quote="Keith"]
Billy bodger wrote:The EFL should suspended his ownership and take the Club under its jurisdiction for the rest of the season, giving the Club a chance to rectify the situation.
Then to help the Club the EFL should put it into administration and appoint an administrator to over see the sale of the Club.
It’s time to stop this ownership debacle and the EFL should not sit twiddling its thumbs as it has for 2+ years and punish the Club because of bad ownership.
I don't like the way you drive your car, so I'm going to take it away from you and sell it. And I don't like the way you mow your grass, so I am taking your house off you...
What legal powers do you think the EFL have that they aren't using?[/quote]
Kieth, first of all I want to apologise for my post being unclear, I should have put ‘The EFL should “have the right to” suspend his ownership……..’
I however don’t agree with your analogy about talking about cars or grass, (If you follow your analogy the EFL should not have the power to stop a prospective new owner from buying a Club!!).
I’m talking about Football Clubs and the EFL Rules, so let’s stick to that please.
I do hope though you agree with me that the EFL are the guardians of the football and therefore it right they have a duty to protect it from bad owners taking over Clubs.
My thinking behind my post was that if the EFL have a process and rules that a prospective new owner has to pass to take over a football club, why are they not extended?
I personally think the EFL can choose to use the same rules to take a club off an owner and make them sell it, especially if it brings the league into disrepute or harms the sport. Indeed if I’m right they can use the rules to do that, but have never exercised that right.
You are probably right that would be fraught with legality issues, so why not tighten up the rules. It is definitely being proposed in the Governments Governance Bill (at the moment!!) and being looked into at the moment. Indeed a member of the Shrimps Trust gave evidence to the committee recently.
My thoughts are if they were already in place, when Jason got banned from being a Director of a Football Club he should have got banned from being an owner, at that point. Some may agree and some may differ and that fine,
If that had happened at that time and Morecambe FC had been taken under the protection of the EFL, while a sale took place involving arbitration, under the watchful eye of the EFL, it would have all happened while we were still in League One. Non of the last 2.5yrs procrastination under Whittingham ownership would have happened.
It will be interesting to hear what you think of the Football Governance Bill, Kieth, these are the kind of things that can protect the game and more importantly individual Football Clubs.