The official 2007/08 Coca-Cola Championship thread

[Mr P@H]

Typical bitter skate.

The only remaining premiership team still in the FA Cup and in the midst of unprecedented couple of seasons in the premiership and he still has to time to post negative Saints articles and support our relegation rivals.

Enjoy your time in the sun Mr P@H. At the end of the day your club will always be from Portsmouth so we'll always be better.

DGM i was extracting the urine, i remember when we were down there and how you looked down on us, of course i don't want to see you relegated anymore than i want to see QPR or anyone else in the same predicament relegated.

 

[ShearMagic9]

Some live scores:

Barnsley 2 - 1 Ipswich

Bristol City 0 - 0 Watford

Burnley 1 - 0 Charlton

Colchester 1 - 2 Sheffield Wednesday

Norwich 0 - 1 Stoke

Preston 1 - 1 Wolves

QPR 3 - 0 Blackpool

Scampaignerhorpe 1 - 0 Plymouth

Sheffield United 0 - 0 Coventry

Southampton 0 - 0 Leicester

 

[sog35]

Its hell listening to this game on radio. Ipswich have hit the bar twice and we're pegged in. Ref sounds like he's giving us nothing as well.

 

[sog35]

Barnsley finish up 4-1 winners. Good second half of the second half. Ar Bri with either 2 or a hatty depending on the last goal which was direct from a corner. Huge win for the Sooper Reds puts some distance between us and the bottom 3.

 

[ShearMagic9]

Sainter will be happy

Barnsley 4 - 1 Ipswich

Bristol City 0 - 0 Watford

Burnley 1 - 0 Charlton

Colchester 1 - 2 Sheff Wed

Norwich 0 - 1 Stoke

Preston 2 - 1 Wolves

QPR 3 - 2 Blackpool

Scampaignerhorpe 1 - 0 Plymouth

Sheff Utd 2 - 1 Coventry

Southampton 1 - 0 Leicester

 

[Mr P@H]

Lester woz robbed

 

[FrangaRoo]

Is this league still going?

FA Cup > Mid Table CCC Mediocrity.

 

[sainter]

What an extremely close division.

We had to win because almost all of the teams around us also won. I suppose it's good in a way because there are a number of mid-table teams that can easily be sucked back into a relegation battle.

STANDINGS

1 Bristol City 38 67
2 Stoke 38 66

3 Watford 37 63
4 West Brom 35 61
5 Charlton 38 56
6 Hull 36 56

7 Plymouth 38 55
8 Burnley 38 55
9 Ipswich 37 53
10 Crystal Palace 37 53
11 Wolverhampton 36 51
12 QPR 38 48
13 Blackpool 38 47
14 Sheff Utd 37 47
15 Preston 38 46
16 Barnsley 37 46
17 Norwich 38 46
18 Cardiff 35 45
19 Southampton 38 45
20 Coventry 37 43
21 Sheff Wed 36 42

22 Leicester 38 41
23 Scampaignerhorpe 37 38
24 Colchester 37 32

 

[sainter]

Is this league still going?

FA Cup > Mid Table CCC Mediocrity.

Well you do have 3 games in hand so it's probably not worth getting worried at this stage but 18th isn't exactly mid-table.

 

[RoosterLad]

Bloody hell we have slipped but that happens when you have so many games in hand, as long as we beat Hull we will be right.

 

[FrangaRoo]

Well you do have 3 games in hand so it's probably not worth getting worried at this stage but 18th isn't exactly mid-table.

touche. bloody hell we were 14th yesterday and 7th about three weeks ago.

As RL said, we beat Hull and all is well.

 

[Ricketts]

R's go marching on.

 

[RoosterLad]

touche. bloody hell we were 14th yesterday and 7th about three weeks ago.

As RL said, we beat Hull and all is well.

This stupid league is like that. We were a point outside the playoffs not long ago.. all of a sudden we are near the relegation spots even though I doubt we will go down.

 

[Palace03]

Colchester are gawwwn, Scampaignerhorpe hanging on by a string I'd really love for them to stay up, and Leicester and Coventry can go down, nothing clubs.

 

[ShearMagic9]

Right about it being a close league.

I thought Norwich had an outside chance at playoffs not long ago, and they probably even still do (10 points behind), but now they're back in the relegation battle

 

[Bomber Bears]

bloody hell, loss to scampaignerhorpe, poor result

 

[Corrosion]

Get in you Tykes!!!!

The win over Chelsea has given the players a lot of belief. We defended brilliantly again, and took advantage of most of the chances we created.

Cop that Ipswich!

 

[whythelongface]

R's go marching on.

A bit up and down. Seem to be having some fade outs lately in the 2nd half. Again today 3 -0 up, then the lads let in 2 goals to nearly give Blackpool a point.

 

[drewie_rama]

hull have come from nowhere

 

[belfast_bomber]

hull have come from nowhere

Literally.

 

[FrangaRoo]

Literally.

Oh bravo, very nice.

I was going to add they are heading back to nowhere hopefully, we are up 1-0 at HT.

 

[RoosterLad]

Hooray, the Bluebirds finished 1-0 thanks to that early McPhail strike! Hull were in fair form too.

West Brom and Palace drew 1-1.

 

[sainter]

Where's Ricketts?

Michael Ricketts has been released from Oldham and we're giving him a one week trial.

Let's have a look at this former clubs in order:

Walsall
Bolton
Middlesbrough
Leeds
Stoke
Cardiff
Burnley
Southend
Preston
Oldham
Walsall (again)

He'll be a great signing.

 

[Ricketts]

 

[sainter]

Some worrying news for Cardiff ahead of their FA Cup Semi-Final

Before Wembley, City's legal test

Ciaran Rhys Jenkins
BBC Wales political unit

Days after winning a place in the FA Cup semi-final, Cardiff City are set for a High Court battle which leaves the future of the club in the balance.

Wednesday's hearing is over £24m in loan notes the club borrowed from Langston Corporation in 2004.

Cardiff say a variation to the agreement means it is not repayable until 2016 but Langston want full repayment immediately.

The High Court will consider Langston's application for summary judgment.

That means a judge will decide whether to rule in Langston's favour without the need for a full trial.

Professor Robert Lee from Cardiff University Law School says it would be a "disaster for the football club" if Langston were to win the case outright.

"If judgment is given for Langston it puts [them] in a position to call for millions of pounds to be accelerated back to them," said Prof Lee.

"So clearly, one has to think that the club is then facing administration and points deduction and everything else that will follow."

Prof Lee was speaking after seeing the court case papers, obtained by BBC Wales' Dragon's Eye programme.

The papers shed light on the precise differences between Cardiff City and Langston, and focus in particular on the club's relationship with PMG Estates, a company run by former Cardiff City directors Paul Guy and Mike Hall.

Little is known about Langston, a company registered in Panama but trading from Switzerland, except that Cardiff City borrowed £24m from them in 2004 when Sam Hammam was the club chairman.

The loan notes were renegotiated in 2006 to allow Cardiff to pay them back on better terms. The disagreement between the parties is over which of these deals now applies.

Cardiff City are set to argue the loan should be repaid according to the 2006 agreement.

That would have seen the debt reduced to £15m in exchange for handing over £9m raised through naming rights for the club's new stadium and a further £5m on promotion to the Premier League.

They also secured an option to postpone outstanding payments until the end of December 2016.

Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale has said that "the club does not have any cause to believe that this signed document is invalid, and consequently it does not consider that it has any debts repayable to Langston prior to 2016."

According to Langston the 2006 deal would only come into effect if the "satisfaction date" - the date the stadium project was signed off as unconditional with Cardiff County Council - was reached by 31 May 2007.

The club insist the "satisfaction date" was attained on 4 May 2007, well before Langston's deadline.

Waiver clause

However, Langston allege that because Cardiff City didn't inform them the stadium project had been signed off as unconditional, they breached a clause in the deal which pledged to keep them notified of any progress.

Langston say this breach means the 2006 deal is no longer of any effect and the original agreement between the parties still applies.

The original deal included a clause stating that Langston should be the club's preferred creditor - in other words, they would be at the front of the queue if it came to any claims on the club's assets unless agreed otherwise.

But in January 2007 Cardiff City were in financial difficulty and borrowed £11m from the development company PMG.

The terms of the loan made PMG the club's preferred creditor. Langston argue this is a clear breach of the original agreement and so they are asking for immediate repayment of the loan notes plus interest, a total of £31m.

Cardiff City's defence appears to rest on a waiver clause in the 2006 agreement.

The clause released the club from any prior liabilities relating to the agreement including, according to the club, any breach of the original deal arising from the club's loan from PMG.

Ridsdale has always insisted the club have a "robust case" and would be "very confident of winning" at court. But Professor Lee believes both sides have an arguable case.

"You can clearly see that the argument on the part of Langston is: there was a clear breach of our agreement at the moment that security was given to someone else," said Prof Lee.

"The argument from Cardiff will be: 'No we felt free to do that because of the variation of the agreement.' And it then becomes a matter of the court's judgment which path was right."

But there may be no clear winner this week. Prof Lee says much will depend on the "particular language" of the loan agreements between Langston and the club and that could be enough to prompt a trial at a later date.

Cardiff's march to Wembley to face Barnsley, and the chance of a first FA Cup final appearence for 81 years, may yet be forced to continue under a cloud of financial insecurity and the threat of administration.