Happy time have gone if you believe the NOTW

Sometimes you just don’t believe thing's are that bad when it comes to Cardiff City but the story being carrying in today’s News of the World will make more than a few Cardiff City fans to miss a heart beat if you believe the article or not.

After being told by chairman Peter Ridsdale not to worry about the tax bill, it's all been sorted it takes a weight off your mind. Then you look at the back of a Sunday newspaper and it's reporting the near death of your football club, the wieght is back. Cardiff have to settle a £2.7m tax bill this week or face going bust. If there is one thing you don’t do in business is mess with the taxman, if you owe them money they will get it back and they love to hand-out fines.

A Cardiff City statement back in December said, “We can confirm that the High Court today formally dismissed the winding up order that had previously been brought by HMRC.
“This was as a result of amicable discussions between the Club and HMRC.
“We are grateful for their co-operation and support.”

I always believed the amount owed was only £1.2m but in least than a month, the bill has shot up by an extra £1.5. It would seem after getting a reprieve from the taxman something not that easy to get both parties agreeed a payment plan with the first payment due on December 22nd, the club missed it.

Therefore, what could happen if this is true; the club will be hit with a winding-up order if they fail to clear their tax bill by the end of this week. The Football League could step in a slap with a transfer embargo, which would kill any chance of new players coming in for January. Anyway there will be no money to buy to players because Ridsdale will be using the money raised from the season ticket deal to pay off the taxman. What has happened to the Malaysian investment since the club gave them the books to look over it's been very quiet, have want they read put them off investing.

In the words of chairman Ridsdale, "We will have the money to pay the Revenue, and we will pay them this week.
"I personally spoke to the Revenue before Christmas. I told them we can pay at the beginning of January and they were happy with that.
"We have a good relationship with them. They know what's happening.
"There will be funds coming in this month and I'm confident there will be no issue with the Revenue after January.
"We will have money to pay our tax bill and we'll have money to do things to the team."

I have always supported Peter Ridsdale but even my loyal is getting a bit thin now. When the South Wales Echo first broke the taxman problems he throw his toys out of the pram and told the fans it was all sorted and wouldn’t speak to the paper for awhile. We were told a deal had been done and half had been paid and the rest over instalments but the club expected to pay it up by January. What fans won’t is facts, the truth, no spin Mr Ridsdale.

It is general known Cardiff’s early season ticket deal has brought in around £2m/£3m in revenue money promised to new players not the taxman. Accorediing to the paper the club cashflow problems stem from the cost of fitting out the new stadium. That is a new one on me I throught were need to sell a player to help paid the wages.

On the subject of the overspend, "Fitting out the stadium cost £7m more than we envisaged so there has been a hangover from that.
"But funds will be coming in shortly and the club is in healthy shape."

This is all bad news for the club, bad publicity it about time the club did something to head off these news stories they need to come clean about the running of the club and finances.

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