In view of the statement issued by the players yesterday l would like to make the following observations.
1) With the exception of one player ALL the players have been paid their salaries.
The player who was not paid his salary has not been involved at the club for the last two seasons. When the salaries were paid at the end of last month, discussions were ongoing with two clubs about a possible loan / transfer of the player.
The player had publicly stated that he was happy to continue his stay at the club where he was on loan last season. Indeed the player’s agent was also talking to clubs about a possible loan / transfer. This player is the club’s highest paid player and costs the club in excess of £1 million a season.
2) The Championship retention bonuses and loyalty fees were planned and authorised to the bank for payment on Friday. However, the players gave me an ultimatum that unless these sums were received on Friday they would not take part in the game planned for Saturday against St Mirren.
2) The Championship retention bonuses and loyalty fees were planned and authorised to the bank for payment on Friday. However, the players gave me an ultimatum that unless these sums were received on Friday they would not take part in the game planned for Saturday against St Mirren.
Having personally assisted in funding many of the payments for the players’ salaries, for the majority of the time that l have been involved with the club, I was not prepared to be threatened or blackmailed.
It is misleading to say that they have not been paid on time, as for many months now, ALL the staff at the club have been paid on time, particularly since l have been the majority shareholder.
A number of the players who were on the tour have no outstanding bonuses and have no reason to be in dispute.
3) None of the players who extended their contracts raised any concerns about previous problems as suggested in their statement and virtually every player we released wished to extend their stay. These are not the actions of a disaffected group, I am sure you would agree.
To put it into perspective the net amount outstanding to those on the tour was about 2.5% of the annual gross total player payroll.
I have never hidden the details of the financial crisis the club was in upon my arrival and the problems going forward.
The support from the non-playing staff, supporters, suppliers and the football family has been unwavering and the reason why I continue to support financially from my family’s wealth.
It is very disappointing that those few individuals who have been handsomely rewarded for their services have chosen to take such an aggressive stance and tarnish the name of our club and caused such inconvenience to those who have supported them so unreservedly.
4) It is very unfortunate that the players took the decision not to play today and the club will take the appropriate actions against those involved.
Hopefully the players who chose not to play today will personally reimburse the supporters for their loss and inconvenience caused by their actions.
I have of course seen the comments in the Bolton News on Friday and have to say that l am disappointed that those involved did not wait to see my response before personally commenting in the media and on social media, or even make any attempt to contact me for my view.
Of course, contracts are contracts, but as often happens in business and in life generally things happen that affect all manner of contracts. As we are all aware, these same contracts are often ignored by players as well when it suits them.
I stated last summer about my views on paying players’ bonuses in June, long before the club receive their bonus in August and my views on this have not changed. The same cash flow problems will continue to occur in the quiet non-playing months when there is little or no revenue for many clubs and businesses, as long as ‘Football Creditors‘ are treated differently to anyone else and as everyone knows, the players are always guaranteed payment one way or the other and before anyone else. Hopefully, in the future players’ contracts will address this problem so that they are paid at the same time as the clubs.
As regards, the comments about the player sales, these funds have been used to keep the club alive over the last two years due in the main to the excessive and unsustainable salaries previously paid to and for players. As long as l am involved, I will continue to do my best to run the club in a commercially prudent manner to try to ensure that going forward the club will not again suffer from the same mistakes of the past and work to eradicate the trading losses that caused these financial problems.
I will not be making any further statements on these matters.