five hundred quid and a bag of footballs.
Keiran Maguire has stated its been impaired down to nil, aka written off

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Big Vinny K » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:02 am

Sounds like it’s been written off.
Trouble ahead

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Paul Waine » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:08 am

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:00 am
Keiran Maguire has stated its been impaired down to nil, aka written off
Impaired down to nil isn't the same as written off. The guy who owes the money is reported as still promising to pay the money back. Obviously big doubts that this will happen. Written off on other hand means that there won't be any money shown as owed.

For those who haven't noticed, the auditors are Azets.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Hipper » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:15 am

NottsClaret wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:31 am
Just by looking at them and Sheff Utd.. and possibly us - you get a maximum of two seasons to get back in the Prem or you're screwed.
Depends how it's managed. We got rid of a lot of high earners and bought in young hopefully future saleable assets so, I get the impression, we were financially prepared to stay at this level more then two years. Compare that to Norwich and Watford who, for the most part, retained their Premier League players.

The board of BFC must be ecstatic, as we all are, that it looks like we will go up straight away. I hope they were prepared for this.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by tiger76 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:23 am

Sounds like a fire sale upcoming at West Brom, although glancing through their squad I only see Asante, Diangana, Dike and Grant that might attract sizeable bids.

Also the final year of Parachute Payments for them, so how they are going to continue to fund the big wages of Swift and Wallace will be intriguing.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Awayfromburnley » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:31 am

Are Burnley lucky?

We seem to get promoted (all being well this season too) when if we didn't /don't then there could be similar issues for us.

Lucky in my opinion, but I will take that.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by aggi » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:39 am

West Brom have been through a lot of auditors recently, all is clearly not well there.

For those who have looked at Burnley's accounts, in a similar vein there is a section that talks about the recoverability of the loan that the club has made to ALK and whether it is likely to be repaid.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by FeedTheArf » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:41 am

Real sad state of affairs.

Though it's not entirely different from MG and ALK orchestrating the deal to raid the clubs coffers to fund the takeover. We've just been lucky that we had some decent sales to soften the relegation and the masterstroke of getting VK in with all the subsequent bargain buys.

It shouldn't be allowed to happen and hopefully this independent regulator will make a difference.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by ALP » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:56 am

Sounds like they'll go BUMP - not BOING

Shocking really as West Brom were always one of the clubs I admired back in the day.
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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Colburn_Claret » Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:50 pm

FeedTheArf wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:41 am
Real sad state of affairs.

Though it's not entirely different from MG and ALK orchestrating the deal to raid the clubs coffers to fund the takeover. We've just been lucky that we had some decent sales to soften the relegation and the masterstroke of getting VK in with all the subsequent bargain buys.

It shouldn't be allowed to happen and hopefully this independent regulator will make a difference.
From another pov, Alan Pace has done an excellent job. The signing of VK being obvious, but the quality and cost of many the players under his leadership have been excellent as well.
It shows, as VK admitted this morning, that players are bought, with one eye on the resale value, in order to make the club sustainable going forward. This is a course AP would have taken with or without VK.
So it's a fair question, would we be better off under a chairman who could afford to buy the club, but didn't have a clue what he was doing, or AP and the leveraged buy out, that has left us looking up and forward.

Imo, I never believed that Mike Garlick would sell the club to just anybody. His affinity with the club would make it far too difficult to just take the money and run. He's taken a lot of stick from many on this board, and I don't think he deserves it.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by FeedTheArf » Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:06 pm

Colburn_Claret wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:50 pm
From another pov, Alan Pace has done an excellent job. The signing of VK being obvious, but the quality and cost of many the players under his leadership have been excellent as well.
It shows, as VK admitted this morning, that players are bought, with one eye on the resale value, in order to make the club sustainable going forward. This is a course AP would have taken with or without VK.
So it's a fair question, would we be better off under a chairman who could afford to buy the club, but didn't have a clue what he was doing, or AP and the leveraged buy out, that has left us looking up and forward.

Imo, I never believed that Mike Garlick would sell the club to just anybody. His affinity with the club would make it far too difficult to just take the money and run. He's taken a lot of stick from many on this board, and I don't think he deserves it.
Don't get me wrong, virtually everything Pace has done SINCE taking over has been really positive. I don't think many could dispute that. It's just the method of the takeover that will always stick in the throat for me.

But you're right, it is an interesting question. Equally could we have brought a team in, in the same mould as Pace et al, paid them £2m a year in salary and got similar results? Who knows. The argument would be that they wouldn't have the same motivation or personal investment in the project if they're merely an employee.

We are where we are though and, for now at least, the gamble looks to have paid off and we've come out the other side with the repayment of the loan and refreshed squad. Hopefully the publication of the accounts will give a more accurate position as to where we stand in pounds and pence. But the change in transfer strategy (no doubt accelerated with Kompany) is the biggest revenue generator for a club like ours. You can tweak some things here and there but we're never going to achieve the commercial or hospitality revenues some of the big clubs pull in. And for that, Pace has to be congratulated as the early signs were there even before Kompany's arrival. If the likes of Zaroury and Benson perform next season, we're quite conceivably looking at £60-70m worth of talent in today's crazy market.
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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Down_Rover » Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:13 pm

Paul Waine wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:08 am
Impaired down to nil isn't the same as written off. The guy who owes the money is reported as still promising to pay the money back. Obviously big doubts that this will happen. Written off on other hand means that there won't be any money shown as owed.

For those who haven't noticed, the auditors are Azets.
Are you suggesting we have an issue with Azets?

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by bfcjg » Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:16 pm

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Hipper » Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:58 pm

My 'bottom line' is that Pace et al are investors. Investors main purpose is to make money for themselves. They will want a return on the money they invested. In other words they need to extract money out of the club and, when they're done, sell it on at a profit.

What we fans want is success on the field.

If Pace can do both these things before he sells the club we'll all be happy. Well, we should be.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Paul Waine » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:02 pm

Down_Rover wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:13 pm
Are you suggesting we have an issue with Azets?
No, of course not. These are West Brom's accounts and Azets are West Brom's auditors.

Yes, we still wait to learn who BFC's new auditors are. The one thing we know is that Azets resigned last year.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by mdd2 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:16 pm

The sooner there is a proper system in place to stop all these owners coming in and eventually ruining a clubs future the better
Much much better oversight with teeth is needed and there is a need to recognise the effect the running of a club affects a lot of the local population-businesses and supporters
No keen on Governments running anything but there is a need for some legislation to clean up English and Welsh football

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by AfloatinClaret » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:18 pm

Hipper wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:58 pm
My 'bottom line' is that Pace et al are investors. Investors main purpose is to make money for themselves. They will want a return on the money they invested. In other words they need to extract money out of the club and, when they're done, sell it on at a profit.
Precisely that; which is what a substantial number on this board seemed unable to grasp when they were demanding that Mike Garlick make way for an 'Investor' whom they believed would come in and spend tens/hundreds of millions of their own money on new/better players in the same way that Santa Claus brought them presents at Christmas and the tooth fairy paid them for their redundant teeth... they'll presumably be in secondary school by now, so perhaps a chance that they've come to understand how things work in the grown-up world.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:49 pm

Paul Waine wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:02 pm
....Yes, we still wait to learn who BFC's new auditors are. The one thing we know is that Azets resigned last year.
are we really certain that Azets resigned and were not just thanked for their services and replaced, the clubs own statement said they decided on a change of auditor in November? that btw is a timeline that I question given that I understand that an appointment of new auditors was made in early November and due process would be required before that appointment was confirmed.

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/con ... nt-embargo
In our continued efforts to improve and move forward Burnley Football Club we made the decision to change our auditors in November and the transition has taken longer than we anticipated.

there are people who engage on this message board who could find out for absolutely certain - all they have to do is exercise the shareholders rights under the 2006 Companies Act and ask the club (in a direct response to the March 12th statement)
- Did Azets resign or did the club decide to replace them?
- Who are the new auditors of the club and when where they appointed?

It is even possible for shareholders to ask to look at the board meeting minutes/notes where these decisions were taken

I would be very interested for shareholders to engage in such action, you would like to think that the Clarets Trust has done so already (though I have little expectation on that front), given it's chair sits on the fan advisory board and this topic is supposedly high on the advisory boards agenda at it's next meeting with the club which, i understand, is coming up very soon.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by aggi » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:14 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:49 pm
are we really certain that Azets resigned and were not just thanked for their services and replaced, the clubs own statement said they decided on a change of auditor in November? that btw is a timeline that I question given that I understand that an appointment of new auditors was made in early November and due process would be required before that appointment was confirmed.

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/con ... nt-embargo
In our continued efforts to improve and move forward Burnley Football Club we made the decision to change our auditors in November and the transition has taken longer than we anticipated.

there are people who engage on this message board who could find out for absolutely certain - all they have to do is exercise the shareholders rights under the 2006 Companies Act and ask the club (in a direct response to the March 12th statement)
- Did Azets resign or did the club decide to replace them?
- Who are the new auditors of the club and when where they appointed?

It is even possible for shareholders to ask to look at the board meeting minutes/notes where these decisions were taken

I would be very interested for shareholders to engage in such action, you would like to think that the Clarets Trust has done so already (though I have little expectation on that front), given it's chair sits on the fan advisory board and this topic is supposedly high on the advisory boards agenda at it's next meeting with the club which, i understand, is coming up very soon.
I'm rusty on the technicalities but I think if they were re-appointed (which they may well have been if it wasn't until November that the change happened and I thought I'd seen a suggestion somewhere that they had been doing some work this year) then they would have to resign even if the change was driven by the directors choosing to replace them.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Goalposts » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:16 pm

As an aside its also been reported today that 9 premier lge clubs have yet to publish their accounts

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Down_Rover » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:20 pm

Paul Waine wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:02 pm
No, of course not. These are West Brom's accounts and Azets are West Brom's auditors.

Yes, we still wait to learn who BFC's new auditors are. The one thing we know is that Azets resigned last year.
That’s helpful thanks

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:52 pm

aggi wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:14 pm
I'm rusty on the technicalities but I think if they were re-appointed (which they may well have been if it wasn't until November that the change happened and I thought I'd seen a suggestion somewhere that they had been doing some work this year) then they would have to resign even if the change was driven by the directors choosing to replace them.
Thanks as always for your specific specialist insights

The quirks of industry practice and terminology aside, there is still a significant difference between being obliged to resign and choosing to resign, the way Paul expressed it, it came across to the layman (and I know Paul was an accountant for the best part of 2 decades at least, so he may have slipped into trade reserved terminology) as the latter which the club statement appears in direct contention with.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:54 pm

Goalposts wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:16 pm
As an aside its also been reported today that 9 premier lge clubs have yet to publish their accounts
no different to us last year - they took several days to come through at Companies House and it was the 3rd of May before we could access them I think

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Paul Waine » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:19 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:49 pm
are we really certain that Azets resigned and were not just thanked for their services and replaced, the clubs own statement said they decided on a change of auditor in November? that btw is a timeline that I question given that I understand that an appointment of new auditors was made in early November and due process would be required before that appointment was confirmed.

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/con ... nt-embargo
In our continued efforts to improve and move forward Burnley Football Club we made the decision to change our auditors in November and the transition has taken longer than we anticipated.

there are people who engage on this message board who could find out for absolutely certain - all they have to do is exercise the shareholders rights under the 2006 Companies Act and ask the club (in a direct response to the March 12th statement)
- Did Azets resign or did the club decide to replace them?
- Who are the new auditors of the club and when where they appointed?

It is even possible for shareholders to ask to look at the board meeting minutes/notes where these decisions were taken

I would be very interested for shareholders to engage in such action, you would like to think that the Clarets Trust has done so already (though I have little expectation on that front), given it's chair sits on the fan advisory board and this topic is supposedly high on the advisory boards agenda at it's next meeting with the club which, i understand, is coming up very soon.
Hi CP, my use of "resigned" was intending simply to be "good mannered."

We know from the Directors' Report in the 2020/21 BFCHL accounts: "Auditor: The auditor, Azets Audit Services, is deemed to be reappointed under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006."

I've now checked the technical advice to auditors provided by the ICAEW. If Azets had resigned because there were "matters" they required to report they would have to file a statement at Companies House to advise both shareholders and creditors of these matters. Obviously, Azets haven't done this. Thus we can conclude that the club decided to appoint new auditors and Azets had no matters to report when they were replaced.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by dsr » Fri Mar 31, 2023 11:13 pm

Paul Waine wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:19 pm
Hi CP, my use of "resigned" was intending simply to be "good mannered."

We know from the Directors' Report in the 2020/21 BFCHL accounts: "Auditor: The auditor, Azets Audit Services, is deemed to be reappointed under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006."

I've now checked the technical advice to auditors provided by the ICAEW. If Azets had resigned because there were "matters" they required to report they would have to file a statement at Companies House to advise both shareholders and creditors of these matters. Obviously, Azets haven't done this. Thus we can conclude that the club decided to appoint new auditors and Azets had no matters to report when they were replaced.
It's a very odd time to appoint new auditors. It certainly wouldn't be as a matter of general policy, because the replacement was 11 months after the prvious accounts had been signed off and the replacement auditors would be appointed then - if it was a routine matter. Something has happened in the meantime to make BFC unhappy with Azets. (I doubt it would be the other way round, because it would surely be deeply unprofessional to resign from auditing so late in the day, unless there was a fundamental difference of opinion as to whether - say - a £150m loan from the owners was likely to be repaid.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 01, 2023 12:38 am

discussion on the auditors of Burnley FC should really be transferred to the takeover thread - I have copied the relevant posts over to that if anyone wants to continue the conversation re BFC, it makes more sense to do so there

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by KRBFC » Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:47 am

Hipper wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:58 pm
My 'bottom line' is that Pace et al are investors. Investors main purpose is to make money for themselves. They will want a return on the money they invested. In other words they need to extract money out of the club and, when they're done, sell it on at a profit.

What we fans want is success on the field.

If Pace can do both these things before he sells the club we'll all be happy. Well, we should be.
So what has Pace invested from his own bank account?

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by ClaretPete001 » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:36 am

aggi wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:39 am
West Brom have been through a lot of auditors recently, all is clearly not well there.

For those who have looked at Burnley's accounts, in a similar vein there is a section that talks about the recoverability of the loan that the club has made to ALK and whether it is likely to be repaid.
The difference is that West Brom's loan was to a company external to West Brom. There are many ways to disappear inter company loans or indeed not pay them back at all as long as the company is viable. Less easy, if the creditor is somewhere else in the world.

To address the wider issue, in reality, ALK invested so little into the deal that they could sell for a fraction of the price they paid and still make a handsome return on their investment and the inter-company loans resolved as a consequence of the sale of the group.

The problem for auditors is that relative to the size of the business the failure of a football club could be a PR disaster.

The club is a piddling business barely bigger than Kevin De Bruyne's household income with the addition of a few big cheques from PL broadcasting. I see little merit in the argument that the auditors could not deliver on this audit.

I suspect, with no evidence at all, that both sides would have been reasonably happy to end the relationship.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by ClaretPete001 » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:41 am

I think there is one glaring error in the above but ho hum such is life.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by ClaretPete001 » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:48 am

KRBFC wrote:
Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:47 am
So what has Pace invested from his own bank account?
Or more to the point the club does not need to be a success for them to make a profit. The money taken from the club means that they only need to make a profit on their investment and that is probably achievable whether the club is much of a success or otherwise.

The ground and facilities are worth more than the investment from ALK to anyone who wants a professional football club for whatever reason.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Spijed » Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:20 am

When some people talk about us becoming established or moving onto the next level I really wish they would look at the PL table and realise we would be playing an extremely dangerous game if we attempt to become a club we are never equipped to become.

Brighton and Brentford are somehow seen as clubs who aren't going to get relegated in the next few years yet some supporters should realise that only a few seasons ago Leicester not only won the PL title but the FA Cup as well. They are now fighting to survive in the division.

It shows how quickly things change and if we push the boat out too far we'll just end up like West Brom and others where it's PL or bust.
These 3 users liked this post: Dark Cloud tiger76 Colburn_Claret

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by tiger76 » Sun Apr 02, 2023 10:55 am

Spijed wrote:
Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:20 am
When some people talk about us becoming established or moving onto the next level I really wish they would look at the PL table and realise we would be playing an extremely dangerous game if we attempt to become a club we are never equipped to become.

Brighton and Brentford are somehow seen as clubs who aren't going to get relegated in the next few years yet some supporters should realise that only a few seasons ago Leicester not only won the PL title but the FA Cup as well. They are now fighting to survive in the division.

It shows how quickly things change and if we push the boat out too far we'll just end up like West Brom and others where it's PL or bust.
Plenty of clubs who thought they were established in the PL who quickly fell back to the Championship or fighting relegation.

Southampton & Wolves are another couple you could add to that list, both not too long ago were hoping to break into the top 10 regularly, or even be contending for Europe every season in Wolves case, now both are scrambling to avoid the drop.

Being in the PL is great, however we certainly should not be betting the ranch just to stay at the top table, as that would just be storing up serious problems down the track if or more likely when we go back to the 2nd tier.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:25 am

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... Lifqg&s=19

Look like they're going to need some high priced player sales to survive, or find further investment this summer

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by RVclaret » Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:28 am

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:25 am
https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... Lifqg&s=19

Look like they're going to need some high priced player sales to survive, or find further investment this summer
Problem is I can’t really see anyone to sell at high prices.

There’s no one in the squad I’d take in the Prem.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:17 am


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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by aggi » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:17 am

Ooof, West Brom are borrowing, from a company owned by their owner, at 5% per month which, assuming it is compounding, comes out at ~ 80% per annum!

Image

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Colburn_Claret » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:21 am

tiger76 wrote:
Sun Apr 02, 2023 10:55 am
Plenty of clubs who thought they were established in the PL who quickly fell back to the Championship or fighting relegation.

Southampton & Wolves are another couple you could add to that list, both not too long ago were hoping to break into the top 10 regularly, or even be contending for Europe every season in Wolves case, now both are scrambling to avoid the drop.

Being in the PL is great, however we certainly should not be betting the ranch just to stay at the top table, as that would just be storing up serious problems down the track if or more likely when we go back to the 2nd tier.
There are so many differences to the way we are run, and the way most teams are run.
There are those clubs who are the play things of billionaires, who have no fear as long as the billionaire retains interest. Losses will always be covered, no matter how many bad choices are made. The biggest problem being the Blackburn and Leicester effect. When the existing owner passes, and his children have no interest.
There are those clubs not owned by billionaires, but who's success has made them fall into the comfort zone of thinking it will never change. These don't need to bet the ranch, any debt that can't be covered is too much, and relegation in this state can be terminal, or at least have a knock on that can take a decade or more to recover. Portsmouth, Bolton.......it's a long list soon to be joined by West Brom.
Then there are those that try to be sustainable, living within their means by trying to find players that can be sold for a profit in order to be able to play at the top table. Norwich, ourselves for the most part, Brentford, Brighton. The latter 2 are riding high at the moment, but both could easily have been relegated in the last couple of years, yet I think they were in a position where relegation wouldn't have been the end of the road, just another stepping stone on their journey.

If it is all down to how the club is run, then we are dependent on APs business acumen. Everything we have seen so far, despite the LBO, shows that AP is both prudent, and has the initiative to look for ways to make Burnley solid on a budget.

We are going up, no doubt, but there is no way that AP is going to fall into the trap of betting the ranch, not after the lessons learnt from last season. I was confident of staying up next season, I still think we will but the confidence has been diluted after Blackpool and Sunderland. The truth is this season has shown that outside the top 7/8 it's a lottery for relegation. anybody's number could be up. Spending what you haven't got with the possibility of relegation in front of you, is stupidity of the highest order.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:23 am

aggi wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:17 am
Ooof, West Brom are borrowing, from a company owned by their owner, at 5% per month which, assuming it is compounding, comes out at ~ 80% per annum!

Image
Did you see the follow up tweet?
They loaned that money to another of his companies but at a lower interest rate

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by RVclaret » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:32 am

£20m loan from MSD interest rate is SONIA plus 9.75%, so works out as 13.93%.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Colburn_Claret » Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:34 am

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:23 am
Did you see the follow up tweet?
They loaned that money to another of his companies but at a lower interest rate
Is that even legal.

If it is, it shouldn't be.

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Re: West Brom - auditors report

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:21 pm

RVclaret wrote:
Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:32 am
£20m loan from MSD interest rate is SONIA plus 9.75%, so works out as 13.93%.
your missing the fact that the 9.75% is variable - or to put it another way is BoE base rate plus 6% - rate for West Brom is now over 14%
MSD West Brom.JPG
MSD West Brom.JPG (62.46 KiB) Viewed 2839 times

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