jaf

I have now gone through and stripped out soft loans and ranked the clubs on the current ratio excluding friendly/soft debt. Queens Park have nearly £5m of such debt and so fly up the chart to number one by excluding that. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IbG4YDhH2dxcczYvUIivMiyfYRJgeYt88UylxUW5-B4/edit?usp=sharing

I have used the accepted liquidity ratio of current ratio. You can use your own knowledge to tweak the answers, but the current ratio is accepted by financial analysts as a good measure of liquidity. As its cash flow that will kills clubs, I don't think (fixed assets) are of much use. Who is going to lend to football clubs right now, in which case it is of no securitised value, and as the Albion Rovers audit report states, the chances of property development sales are low in todays market too. Cash and liquidity are king I think.

Updated permissions....should work now

Raith and Dumbarton for sure Clyde if they have spent heavily this season Livi - don't see it with them unless the soft loanholders exert pressure, which the accounts suggest will not happen

See google doc link below for anyone interested Limitations : This cannot be perfect as we do not have the up to date data. I can only use historic data which is one year out of date, however it illustrates the liquidity clubs had at that time - the liquidity of clubs these days does not change much so its a useful guide Generally liquidity of more than 1 is good, and as you fall below 1 it becomes more and more problematic. This is the current ratio - cash and assets that its easy to turn into cash less amounts due out. It excludes fixed assets and long term loans. It is also flawed because of soft debt, and I might try to do a column with soft debt extracted to aid comparison but I need a break first! The clubs with soft debt, their actual position is better than stated as the accounts show a liability but in reality its not going to require repayment any time soon. Morton is a great example of that. General observations : Much has been made of us being debt free. However it has become apparent hardly any clubs in Scotland have external debt that requires servicing. Most debt is friendly soft debt from directors/shareholders normally with no repayment profile and no interest, therefore having the debt has no related cash cost. Therefore, us being debt free, whilst a good thing is not really the competitive advantage many believe it to be PTFC observations : On the basis of last years accounts we are positioned well. Unlike most clubs, we however have no financial support from our owners/board and so need to be entirely self sufficient. There are unknowns in this year namely the costs of removing Caldwell, and the January business. Plus of course the Covid impact. However, there should still be many clubs in trouble before us, and if that's not the case its because we have spurned a good position. In some ways, crazy as this sounds, our weakness is being debt free. Because an owner or director of a club who has money invested in that club might have to follow on his money to chase getting his original sums back. We have no access to cash via our board to my knowledge. Clubs I admire the finances of : Arbroath, Stirling, Cowdenbeath, St Johnstone, Hamilton Clubs I fear for most : Albion Rovers, Raith Rovers, Peterhead, Alloa, Hearts, Rangers Clubs with missing or late info : Stranraer, Airdrie, Annan, Brechin https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IbG4YDhH2dxcczYvUIivMiyfYRJgeYt88UylxUW5-B4/edit?usp=sharing

That all becomes subjective but I have added notes, I think we can only deal in the known facts and then adjust either way for our known knowledge

It’s today’s job!

Rangers needed cash from investors throughout this year just to get through the season. That’s per their audit report last year. The initial tranches cane in during November an December but since then, nothing. Whilst of course someone does need to put them down, the cash flow could kill them first.

You have read my mind to some extent! i have started pulling together a liquidity table ranking the teams as to who would appear most in danger based on last years accounts!

More countries may yet follow.

Who knows what the future holds. my instinct though is to continue to attend away games. There are few enough special days that to miss some of them due to a boycott seems to be punishing myself! Add to that I think the team appreciate the away support, and in these troubled times everyone needs an escape from humdrum monotony of day to day. i find myself agreeing with the lady above - football is the ultimate habit forming thing - to remove part of the habit probably makes the other part harder to sustain.

Well it’s now time for us all to focus on supporting our club, embracing the changes ahead and relishing every minute that we get to spend together as fans cheering on our team next season.

Punchy response to Rangers from SPFL. Because Hearts and Stranraer put their name to this shambolic document, reconstruction may suffer. (well done to our Board for steering well clear of that) Scott Gardiner might not get his dream job replacing Doncaster after all despite all of his best endeavours assisting Rangers.

I know two separate people who are "never have a day off in my life" types who were both floored with "a bad flu" after coming back from trips to The Rugby World Cup

When you look at "pneumonia" deaths in UK in December, you can begin to conclude that the first reported case dates are nonsense. It was 'a thing', way before we knew it was 'a thing' I think.

I suspect over every close vote in the history of Scottish football there will have been politicking , influencing, lying, emotional blackmail, etc. Probably by both sides. People never remember the misdeeds of the losers. the rangers dossier reads like a one man campaign : Scott Gardiner the what’sapp screengrab by the names of the other participants would seem to come from him whatever ends up happening as a result of this, rangers and Gardiner will have achieved one thing for sure - that no one will ever trust anyone else in Scottish football again, and definitely will not communicate by WhatsApp with one another

Unfortunately my annual jaunt to see my friend at his music festival in Oberhausen in July is cancelled this year!

A flaw in all of this, and another potential reason for the discrepancies is because many people get through with mild symptoms we do not truly know the dates of first case. These could have preceded the dates Norge has given by weeks, in which case in a big city like Madrid, London, Paris, NYC, it could be spreading like wildfire whilst the population and government were oblivious,

That well known giant of science, ok, I will believe him rather than the German nations disease control agency! https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/germany-virus-deaths-may-be-more-than-official-tally/1824403# To be honest, you, me, Andrew Neil and many of the chart makers don't really know much at all - there is plenty doubt about many of the statistics, and for every story one way you can invariably find an Andrew Neil twitter account the other way - that's the substance of my point

Everyone however knows that stats are based on many variables. Different countries are reporting deaths in different ways, some 'of', some 'with' for example I am sure I read somewhere that Germany had massively under reported cases for example I am sure there are motivations behind some of these charts other than 'keeping virus nerds up to date' and instead fitting a pre determined narrative

I am broadly in agreement however I think the argument that Clyde Peterhead etc are no worse off because still in third tier is stretching it, because of the composition of that third tier and the travelling supports, hospitality sales, sponsorship, etc that will follow being in “the bottom division “ and with that mix of clubs compared to the mix they might expect that said, I am not so pessimistic as you about the vote outcome I think they have designed something here to save hearts and ourselves and then said to themselves how can we get the votes to get this through when you look at each individual club in the bottom two divisions it ought to pass when you look at the championship I think it ought to pass That leaves the top division only and it’s unpredictable and probably relies on the or job Anne budge can do That is what I am surprised she backed rangers resolution which isn’t the most diplomatic thing she has ever done

I know @javeajag is like our rolling virus news, so will just mention several rumours this evening that golf courses are preparing and expecting to open again on 18 May. (Subject to wide ranging new on course social distancing rules).

Yep. Really unfair on cove Peterhead and Clyde. Perhaps unfair on Forfar and Edinburgh city. But the clubs on the reconstruction group will largely get what they want and I am sure none of them are acting out of self interest.

Its a fair point to an extent, but I think we need to realise much of the world will be clamouring to borrow after all this. Which will almost certainly drive borrowing rates up, regardless of currency you borrow in. Also, on the specifics, World War II debt was paid off in 2006. 61 years later. Our allies loaned us the money at favourable interest rates.

The problem is the whole globe is suffering. Argentina already can’t refinance their debt. We are too much debt as a nation. It’s a bad starting point.