Mehmet Dalman interview BBC Wales

[Hilts]

Whats the rules on FFP.?

If Tan is putting in 3m then losses of around 36m must be putting us in dodgy ground.

Just doesnt sound right. I think Dalman may be being a bit economical with the truth. Maybe the 3m is going in to cover costs then reclaimed when an income stream like a parachute payment comes in.

[cardiff55]

I think there are a lot of players at the club who are on big wages. Reports were that Smithies alone is on £35k per week, that's £1.8 pa for just one player. If, as stated, there are about 4 or 5 others on c £20k per week that's another £5m+ pa. And all the other players across the whole club, not just the first team squad. And the cost of the coaching staff and backroom people. The running of the ground too, someone above says £500k for business rates? And what we are paying for transfer fees, for the like of Murphy possibly, Glatzel, Flint etc, and the loan players. From talking to someone at another club I know a big cost is NI contributions c10% of the total wage bill and I know this has been a factor in cutting wage bills.

All this with income from the parachute payment's final year, and some income from season tickets. The season ticket income will be lost next season as people will have credit for missing this season (I hope, because I am one of them). No match day income, no potential big crowds for important games and derbies against Swansea and Bristol City. I expect it all adds up.

But it will have been the same for most clubs.

Next year will be difficult, very difficult for us with no parachute payments. Same for Swansea (unless they go up!). And the clubs coming down will be in the same position, losing the PL money and taking a drop down to parachute payments.

I expect Bamba and Bennett to follow Hoilett out of the club, one or two sales maybe and Glaztel sold or loaned out again. Transfers fees will be negligible but more important to get players off the wage bill.

A lot of other clubs are in trouble, Derby we know about, and a big club like Sheffield Wednesday in League 1. A lot off clubs could end up in serious financial mess.

I just hope we do OK. I still reckon we will get some decent signings in but it won't be silly fees like previous season. I just hope Harry Wilson comes back.

[Former Labour leader]

I don't think that would be a valid comparison. One was the club owner, the other is the Chairman and they seem to be very different characters. Besides which, I've only spent an hour or so in Dalman's company, during which he was busily engaging in a cheesy PR exercise. I spent much more time in Hammam's company, often on a one-to-one basis, during which he talked about all manner of crap.

Perhaps a better comparison would be Peter Ridsdale, but again a direct comparison is difficult as I attended many meetings with him in a variety of settings and only one with Dalman which was staged by the club. I'll admit I always liked Ridsdale - he was entertaining company and I greatly admired how hard he worked and the phenomenal amount of hours he put in while he was Chairman. I reckon there's every chance the cub would have crashed in 2005 without him. However, he was obviously dodgy to put it mildly and could bullshit with the best of them. He had that down to an art form.

Almost forgot about Risdale. Love him or hate him, your quite right in that he probably saved CCFC going bust.
Going a bit further back, did you meet Clemo? I think he tops my list of self serving CCFC chairmen.

[The Lone Gunman]

Almost forgot about Risdale. Love him or hate him, your quite right in that he probably saved CCFC going bust. Going a bit further back, did you meet Clemo? I think he tops my list of self serving CCFC chairmen.

Yes, I met Tony Clemo a few times, including in later years when he always attended shareholder meetings. He won't be remembered fondly by many fans, but I think the truth is that for most of his tenure he simply didn't have the financial clout to do anything with the club and nobody else was interested. They were truly grim times.

Interesting piece about him here - he was involved in more stuff behind the scenes than was apparent at the time:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...ormer-16449180

[delmbox]

I think there are a lot of players at the club who are on big wages. Reports were that Smithies alone is on £35k per week, that's £1.8 pa for just one player.

"Reports" is a pretty grand way of saying "completely made up rumour"

[cardiff55]

"Reports" is a pretty grand way of saying "completely made up rumour"

Probably, normally, but then Warnock signed him!

[Former Labour leader]

Yes, I met Tony Clemo a few times, including in later years when he always attended shareholder meetings. He won't be remembered fondly by many fans, but I think the truth is that for most of his tenure he simply didn't have the financial clout to do anything with the club and nobody else was interested. They were truly grim times.

Interesting piece about him here - he was involved in more stuff behind the scenes than was apparent at the time:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...ormer-16449180

Interesting what you say about Clemo.
Unfortunately the WOL link doesn't work.

[Hilts]

Interesting what you say about Clemo.
Unfortunately the WOL link doesn't work.

Link works fine for me.

[The Lone Gunman]

Unfortunately the WOL link doesn't work.

Strange. Works fine for me (on a standard PC).

[delmbox]

Probably, normally, but then Warnock signed him!

Oh Jesus, good point

[Former Labour leader]

Strange. Works fine for me (on a standard PC).

Thankyou. Link working for me now.
Never liked what he did at City, but perhaps he was trying to do a lot more good for Welsh football than I gave him credit for.

[Former Labour leader]

I see that Kumar still owns a few shares. Now there's another one that was looking after himself first. Whatever became of him?

[The Hooded Claw]

The parachute payments could potentially be needed to cover balances of transfer fees outstanding from previous seasons (when Warnock was in charge), since they are usually paid over a number of years.

[goats]

Yes, I do believe it. I also believe that every single Championship club is in exactly the same position to different degrees. I don't understand why anyone would not believe it. What is there to be gained from making it up ? The accounts can easily be checked when they are filed. If the club has any ambitions at all to be successful then that is what it costs to run a club of our size. Instead of moaning all the time about anything they do, we should be bloody grateful that he is keeping us afloat, at the same time as backing the manager/team in still trying to get promotion.

I don’t think I believe it, I would want to know why if I was VT, why do I need to put in another 3 million a month on top of the 3 million a month I got from sky. £40 million last season wasn’t it? 6 million a month to run a mid table championship club? Shockingly bad business

[Mario Miethig]

Yes, I met Tony Clemo a few times, including in later years when he always attended shareholder meetings. He won't be remembered fondly by many fans, but I think the truth is that for most of his tenure he simply didn't have the financial clout to do anything with the club and nobody else was interested. They were truly grim times.

Interesting piece about him here - he was involved in more stuff behind the scenes than was apparent at the time:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...ormer-16449180

He was always slaughtered in the fanzines and I remember a couple of Clemo out demos on the pitch. Always thought the robbery of the QPR cup takings were a bit suspicious. Maybe I’m putting 2+2 together and making 5?
They were grim times and to be fair to Clemo, he had little help from local businesses and it took the Mancunian Rick Wright to take over from him.

[AntEvans]

" Dalman is about as trustworthy as a politician "
A certain someone else repeats that shite all the time

I can assure you I have nothing to do with the dark side. Dalman always sounds to me like a lying Tory cnut though.

[Divine Wright]

I like Mehmet

makes sense

[Ninian1962]

Indeed they can and it'll be interesting to do so when we finally get the chance. What is there to be gained from making the figure up? I don't know, but I'm confident it's exaggerated. After all, the club's Premier League wage bill in 2018/19 was £42.5 million. It's sure to have reduced significantly since then, so given the fact that the club has received large parachute payments for the last two years, where have these enormous sums Dalman referred to been going?

I wouldn't rule the idea out completely, though. After all, I firmly believe that the claims some fans have been making about the club being a well-run operation in recent years is fiction.

Dave, just a point of clarification.

The Premier League season 2018/19 the total wage bill was £53.7m . The figure you refer to of £42.5m was the player related wage bill. The other big cash outlay that season was £38.2m paid out in instalments due for player signings against which the club only got £2.3m in cash from player sales.(those figures are cash figures and not the same as values of players bought and sold in the period because of transfer fees being usually paid by instalments).

On *****` message board (which I don`t have access to post on) there is a claim that the club earned £500m of income from its two years in the Premier League. That claim has no basis in fact. In the two Premier League years the total income was £83.1m in 2013/14 and £125.2m in 2018/19 so a total of £208.3m, less than half that claimed. Indeed , if the entire income for the 9 years from 2010/11 to 2018/19 inclusive is added together it only comes to £399m. In the sae 9 year period the wage bill alone totalled £329m so only £70m left to cover all other running costs of the club.

I can`t comment on the level of cash introduced by the owner in season 2019/20 yet because those accounts are not yet on the public record and the 2020/21 ones (which are likely to have required a greater cash injection) won`t be filed for a long time so it is not possible to comment on the accuracy of Mehmet Dalman`s claims

Keith

[Ninian1962]

I think there are a lot of players at the club who are on big wages. Reports were that Smithies alone is on £35k per week, that's £1.8 pa for just one player. If, as stated, there are about 4 or 5 others on c £20k per week that's another £5m+ pa. And all the other players across the whole club, not just the first team squad. And the cost of the coaching staff and backroom people. The running of the ground too, someone above says £500k for business rates? And what we are paying for transfer fees, for the like of Murphy possibly, Glatzel, Flint etc, and the loan players. From talking to someone at another club I know a big cost is NI contributions c10% of the total wage bill and I know this has been a factor in cutting wage bills.

All this with income from the parachute payment's final year, and some income from season tickets. The season ticket income will be lost next season as people will have credit for missing this season (I hope, because I am one of them). No match day income, no potential big crowds for important games and derbies against Swansea and Bristol City. I expect it all adds up.

But it will have been the same for most clubs.

Next year will be difficult, very difficult for us with no parachute payments. Same for Swansea (unless they go up!). And the clubs coming down will be in the same position, losing the PL money and taking a drop down to parachute payments.

I expect Bamba and Bennett to follow Hoilett out of the club, one or two sales maybe and Glaztel sold or loaned out again. Transfers fees will be negligible but more important to get players off the wage bill.

A lot of other clubs are in trouble, Derby we know about, and a big club like Sheffield Wednesday in League 1. A lot off clubs could end up in serious financial mess.

I just hope we do OK. I still reckon we will get some decent signings in but it won't be silly fees like previous season. I just hope Harry Wilson comes back.

The rules on financial fair play (now called profitability and sustainabilty - punchy name!) are that you average your losses over a three year period and are allowed to make an average loss of £13m in the Championship and £35m in the Premier League. So we can make a loss of 2x £13m plus 1X£35m =£61m divided by 3 =just over £20m a year on average. On that basis , no problem with meeting the restrictions.

In addition , clubs are currently allowed to make a further "Covid loss" which they have to calculate and have audited .