Planet Swans ArchivesLast week a £200,000 windfall was lost after a mismanaged transfer deal involving Mamady Sidibe and Barnsley fell through. Sidibe’s agent asking for 33% of the fee being the stumbling block, and Barnsley’s interest cooled dramatically after seeing him play at Mansfield Town at the start of the month in a 3-0 loss. Coupled with the defeat at Macclesfield on Saturday it means that Petty is left scratching around for cash again this month to pay the wages of the staff and players. Salaries were only paid last week after players and staff had the nightmare scenario of seeing blank bank accounts on pay day on November 28th.
Petty has moved Swansea City accounts to Barclays in Bristol and cited the BACS payment system as the fault of the late payments exclusively to this site. However it is known throughout the city that Petty is struggling to find money and this after he placed before a Judge that he had guarantee’s totalling one hundred and fifty thousand pounds only two weeks ago. Contempt of court ? The consortium led by Mel Nurse will be feeling quite smug today after hearing this news and our contacts tell us more …….
Tony Petty has no interest in furthering his time at Swansea City and on Saturday his car was attacked and damaged in Macclesfield after many believed he was back in Australia. Also, a poster campaign hit hard around The Vetch Field and at certain addresses in the city too. This left the current regime with no doubt that further action was going to be taken against them after the confrontational scenes seen at Rushden last month.
Questions are also being asked of Mike Lewis’s involvement in the Sidibe transfer. To represent football players any individual needs a FIFA licence to be actively involved in negotiations and discussions. A spokesperson for the football league tells us that to be a registered agent, a bond of 100,000 Swiss Francs needs to be lodged with them, and an examination passed in the etiquette’ of football agents representation. We can disclose that Mike Lewis has not taken this exam and does not have a FIFA licence to act for players. As he is not employed by Swansea City in any capacity the football league will now look in to this latest piece of mismanagement and investigate Lewis fully. The implications for him could be far reaching. The big question now is – What was Lewis doing negotiating players for sale and what was his cut ? We have also been told the FAW have also been contacted by a number of sources reporting Lewis’s further breach of conduct.
These exclusive stories tell us one thing. That both Petty and Lewis were ready to asset strip Swansea City AFC and receive large amounts of cash from the Sidibe transfer and any FA Cup run. Macclesfield were pulled out of the hat with a plum home tie against West Ham. The Swans earned £200,000 from the equivalent tie two years ago which saw a shock 1-0 Swans win after a replay. 11,400 packed The Vetch for this tie, and 26,000 saw the game at Upton Park.
But Mr Tony Petty is in for a shock. No cash will be offered to him for the sale of the club and today we know that if wages are not paid this month then we are only one step away from administration, exactly what Mel Nurse wanted only a few weeks ago.
This story was always going to centre around money and clearly Tony Petty has none at all. Which may signal the end of him far quicker than the majority of Swans fans envisaged and indeed hoped for.
We are also hearing that power crazy Don Goss, newly appointed Director of the club will be told in no uncertain terms that he cannot have an interest at the club and be the stadiums security advisor. Goss banned Ex Financial Director Martin Burgess from the ground last week after getting a power base at the club which started stories of further bans for opposition groups to Tony Petty. Goss who has already ejected fanzine chief Tony Jenkins from the ground for opposing Petty will be brought back down to earth today with the news that this particular duel interest is a big no no. Of course with the amount of things he and this current regime have got away with of late this will be a big shock to him. When Petty finally falls in the next few weeks we expect him and Mike Lewis to be the first to be shown the door at the club, and there will be a queue a mile down the Mumbles Road to kick both their backsides in to the bay of Swansea bringing a new verse to the infamous ” Swim away ” song.
See, there is a god, and he does wear white !
