Just read this about Ipswich finances in Guardian - haven't time to see if ww

Ipswich in debt to owner
Like several other Championship clubs, Ipswich Town are cashflow insolvent. "We only survive because Marcus Evans can afford to put in ?4m or ?5m of his own money every year to keep the club afloat," said the chief executive, Simon Clegg. "That is testing on anyone's pockets, however deep they are."

Evans's pockets certainly are deep: the secondary-market ticket seller is worth ?625m according to the Sunday Times Rich List, making him one of the 125 richest people in the country. But Ipswich fans should be forgiven for not tripping over themselves with gratitude to Evans. After all, the football-club company's debt stood at about ?7.6m in June 2007, six months before Evans's takeover ? about 73% of the club's turnover. Now, according to the most recent accounts, it has swelled to ?40.9m ? even when taking off the ?11.6m owed to subsidiary companies the debt to turnover ratio of the club is a punishing 187.8%. Added to that are the ?30.9m of loan notes that "following the acquisition of the company ... were assigned to Marcus Evans International Finance KFT. The interest rate on these loan notes is 7.29% per annum." That meant ?1.9m of loan-note interest due to Evans was added to the total debt of Ipswich's group companies in the year to June 2010, taking it to ?64m. Lucky those pockets are deep.

Posted By: trustsec, Aug 12, 15:49:00