'Highest ever profit by English Club' - Guardian on us

[Randomitable]

I also await Randomitable's reasoning as to why this perfectly respectable accounting term is 'bollocks'.

Evening. I am an accountant. Not a bookkeeper or 'somebody who works in accounts' but an actual real-life accountant. I've been drinking too.....but the accountant part is solid.

On the one hand yes, amortisation is a perfectly acceptable term used in the profession.

Amortisation by definition (in this example) refers to intangible assets, and this is why it's bollocks. Because it's intangible. Therefore arbitrary. Yes there might be particular conventions or accepted practice but ostensibly we're calculating (and charging to our I&E) a monetary value - which lest we forget is in part used to determine profit for example - based upon something arbitrary. And therefore bollocks. Or to use a more sophisticated term, made-up.

Or maybe it all is....who am I to say?

 

[Blanchflower]

Absolutely true, but then it obviously wasn't like Levy just phoned in the deal and didn't really try to push it through, and left Poch hanging. We clearly went very hard after the both of them, but just neither ended up working out. Not all deals go through, and it really doesn't reflect poorly on Levy that his record for potential transfers isn't 100%.

I just think that most of us severely underestimate the time and difficulty of carrying out these transfers. We get the luxury of just sitting back and saying "hey, Poch wants that guy, so what's the big problem? Why haven't we bought him yet? What is taking so long? Levy clearly isn't backing him..."

Most people seem to then say "If player x is just another £5m, £10m, £15m, and Poch really wants them, then Levy needs to stop being so tight and just bite the bullet."

Of course we never used that transfer strategy before when buying players :lamelashock: aulinhofacepalm: :soldadowtf:

 

[Blanchflower]

My only real beef with these result are what Levy pays himself. Everything fits neatly e.g. 6th Highest revenue, 6th highest Salaries = Ave league position 6th. So why is he joint top highest paid Director not 6th? It would appear he has rewarded himself with a pay rise because of the increase in revenue from TV deals, which actually has nothing to do with him, the club and therefore him are the benefactors of the TV deal.

Tbf not many other Directors are presiding over the development of a new stadium - his job is a little more involved than the same role is at any other club.

 

[John Thomas]

Levy is paid £40k per week, probably not even top 10 of Spurs' employees, yet that's too much even though he's the head of the club? Where else would you find an MD paid considerably less than their employees? Seems perfectly reasonable to me

But the other 19 PL chairman get paid less than Levy. Yes Premier league footballers are hugely overpaid. We all know that. But you can`t use that as justification for Levy vastly over paying himself in comparison to his own premier league counterparts.

 

[John Thomas]

Or, I'm just not blind to the fact chelsea and city needed billionaires to buy their clubs in order to win the fucking league. The only way we're going to win the league is by getting bought by billionaires.This is real life not fifa. you fucking speng.

Ummm` ...were already owned by a billionaire. He`s a tax exile in the bahamas.

 

[Anthony Beale]

Ummm` ...were already owned by a billionaire. He`s a tax exile in the bahamas.

Actually we're majority owned by the English national investment company, also known as ENIC. Currently they have an 85% share of tottenham hotspur.
Enic is joint owned by Daniel Levy, and the Tavistock group.

 

[pleb]

Well, I'm glad you finally got round to justifying your assertion

But Spurs presumably use actual accountants too, and they presumably aren't drinking at the time they prepare the accounts and use the concept of amortisation. Add in Shawry's views, amongst others, who are knowledgeable on the subject, and I'm quite happy to stick to my view that amortisation is a perfectly acceptable/respectable accounting term.

Greaves357_bestever Can you speak the Kings English please and not Eatonian.

 

[Nick "Trevor" Sharp]

Every other club in the League.

I meant where other than football.

Whether you think players are overpaid or not doesn't change the fact that is is the market in which they operate.

In a world where players are paid £100k per week I can't get too upset about the guy running everything earning £40k.

 

[Nick "Trevor" Sharp]

But you can`t use that as justification for Levy vastly over paying himself in comparison to his own premier league counterparts.

How much more is he paid? Go have a look at what Liverpool, Woolwich, Man Utd etc pay to their directors. It's really not much different. Being more doesn't mean chasms of difference.

 

[Blanchflower]

Then he should reward himself handsomely with the mother of all bonuses and a salary to match the increase in revenue that his work has resulted in, which would mean completing the stadium and winning big commercial deals on par with other "big" clubs with big stadia. I would have no problem with this.

I don't disagree with you - but if the alternative is that he is paid less but keeps more time to make money doing other things and the club has to hire a new director to do what he would otherwise do - then I don't really see the difference.

 

[Blanchflower]

Actually we're majority owned by the English national investment company, also known as ENIC. Currently they have an 85% share of tottenham hotspur.
Enic is joint owned by Daniel Levy, and the Tavistock group.

Levy actually owns nothing of ENIC - his shares only become live if the club is sold.

 

[Anthony Beale]

Levy actually owns nothing of ENIC - his shares only become live if the club is sold.

But in the mean time he's the chairman and then when the club is sold he gets his share of the money. Is it me, or is that really no different?

 

[Blanchflower]

What do enic do other than Spurs theses days?
I thought all their other business went bust or sold on leaving the companies in a mess. Honest question .

He's allowed to do other things than work exclusively for Enic...

 

[Blanchflower]

I understand what you are getting at. But how fucked up is the world of football when getting 2.17 million (or whatever it was) last year isn't considered a real payday?

Compared to his 25% payout of Lewis' reported price of £1bn it is

 

[Anthony Beale]

The innocence and naivity of youth .
Your steadfast unyielding support of the multi billionaire Mr Lewis , young Anthony
Is in a bizarre way rather charming .

You're weird.
I support a team, not a boardroom. Couldn't really give a fuck about who owns the club or for the most part how its run. Apart from the bits that directly affect me, like ticket prices and wether i'll be able to get a season ticket in the new ground. Caring about backroom shit is for boring people with agendas like you. Life is short mate. Stop spending it worrying about Joe Lewis.

 

[Juicy Sushi]

Levy actually owns nothing of ENIC - his shares only become live if the club is sold.

Do you have a link to something which publically discloses that? The only info I can find is the declaration that he and his family are "potential beneficiaries of a discretionary trust which ultimately owns 29.4% of the share capital of ENIC International Limited", which is as clear as mud regarding what the discretion involved actually is.

That restriction makes a great deal of sense, and explains both his pay as a director, and his approach to the club.

 

[Furball man]

He's allowed to do other things than work exclusively for Enic...

That wasn't my question although I can't see anything else... The question was was bar Spurs does enic do?

 

[Blanchflower]

That wasn't my question although I can't see anything else... The question was was bar Spurs does enic do?

Nothing - it's only purpose is to hold shares of Spurs, you need to go one level up in the structure to Tavistock Group to see other companies.

 

[Juicy Sushi]

That wasn't my question although I can't see anything else... The question was was bar Spurs does enic do?

It depends on what you mean by "ENIC." There's ENIC International, and also the broader ENIC Group above that. ENIC International is basically the vehicle which controls Spurs. ENIC Group is something more expansive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIC_Group (an overview).

Then, if you want to chase matters further down the rabbit hole, on Joe Lewis' part, his ENIC holdings are a part of the Tavistock Group which he controls.

 

[Anthony Beale]

Also another thing, isn't Joe Lewis more "asset-rich" than anything. £1billion art collection, holdings groups, investment companies, hospitals and gold courses. Doesn't strike me as a man that has a billion cash on the hip to chuck at a football club he owns 70% of 85% of.
Even if he did, it would have to go through tavistock, to enic. Its no where near as easy as people make out.