25 Sep 2026 08:25:00
So its been reported that Man Utd now have debts of over £1bn, and this is before they build a new stadium.


How will this debt ever be paid off?
Will ticket prices increase further?
How much more debt can they run up before the authorities say enough is enough?
How many more teams owe this amount of money?
Can football survive long term with this debt?

1.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 09:34:07
The premier league and the football league to an extent will only survive while they have rich ownership who can afford to pump money into their clubs. When the Arabs have had enough and move onto another sport such as F1 where there is no end of possibility then clubs will go to the wall.

I worry about the ground expansion and I understand it's an over due must, but the cost to the season ticket holders in the new Peter Taylor stand will be eye watering. For example the new stand at Fulham, the tickets rose to 3,500 pounds a season.

2.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 11:00:05
But is it real money and real debt Keeff? One of my extra O levels when I was taking my A levels ( and had spare study time capacity) was the somewhat clunky " Economics and Public Affairs.” I spent 2 years reading up on it ( and have got the Certificate) and found it very interesting. But I still couldn't ( and still can't) get a handle on it.
For example I read that the USA has a National Debt of 60 trillion dollars ( and increasing) as with every other country in the world. Who does it owe it to? What would happen if the banks, creditors and owners of Government bonds called it in?
Take a look at that tenner in your pocket mate. It's a piece of plastic paper with a nice pictures on it but its actual worth is 0.000001 of a penny. Yet you can hand it over for something real like a bag of fish and chips or a bottle of wine.
It's all smoke and mirrors or the Emperors clothes. Of course, it's real if you are the wage slaves at the bottom of the pile.

Don't worry, the bailiffs will soon be knocking on your door. As Dickens said about Micawber in David Copperfield " An annual income of £20 and expenditure of £19 is happiness. An income of £20 and an expenditure of £21 is misery”
But it doesnt apply to the big guns and global Instutions, like Man Utd. If their debt is ever called in, it would cause massive problems for the creditors. The club would just relocate and move on, probably much changed, with just the brand name surviving. So, atm, it suits the club ( they can buy expensive players and build a new stadium) and the creditors (who cream off loads of interest).
Occasionally it goes massively wrong. Look at the Great Depression, the Weimar Republic and recently Northern Rock, Bank of Scotland, Coutts etc. But don't worry, the Government ( ie we taxpayers) keep the confidence trick going).

3.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 11:14:13
Nice reply Stokey mate, wish I'd got sponsorship of £1.00 per word used in the replies - I could pay off Uniteds debts ?
Oh no, you didn't mention Goose Fair Stokey!

4.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 11:42:45
Well, as you insist on a Goose Fair story Keefe, I had the pleasure of working with a chap called Darren Walker. Very funny guy. He was a comedy actor before joining the Police. Failed his RADA audition because, though he did very well with his performance generally, he failed when he was asked to do an acrobatic performance. He was a bit roly poly. All the other young wannabe actors came on and did handsprings, running up the walls, walking upside down etc. Darren came on and managed a forward roll, stood up and shouted " Ta Da”! Failed but brilliant !
My Goose Fair story was when he walked up to me and a couple of other cops with people laughing and pointing at him because, though in full uniform, instead of his helmet, he had a big yellow traffic parking cone stuck on his head.

He said " I've just told a big 6 foot Rasta body builder that he couldn't park his car there and look what's happened”. Just side splitting.
He also some superb impressions His John Wayne, walk and voice was brilliant.????.

5.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 11:49:30
Stokey, you obviously had a very good education and I was able to tell after the first sentences that it was your post ! However I think you became a policeman ? It's true that football clubs such as ours run a fine line between success and and failure. Big M has bailed us out big time and may give us a new stadium do more people can watch the reds. Goodness knows where we would be without his funds. Big is blamed for many things yet I am sure i ) he is a very successful business man ii ) he does not throw money down the drain iii ) he makes mistakes as we all have done in our lives but as we should learns by them.


Of course he has gambled with OG as a better manager than VP. He knew VP both at Olympiacos and at Forest but made the difficult decision to put OG in charge. My own belief is it is the best decision for the club to stop relegation battles and stabilise the side. He will know MGW will eventually move on and no club would refuse 125M, look at the villains and Morgan Rodger's. We have no choice but to accept Big M's decisions, and watch the club go forward
PS don't get me on the debt our country is in.

6.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 11:58:08
According to Google, Mr Marinnakis has loaned at least 350+ millions, so long as he remains the figure head just enjoy the ride, the problems will come if anything happens to him Reading, Wigan, Leicester, Blackburn even Chelsea all struggled when something happened to there benefactor. I wonder if anything s in place for when that day happens?.

7.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 13:43:47
Nuno, mate, my views on Mr M are well known. I am, at best, ambivalent. I admire his passion, commitment and financial contributions to the club.
But, I always point out that the money he has put in is a tiny fraction of his vast fortune. He bought us cheap when the club was in dire straits after the disaster that was the Fawaz era. There are better owners out there, owners who perhaps take a more long term view, who don't sack managers ( even successful ones like Cooper, Nuno and Perriera) on a whim, who create a more stable culture ( 5 managers in a year is crazy), don't risk relegation by breaching FFP and having points docked, and, don't bring the clubs reputation into disrepute and ridicule.


My education was at Robin Hood School, Bestwood Park, Springfield School, Bulwell, Ellis Guilford School Basford and Forest Fields College. So Public School only insofar as anybody could go there.??But I must say the State provides excellent and inspirational teachers and went on to pay for my University grant, books etc.
Mossy, I think the clubs you mention answer your question. Leicester, Wigan, Blackburn, Reading. Chelsea were unloaded to Abramovitch approved owners, a shady offshoot of his own oligarch financial empire, ended by sanctions against Putin.
We would repeat the experience of what happened when Nigel Doughty passed away.sold onto the likes of the ruinous Fawaz.

8.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 14:16:44
Nuno, mate, don't worry too much about the National Debt. We've had one since the early 1700's. It's why the Bank of England was invented, to raise funds in emergency ( mainly to finance wars ).

9.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 16:11:00
On the case of Leicester, because the owner didn't die of natural causes his fortune is being held by the Thai government until the matter is resolved. Only then can his son re invest in the club. The subject came up with my son when I visited him in Thailand last may. As for the others they just had iffy owners.

10.) 25 Sep 2026
25 Sep 2026 20:22:37
And our owners whiter than white??.

11.) 26 Sep 2026
26 Sep 2026 10:59:30
Didn't our owner allegedly burn down a bakery owned by a referee in Greece who'd displeased him Mossy?
I guess the bread would have become toast and browner than brown rather than whiter than white mate.

12.) 26 Sep 2026
26 Sep 2026 17:37:56
Including our Mr Marinnakis if you done a due diligence test on the owners, I bet you would find more skeletons in cupboards than a Boris Karloff movie?.