Nott'm Forest to gamble on financial future.
By Michael Lynch
May 12 2004
Nottingham Forest are all set to gamble on their financial future. They are to take out one big loan which will cover all their existing debts and hope that they will gain promotion.
For over two years now, Forest have been in financial difficulty and have been trying to talk to the council about a new deal that would secure the club's future. At the moment nothing has come up, but it seems that if the Reds do manage to win promotion to the Premiership, as Joe Kinnear wishes, that all our prayers will be answered. Next month the 4.6m loan, in which we were forced to take out in order to pay for the new Trent End in order to allow the City ground to be used as a venue for Euro '96, is due to be re-paid. Before then Nigel Doughty also wishes to take out a further loan of 20m, which will consolidate all the club's debts and allow us to pay it off in one easy monthly payment rather than hundreds of separate installments. Last September the club had approached about another loan, £14m due to be paid off as £2.8m a year for five years. However, if the club had failed to make all the required payments- it would've been the taxpayer that would pay the price. The money that is obtained through them used to fill the gap. Labour councilors did not like the sound of this idea, though, and prevented it from going ahead. The reason for this was the fact that the two parties had fallen out over missed payments on the Trent End. Talks have since resumed, however, and Nigel Doughty has guaranteed that he will pay 12m pounds of the consolidation loan (bond) with the council chipping in with 5m. That will be a gamble, however, meaning that if Forest win promotion then we will be saved and the club will be far better off. If not... well, you don't want to think about it!