Tottenham Hotspur’s recent £175million bailout from the Bank of England has not greeted with universal praise, cutting against the general mood of gratitude from businesses in respect of financial assistance from the State to British companies. One gets the sense that these elite loan facilities are perceived as ‘a bridge too far’, for some.
Quoted by the Financial Times, Dame Margaret Hodge was clearly livid.
“…absolutely scandalous that so many large overseas companies have tapped up the UK taxpayer while handing out dividends to shareholders”. This is a flagrant abuse of public money. [Chancellor] Rishi Sunak was supposed to stop this shameless behaviour but it seems his restrictions were too little, too late.”
Whilst this sounds noble enough at first glance, THFC, like fellow Bank of England borrowers BASF, maybe headquartered overseas, but their business activities are unquestionably in the UK.
BASF said the company had “…a tangible presence in the UK with eight production sites, four office locations and three labs with a staff count of 834. These operations benefit the UK.”
Tottenham has over 500 non-playing staff working in Haringey, and the money was not to be spent on footballers. THFC is the hub of several billion already ploughed into N17 in terms of both rail and housing infrastructure.
OPINION
A few things here. One, these are elite lending facilities, only offered to businesses that have qualified after many years of trading. Two, these are commercial loans and have to be repaid.
Lastly, it is a curious business that Ms Hodge Labour Party member would involve themselves in calling out financial irresponsibility. The broadcaster Jeremy Vine, who himself is left-leaning, notably derided the Labour Party’s last election campaign, which was heavily loaded with giveaways.
“Free broadband, free tuition fees, free prescriptions, free hospital parking, free dental check-ups, free rail travel to under 16s, Free beer?”
The Daily Express
Labour lost the last general election by the biggest margin in nearly 100 years.
Whilst I’m absolutely no Levy fan, there’s nothing to see here Ms Hodge.
I best get my Beta Max 1984 UEFA Cup win put on to a disc then. It’s the only way I’m seeing a trophy lifted anytime soon.
Joy! Wouldn’t the money we did have ear marked for transfers still be used for them though? Or am I just clinging to the feintest hope that we can sign more than Eze (who I rate) and Ryan Fraser on a free for next season’s assault on top 8!
It’s a very legitimate concern. Unfortunately for us, our billionaire owner has no interest in funding transfers. This has always been the issue. Chelsea can do it because Roman does the whole ownership thing very differently.
Only the clubs who have massively rich owners who want to spend will be making big moves this summer. Chelsea, City and potentially Newcastle I can see doing it. Utd are a cash machine so they can afford it too.
That’s the problem- we’re not operating on a level playing field with these clubs.
I think it’s quite complicated financially and although the money will not be directly used for transfers it could still have an indirect benefit to transfer dealings. I suspect we will do some deals but not much in the way of spending.
Sorry to say but the club have said the money will not be used for transfers. It has to be repaid next April at a fairly low interest rate. Can be extended for another year.
Very worried that Spurs are in a short term financial kerfuffle with little hope of signing a player who has a keepy up record over 37. Yet, Chelsea already have Ziyech in the bag (£37m) are very close to signing Werner (according to the BBC-£50m) and Chilwell is a target (£50m+). Be assured, the top clubs will still buy quality players this Summer. If we don’t join in it doesn’t matter how good Jose is. Could the £175m loan mean we will have decent spending money for a Summer overhaul?
I have been to plenty of festivals where plastic beer mugs were thrown full of a pungent Czech wheat beer (at least I think it was) over the crowd. Doing the same at football with a non toxic disinfectant might recreate the balmy atmosphere of the 70s and 80s whilst saving lives.
I hope so mate. That sounds like an interesting idea.
The sum borrowed which will be used for wages and day to day running costs at least give an insight into the financial landscape that Levy foresees, and it is bleak. I think someone has said that the two clubs looking at the biggest losses are Man United and Spurs,circa £100 million. All clubs are facing the same issues but this couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Spurs. Just when everything was in place to close the financial gap with the elite clubs. Without a vaccine it’s hard to see grounds filled again. Rugby are talking about grounds at 10 percent capacity. Probably everyone wearing a mask. Try cheering on your team with that. Some UK company has come up with a machine that sprays a disinfectant mist over people as they enter a building, it covers all your clothing and is supposedly non toxic. This is the future maybe.