Tranmere Rovers
Club 9 Takeover Breaks Down
By Matthew Jones
June 10 2011
Rovers takeover falls through after months of negotiations
Club 9 Sports have announced on their Facebook page this morning that takeover talks between themselves and Tranmere Rovers have finally come to an end.
The announcement follows months of speculation over the future ownership of the club from Tranmere fans, though Club 9 Sports themselves have been very quiet on the issue, with neither themselves nor Tranmere Rovers making a formal announcement about the takeover for the past month.
Rumours of a takeover broke in February though it appears the deal has now reached it's conclusion, with Club 9 stating "Good luck to the Super White Army. We wish a deal could have been reached."
This means that Peter Johnson retains his 60% majority stake in Tranmere Rovers, a share he has contentiously owned since 1987, although he has only been chairman between 1987-94 and 2009-present after also buying a stake at local rivals Everton.
On the issue, Johnson, who owns Love 2 Shop, told the club's official website this morning, "I'd like to thank Club 9 Sports for their interest in Tranmere Rovers but unfortunately we have been unable to reach agreement.
"As Chairman of the Club I am looking forward to the forthcoming season."
It is believed that Tranmere Rovers Football Club remains up for sale and open to offers, with Johnson keen to sell the club.
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10/06/2011 09:36
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:06:19:18:16:22 by Deadly Submarine.
that wants a football club. Better strategic planning could make Rovers a more attractive proposition.
1.Ingleborough you cannot build houses on and
2.PJ wouldnt let the deal go through if they were going to sell Prenton Park.
So (maybe) a bit of praise for PJ for not selling to a company whose intentions was to fleece us of all sellable assets??
Still leaves us in the position of looking for a suitable buyer, as PJ wont last forever and his family may not care so much for the club once they inherit it.
He has definitely done his stint for the club and dont blame him for getting tired of it and not injecting anymore cash in (mind you the cash he puts into the club actually goes into the clubs accounts as a debt loan, so th club legally bound to repay him!!)
However as the weeks dragged on, I knew they were not right for us. Obviously PJ has studies what they had to say in detail, and seen all was not right. Would like to know what the main difference between the two parties was though.
At least now we may be on the map a bit more when it comes to potential investors.
If Barry Moat can't buy Newcastle, get Tranmere, or that local guy that tried it get Liverpool when Moores had it up for grabs.
Or dare I say it, a joint ownership between Simon Jordan and Theo Paphitis, who have done the ownership thing before and appeared on programmes giving cash away to worthy individuals.
Hi Theo, my name's Peter Johnson and I'm looking for £5,000,000, in exchange for my 60% stake in my football club, Super Deluxe United, which I have just rebranded recently, with the remains of my remortgaged house money.
So what was the club called before then?
Belmont FC.
Never heard of it Peter.
It's really successful. It used to be in league 2, but now it's in league 1 and it has the potential to make the premier league.
So how would your current business colleagues spend some of my money then?
They'd invest the money in fixing a few bits of delapidated roof, have a Youth Academy, provide fans with food, made in michelin star cookery schools and then spend the rest on loan deals for French and German B team players.
I like your style and your ambition Peter so I'm in.
Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.
I really cannot see any individual coming near what Johnson wants unless it is an asset stripper.
Is there a way forward from the impasse? Would Johnson sell some shares to a supporters Trust so that a mojority holding lay outside the family. I doubt it for it would make it possible for the board to go into administaration. For all its problems it would open up the possibility of new investment. It is not likely to happen for creditors may end up with less than 1p in the £ as was the case at Plymouth but the biggest creditor is P.J and his estate and if we followed the pattern of Plymouth the Johnsons would only get £70,000.
It is an odd situation and for that reason we are likely to have financial sharks continually swimming around the club
Although there again, Tranmere coming second choice to another club, in that case Swindon and realistically Tranmere are not debt ridden to the hilt, whereby Tranmere will be extinct inside of 6 months, so buyers wouldn't need to use too much money to offset any debt, allowing for more spendable reasource, comapared to debt ridden clubs.
It would make Tranmere look like a better prospect in a lot of cases you'd think.
Then I ate his Liver.......... with some baked beans and a can of coke.
