The Fishy - Grimsby Town FC

Question of the Week

Is football a business or a sport?




 

John Fenty Responds - More

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 24/09/2004

IN a statement on Radio Humberside's site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/humber/) John Fenty has been responding to claims from independent fans' web site 'electronicfishcake.com' that they face a £500,000 tax bill.

The Town chairman says that like all other clubs they have a tax debt, although he won't disclose the amount, but he's keen to stress that matters are in hand:

"When I took over as chairman, I did address finance in that I explained that after successive relegation's, and against the backdrop of losing the ITV money, that the club's finances were and remain difficult."

"Additional to the board's financial support to the football club, further debts into the season would have to be met, and our objective was to pay these or deal with these problems through improved footballing performance."

"Now we're very, very, happy on where we're going on this in that we've got improved gate receipts, we've got substantial improved commercial income and in total we're very very happy that we can solve the problem that we're talking about when I first took over."

Later, on Mariners Net he added;

"We have matters in hand though, and it is not something that is going to cripple us.

"We are in talks but are happy with the way things are going at Blundell Park.

"The team is playing very exciting football and the support has been tremendous. We are on a par with the gates we were getting when we were in the first division and with added income streams, it is all helping.

"We are delighted with the way things are going and I want to re-iterate to the fans that there is nothing to worry about."END


My comments;

I, like all other Grimsby Town fans am delighted to hear "We have nothing to worry about"

I did post on the Message Board that the club will respond saying that "We have a tax bill. We get on every year. So what?" and that has happened by looking at the response.

I have no option but to accept Mr Fenty's statements but he did not respond to the real issue.

Have Grimsby Town sought and received advice on going into administration?

So why did they, if we had nothing to worry about?

In his response Mr Fenty says "We are in talks"

Who with Mr Fenty? The tax office? So exactly how much is it?

In fact in reading Mr Fenty's response, he assures us everything is OK but he never denied anything in the article.

However, we have to take his word. He has invested a great deal of his own money in the club and it looks like he will be continuing to do so. For that we should all be duly grateful.

Billo


Add To Facebook


This site is by the fans, for the fans, and we will consider articles on any subject relating to the Mariners whether it be related to current news, a nostalgic look back in the past, a story about a player, a game or games in the past, something about Blundell Park or football in general. Click here to submit your article!


Related Stories


Forum Latest
Thread TitlePostsLatest Post
Jason Stockwood19chaos3322/11 18:34
"Beat the Clock"  Colchester23Grimal22/11 18:26
Prediction Thread Colchester Home40Grimal22/11 18:24
JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW 42LocalLadGTFC22/11 18:14
40 years ago17Lincoln Mariner 5622/11 17:55
Fun weather forecast for Saturday34Maringer22/11 17:36
BOXING DAY14rancido22/11 16:48
Colchester Saturday19wuffing22/11 11:58
It’s all gone ‘quite’10SpiritOf9822/11 09:16
TV Games/Upcoming Fixtures3SiteBot22/11 03:30