Oh when the Saints, go...

[Deathy]

...into administration.

It can't be far away now!

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/ ... 31,00.html

[cmonurz]

I am gutted for them.

[paultheroyal]

Come up on our stock exchange data here - its confirmed!!!

[paultheroyal]

Twist being if Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC is placed into administration but Southampton Football Club is not, then the team – currently battling against relegation from the Championship – may not be docked ten points by the Football League.

[cmonurz]

Twist being if Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC is placed into administration but Southampton Football Club is not, then the team – currently battling against relegation from the Championship – may not be docked ten points by the Football League.

I'm probably wrong, but weren't Luton already owned by a holding company when they went into administration again?

[Deathy]

Twist being if Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC is placed into administration but Southampton Football Club is not, then the team – currently battling against relegation from the Championship – may not be docked ten points by the Football League.

Would any points deduction at this stage carry over into next season? I do hope they go down then.

[Stranded]

Twist being if Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC is placed into administration but Southampton Football Club is not, then the team – currently battling against relegation from the Championship – may not be docked ten points by the Football League.

Would any points deduction at this stage carry over into next season? I do hope they go down then.

The rule is that if a team is relegated then the 10 pts carry to the next season, if they are not they are deducted from their final total. If this deduction then sees them in a relegation spot, they are relegated.

[CMRoyal]

I've never liked Southampton, so to this news. I guess an unwelcome by-product will be the sight of even more Manchester United and Liverpool shirts around the town centres of Hampshire, but I think I can live with that.

[TBM]

The rule is that if a team is relegated then the 10 pts carry to the next season, if they are not they are deducted from their final total. If this deduction then sees them in a relegation spot, they are relegated.

Can you explain this again (some more) - i dont really understand

[Stranded]

As I understand it,

After the March deadline, if a team goes in to administration the points are not deducted automatically but at the end of the season.

If the club has been relegated then the 10 pt deduction carries over so they start on -10 the next year.

However, if they have not gone down, the 10pts is deducted from their final total. If the loss of these points drops them in to the relegation zone, they will go down but start the next year on 0 points.

[PieEater]

If the club has been relegated then the 10 pt deduction carries over so they start on -10 the next year.

aka, "the cheating Leeds scum rule"

[BR2]

What is so strange about the Southampton situation is that in their Premiership days they supposedly were one of the lowest payers and at the time and since have regularly sold players during their parachute payments period.
Locally people just can't understand where all the money has gone especially as historically they were a very well run club that survived for years at the top level on gates of 15,000 and every year brought in money by selling their best players.
It is believed that something really crooked has happened which no doubt we will hear about in time.

[TFF]

It (honestly) gives me no joy whatsoever to see another club go out of business.

Whilst I'd be quite happy to see them languishing in the lower tiers like Swindon or even drop out of the league like Oxford I'd rather they kept going for the benefit, or continued excruciating punishment, of their supporters.

I just can't generate any ill feeling towards Southampton. As said above Saints were a decent, well run, club not so long ago and their current predicament does seem a little strange.

[Once were Biscuitmen]

What is so strange about the Southampton situation is that in their Premiership days they supposedly were one of the lowest payers and at the time and since have regularly sold players during their parachute payments period.
Locally people just can't understand where all the money has gone especially as historically they were a very well run club that survived for years at the top level on gates of 15,000 and every year brought in money by selling their best players.
It is believed that something really crooked has happened which no doubt we will hear about in time.

That was very much the business model when they were at The Dell I suspect. I assume they were carrying higher a higher level of debt once they used it to build St Marys. As a pretty stable mid-table club up to the point they buggered up replacing Strachan they probably did not de-risk all their player contracts for relegation. Once they did go down they were on the slope to today.

It's why I want to bang my head against the wall reading all the rubbish on the team board about Mr M being "tight" etc. Here is the alternative!

[TBM]

As I understand it,

After the March deadline, if a team goes in to administration the points are not deducted automatically but at the end of the season.

If the club has been relegated then the 10 pt deduction carries over so they start on -10 the next year.

However, if they have not gone down, the 10pts is deducted from their final total. If the loss of these points drops them in to the relegation zone, they will go down but start the next year on 0 points.

Ah right - so basically if they go into administration now they have to make sure they get 11pts more than the 3rd bottom team to avoid any punishment?!

[bobby m's syrup]

I don't believe that any true football supporter, regardless of which team, will gloat at this news. That said, I remember a time, perhaps 25-30 years ago, (when Reading were in the doldrums and the Saints, a moderately successful top tier outfit), when Southampton FC ran a quite aggressive advertising campaign in and around Reading.

If the Saints do fold, can we expect their fans to follow Bournemouth?...Possibly. Pompey?...Never! That leaves little ol Reading. Perhaps Sir John had better dust off those stadium extension plans.

Doh! I forgot Aldershot. Nearer than us and Hampshire by a squeak.

[ayjaydee]

As I understand it,

After the March deadline, if a team goes in to administration the points are not deducted automatically but at the end of the season.

If the club has been relegated then the 10 pt deduction carries over so they start on -10 the next year.

However, if they have not gone down, the 10pts is deducted from their final total. If the loss of these points drops them in to the relegation zone, they will go down but start the next year on 0 points.

Ah right - so basically if they go into administration now they have to make sure they get 11pts more than the 3rd bottom team to avoid any punishment?!

Not quite right I believe. If, after the March deadline the deduction of 10 points does not result in relegation the points deduction is carried over to next season to ensure there is a punishment.

EG Watford go into administration today.
If they finish in the bottom 3 anyway - relegated and start next season in Div 1 on -10
If the finish outside bottom 3 by less than10 points the deudction applies this season, they get relegated and start in Div1 on 0
If they finish outside bottom 3 by more than 10 points they stay in Championship but start next year on -10.

I think!

[Mr Angry]

The problem is that the FA are making noises that as its the holding company and not the football club subsidiary tat are going into administration, then Southampton FC might not get docked points at all....

........which i a recipe for disaster, as it would mean every club could crete a holding company and dump all the football clubs debts into it, periodically going into administration to clear those debts with no come back. This would mean, therefore, that the football club would never get docked points.

What must be particularly infuriating for Luton is that 10 of the 30 points they were docked at the start of this season was for football agents being paid by the holding company of Luton Town FC; this, therefore, set the precedent that the FA recognises that the holding company IS an integral part of the football club and vice versa, a precedent which the FA now appear to be disregarding in the case of Southampton.

Double standards at the FA?? Impossible shirley................................

[Wycombe Royal]

As I understand it the holding company is actually selling Southampton Football Club to someone else prior to go into administration. Therefore the football club would not be a subsidiary of the parent company. I believe this is what is causing the delay in the parent company announcing that they are in administration.

If this is the case the the sale needs to be investigated very closely.

[6ft Kerplunk]

........which i a recipe for disaster, as it would mean every club could crete a holding company and dump all the football clubs debts into it, periodically going into administration to clear those debts with no come back. This would mean, therefore, that the football club would never get docked points.

Thanks for the idea.