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Barclays is at the centre of an embarrassing row after the bank, sponsor of the English Premiership, was today accused by the chairman of Southampton of sentencing the football club to death.
The attack by Rupert Lowe, a high-profile name in the City and chairman of stockbroker WH Ireland, comes after Southampton Leisure, the quoted owner of Championship side Southampton, went into administration this week after breaching its overdraft limits with Barclays. But, Lowe insists it is “totally irresponsible” lending by Barclays, not mismanagement of Southampton, that has led to its downfall.
“It is clear Barclays overlent to Southampton and that they had been behaving like salesmen,” he told the Evening Standard.
A long-time leading shareholder of the club who has been vilified by sections of the Saints fans, Lowe said problems mounted in the two years after he was exiled in a boardroom putsch in 2006. In that time, the c lub's bank borrowing went from zero to £6.3 million on top of the £23.5 million owed on its St Mary's stadium.
After Lowe's return last year, Barclays cut Southampton's overdraft limit to £4 million. When the club could not afford last week's wage bill, it breached its overdraft agreements.That could now lead to the team being docked 10 points by the Football League.
“If a 10-point deduction is levied against the club, damaging the chances of a refinancing, I think Barclays will have been shown to have acted totally irresponsibly,” said Lowe.
Barclays said it had made “ongoing efforts to find a suitable solution” at Southampton, which required “substantial further investment”.
It is believed Barclays had wanted Southampton to find a new owner or raise money through a rights issue or player sales.
Reader views (10)
Another desperate attempt by Lowe to deflect criticism away from himself and onto anyone else. Don't worry Rupert, the Saints fans firmly know who's to blame here - we suffered 10+ years of mismanagement, not least of which was the revolving door of mostly inadequte managerial appointments. You've succeeded in getting us relegated twice, and leading the club into Administration. Your work is done.
- Dan, London
What Rupert conveniently forgets to tell people about the accounts is the reason there was zero debt when he left the club was because the club had just received its final parachute payment from the Premier League, with out said money we'd of needed to use the overdraft before now.
Also please note that the man (Crouch) Lowe blames for the mess Southampton FC is now in, was only chairmen for 6 months. In that time Mr. Crouch sent hi earners (Rasiak & Skachel) out on loan to reduce the wage bill, he'd appointed a manager in Pearson that kept us up and united the whole club and also he agreed a cost cutting plan with Barclays. In this time not taking 1 single penny out of the club in wages or dividends! Would be very interesting to see what Lowe & Cowen have taken out in the last 12 months they have been back?
Please do not get taken in by the cancer that is Lowe, he created this mess by his revolving door managerial policy ( Sturrock, Wigley & Redknapp in 4 months)which ultimately cost us our Premiership status, which is the root of all out problems.
Note to Kieth Price, what hooligan problems do Saints have?? Banning orders for Saints and Luton as of October 2008 - Southampton 21 - Luton 33
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/football-arrests-0708?view=Binary
- Jason Flynn, Southampton, England
I am a Saints Fan. All I can say is that i hope this is a begining of a landlslide. Football has suffered from avericious commercialism for too long.
Lets hope we can get to a place where professional footballers no longer earn 6 times the national average wage in 1 week before league possitions are not decided by the courts
- David, Southampton
Come off it, Woopert.
It takes two parties to enter in to a loan, the club clearly borrowed more than they could afford to pay back.
Perhaps a forensic accountant could look in to Southampton's business plan to see if there were any "factual inaccuracies".
And don;t forget that it may not stop at a ten point deduction. Leeds, Bournemouth, Luton and Rotherham have all had far greater points deduction than the minimum.
- Andrew, London W1
Last week's deadline doesn't affect the fact of the 10-point penalty for entering administration, only its timing. Assuming that the argument that it's not the football club that is in administration, but its holding company, fails, the difference is that if administration had been entered before last Thursday, the 10-point deduction would have been immediate; having waited until after that date, the deduction is deferred until the end of the season, and if Saints are in the bottom 3 and relegated anyway, the deduction is imposed next season; if Saints manage to avoid the bottom 3, the deduction is imposed this season (which would probably put us back in the bottom 3 and still relegated).
- Peter Moody, Fareham, Hampshire
Southampton FC won.t be missed, their so0called fans have a disastrous hooligan record, that the league are rightly ashamed of
- keith price, Luton, England
Rupert Lowe is right to blame Barclays! Barclays Bank, like all other banks, have been guilty of irresponsible over - lending for years; hence the mess we are all in at present. But again like all banks, they will only provide you with an umbrella when the sun is shining!
Although Rupert Lowe is carrying the blame for Saints' decline, the financial missmanagement mainly occured during his two years absense. If Saints avoid a ten point deduction, they will have Rupert lowe to thank!
The fundimental, underlying, problem is caused by the greed of the big Premiership clubs, causing a huge disparity in income between the Premiership and the rest of the league. Saints are by no means the first club affected, neither will they be the last!
- Mike Allen, Poole Dorset UK
Rupert Lowe knew what the score was when Barclays reduced the club's overdraft to £4 million. He knew that the club would not be able to survive the season on this, and that administration was inevitable. He also knows what the Football League's rules are. There is a deadline towards the end of March whereby if a club goes into administration before this date they will not be deducted 10 points. To go into administration just a few days after this date, thus incurring the deduction, is pure ineptitude and poor management.
- Martin Henley, Teddington, UK
This behaviour by Barclays over what is, in the scheme of things, a paltry sum, is disgraceful. I sincerely hope tens of thousands of Saints fans and their family and friends boycott the bank instantly. Serve then bloody well right - they only understand greed and profit, so hit them where it hurts.
- Stephen Yolland, Melbourne, Australia
Oh no, the brain-dead footballers have run out of cash. It must be the banks fault that their business plan was not up to scratch, they couldnt make ends meet and needed to rely on overdrafts.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants
