The Roland Harris Column

Thursday 23 May, 2002

Have the administrators killed Bradford City?

They have screwed us.

The administrators have screwed us.

That is it. No more Bradford City.

Clubs go into administration. Clubs come out of administration. No club sacked 19 players and no club will be allowed to get away with this. Basically the administrators have made one huge mistake in sacking sixteen players. They think that football will wear this but football is a closed shop and City have broken it. We will be punished for it.

I'm guessing that we will get booted out of the league. It has happened before and can happen again. Perhaps we will get relegated a division or two if the league need to keep us high up because they will struggle to fill a first division. With only five players left you get the feeling that the administrators have already relegated us.

You cannot get a team good enough to play at this level in such a couple of months.

The administrators have screwed us. It's my belief that they do not understand what they have done. They have not got rid of staff but assets. The players are what makes the club the club.

The football league will make any new City owner pay the debts of the past. That means that the new owner could face a bill for of half the cost of the remaining contracts of 19 players. That starts to make City look very expensive. A lot of money going out for not much. What is left to buy? A bit of prime Manningham real estate and perhaps a place in the first division if your lucky. I like Tom Kearney but I wouldn't buy a football club based around him.

They were appointed to save Bradford City. They killed it and that's all I have to say.

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