By Jason McKeown
The pledge was both bold and vague. It was Boxing Day, 2016. Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic had decided to go on the pitch ahead of fourth-placed Bradford City’s promotion six-pointer with league leaders Scunthorpe United. As they held up claret and amber scarves and waved towards the Kop, the scoreboard flashed up a message.
“We hope to bring Premier League football to Bradford in our lifetime. If you don’t dream, nothing happens.”
Nice words, well received by City supporters on the day. Even if there was a pretty big disclaimer. “In our lifetime” offers quite a lot of wriggle-room. We can, I guess, say they’re still on track. Although with the Bantams currently slumped in the bottom half of League Two, it would be fair to say they’ve got an awful long way to go.
That mission statement was aired just short of seven years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago now. City drew 0-0 with Scunthorpe United that day, halfway through an enjoyable campaign that would see them go unbeaten at Valley Parade. They were close – very close – to climbing back into the Championship, losing agonisingly in the play off final to a Millwall goal that replays showed was offside. The club was progressing well on and off the field. Rupp and Rahic were initially popular.
As we know only too painfully, things have not gone to plan since. You don’t need a history lesson. I don’t want to talk about it again either. Let’s just say “scene missing” and skip forwards to the here and now. With the club once again finding it tough going in League Two.
Rahic is long gone for reasons no one can argue with. Rupp is still here. The chairman of Bradford City. The leader at the very top of an organisation that has consistently failed under his tenure. There was growing supporter unrest towards Rupp in early 2021. It was quietened by the statement of ambition that was Mark Hughes’ appointment, and a much better 2022/23 season compared to recent standards. Now, with City stalling on the field once again, the questions about Rupp are returning.
And this time, they’re getting a little louder.
Let’s start this discussion by saying that reasons to be disappointed by the Rupp era are understandable. The Bradford City he and Rahic bought in 2016 was far from perfect, but it had been trending upwards year on year. The wilderness that followed the early 2000s double spell of administration seemed to have been consigned to the past. This was a progressive football club, with growing supporter numbers. A fanbase very much bought into what they were trying to achieve.
Since 2016, the club has gone backwards. That’s completely undeniable. The infrastructure damaged by poor decisions. Many good people employed by the club – on and off the field – driven away. From knocking on the door to the Championship, City swiftly fell back to League Two. Rebuild has followed rebuild. Only relatively recently have the club actually started moving forwards again. But that progress has slowed once more.
Rupp has to take some responsibility for this. There’s no getting away from it. He is the leader of the club. The guy at the top. He might not set the culture that exists day-in-day-out within the club, but he oversees how it is built. And adding to the supporter frustration is how distant he appears to be. Communications with supporters are rare. A recent Instagram post about silencing the doubters was misguided. Predictably, his comments after the Newport success were pocketed by his detractors and used against him the week after.
The question we keep returning to is whether Bradford City can ever succeed with Rupp at the helm. And the evidence gathered so far makes it difficult to make a positive case. So yeah, those who are advocating change are not being unreasonable. The club surely cannot go on forever like this.
That all said, I personally struggle to join the ranks of those who want to turn disgruntlement into protest. I can’t agree that the wrongs of the club can all be piled up at Rupp’s door. I suspect I’m not alone in this. And one of the biggest problems for those calling for everyone to bring their pitchforks – or campaign for us to be seen in the media as the next Reading, Scunthorpe or Sheffield Wednesday – is this.
Rupp does not fit the role of the bad guy.
We have no evidence (the opposite in fact) of Rupp taking money out of the club for personal benefit. He might not speak enough in public, but that also means there aren’t any delusional, alienating statements to make you angry. Some of the decisions carried out under his tenure might look misguided, but they are not malicious. As fans, we’re being reasonably well looked after – just look at crisis club Sheffield Wednesday’s ticket prices as a comparison.
The accusations are that he doesn’t care. That he isn’t investing enough money. Both may or may not contain some truth, but they’re not strong enough reasons to inspire widespread anger and a universal supporter desire for protest. He is at worst semi-competent. There are far, far worse football club owners.
That’s not to say the club wouldn’t ultimately benefit from a different type of leadership. And that if the right buyer came along, supporters would want Rupp to turn them down. But it’s hard to take an objective view at the resources the club has – and conclude the tools aren’t there to do better. Rupp might not drive positive improvement, but he isn’t the one stopping it from happening either.
Speaking about my personal expectations of Rupp, it always comes back to why he bought Bradford City in the first place. Here was a guy who had made a fortune building up and selling a business that made helicopter seats. He was semi-retired, and approached by Rahic – they shared the same bank manager – about buying an English football club.
Rahic had a plan. And no matter how poorly he is now thought of around these parts, there’s no denying he had some track record and experience in football. Rahic was an ex-player who was later heavily involved at running Stuttgart Kickers. He was part of a consortium that tried and failed to buy Glasgow Rangers. He had worked closely with Ralf Rangnick. There was contacts, there was know-how, there was experience.
Rupp knew little about football, but was convinced by Rahic’s credentials. By his plan. The proposal was simple. Rahic needed Rupp to help buy a football club. Rupp would have to put up nearly all the capital. But he could relax and be a silent partner. No requirement to uproot your life and move from Germany to West Yorkshire. No expectation to run the football club. To be a football expert. No need to keep putting money in either, because Rahic had a strategy of developing young players to sell for a profit. With the Bradford City of 2016, Rupp and Rahic were buying one of the few clubs operating in a sustainable way. It wasn’t about bank-rolling losses or being required to put millions in up front.
That was the deal Rupp signed up to. And I would think it’s fair to say that – had he known his new partner was not who he seemed, and that he would one day have to take over running the club by himself, Rupp would have said no to the opportunity to buy Bradford City in the first place. If he had been told he would be expected to be the public face of the club, do regular media interviews and communicating often with supporters, he would have said thanks but no thanks. If he had known that supporters wouldn’t like him living in Germany and rarely coming to games, he would have suggested he wasn’t the right person to buy it. If he had known that – as well as his initial investment – he’d be required to pump in extra money to starve off the threat of administration (as was the case in late 2018), and be responsible for making sure the club didn’t go under during a pandemic, he’d have thought twice. If he had known that he’d be criticised if he didn’t buy the club’s ground back, or build them a training ground, he’d have shaken hands and walked off.
I think the problem for City supporters is Rupp is not the owner we want him to be. But that he is expected to do things that he never signed up for. And yes, that’s Rupp’s fault to a point. Because why on earth did his trust Rahic in the first place? Why wouldn’t you really, really, really do your homework before buying a football club? And when you go onto the pitch against Scunthorpe declaring a dream to make the Premier League, did you really stop and think about the financial commitment that such a lofty rise would involve?
But again, it comes back to the fact that these things do not make Rupp a bad person. Call him naïve, sure. Misguided, yeah. But he is principled too. He’s tried to pick up the pieces after been lumbered with the problems. And the test of his character has been how he has managed these difficult situations.
When Rahic was rumbled, Rupp faced some tough decisions. Cut your losses and let the club wither? Or honour your obligations? The Telegraph & Argus reported in 2020 that Rupp injected a “significant six-figure sum to save the club” when the financial mess Rahic had caused was unearthed. “We certainly came under immense threat of administration,” according to Ryan Sparks in the same article. Rahic had unbeknown to everyone spent a fortune on players and kept it hidden. It made the ineptness of the 2018/19 relegated team even more damning – hopeless, and very expensive. All putting the club in a financial mess.
That 2018 moment was huge. Those closer to the situation than me tell me that in business, logic terms, the best advice for Rupp back then was to walk away and cut your losses. But Rupp felt an ethical responsibility to ensure the club didn’t fail, and injected more money. There’s a saying for this situation – “left holding the baby”. The dictionary describes this as “If you are left holding the baby, you are put in a situation where you are responsible for something, often in an unfair way because other people fail.” That feels apt.
Rupp has continued to act a safety net for the club during some big uncertainty, not least Covid. At the same time, he’s attempted to maintain the self-sustaining approach. To us supporters, fatigued by year on year struggle on the pitch, self-sustaining is just not the term we want to hear. Living within your means only gets you so far it seems. It’s no secret Rupp is a rich man. He could inject more of his fortune into the club, and truly drive it forwards. You get the frustration. You absolutely do.
Yet at the same time, is the principle of any owner sinking millions into the club realistic? Investing is to get a return. For every extra £1 that we might want Rupp to put in, it’s only fair that this would add to the asking price if and when he sells. And that’s a dilemma when it comes to selling. Let’s say Rupp wants £5 million right now (I’ve no idea how accurate this is) and buys back Valley Parade for £5 million. That would mean he would want £10 million to sell and recoup his investment. Is Bradford City worth £10 million, even when it owns its own stadium?
“Why won’t he sell?” is a criticism aired, with continued rumours that interested parties have made offers. “He wants too much” is the answer put up, without any evidence. In fact, the December 2021 episode of Wagmi United trying to buy City undermines this argument. It was heavily suggested Rupp could have walked away with a handsome profit and then some. And at the time, plenty of supporters were pleading for him to sell up. The fact Rupp didn’t sell then – didn’t take the opportunity wipe his hands of the burden, and leave the problems to someone else – was a really interesting moment. Again, it seems it was a question of ethics.
The turmoil of Wagmi United at Crawley, at least up until recently – added to by the fact their cryptocurrency funding model has all but collapsed with the NFT market recently dubbed “worthless” – strongly suggests City dodged a bullet here. Amazingly, Crawley are joint top of the league right now, but there have to be long-term doubts about Wagmi United’s strategy of using NFTs to fund a rise up the football pyramid. You still wouldn’t want to see this model at Valley Parade.
And there are other cautionary tales at play. That Boxing Day afternoon where Rupp and Rahic made their scoreboard proclamation of course came against Scunthorpe United. At the time, both clubs were consistently riding high in League One. Both clubs initially declined at the same time, with Scunthorpe owner Peter Swann becoming deeply unpopular. As Scunthorpe continued to fall further and harder, Swann sold to David Hilton. The situation has got even worse. Right now, Scunny’s very existence is under huge threat.
It has strong of echoes of Bury, where in 2018 the unpopular owner Stewart Day sold up having run up huge debts for the club, paving the way for Steve Dale to take over. He imploded the club further, seeing it go out of business completely.
The point of mentioning Scunthorpe and Bury is to highlight the perils that can arise from driving an owner away – even if they’re not good football club owners in the first place. There are always buyers to be found, but are they right for the football club? Would Rupp selling Bradford City make the club better? Only if he is careful and choosy over who he sells them too. Desperate sellers tend to attract opportunistic buyers. Unethical investors are out there. Finding the good ones is not so easy.
In the long-term, there’s a lot of logic in Stefan Rupp and Bradford City having a parting of ways. Rupp does not have the football expertise, and does not want to pump his fortune into the club. He has his own life in Germany, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Bradford City is a big football club with a passionate fanbase – one starved of success. To get the club where it wants to be requires investment, drive and more hands-on leadership.
But if and when the baton is passed on, as fans we need it to be carefully looked after by the right people. If there is someone out there who wants to buy Bradford City from Rupp – great. Let’s hear what you’ve got to say. Let’s find out your background. Your ideas. Your credentials. Your financial resources. But if the strongest argument any would-be buyer has going for it is the fact they’re “not Rupp”, we should be cautious.
In the meantime, I don’t see why we can’t succeed with the current financing model. It’s questionable decisions that are costing us. Questionable decisions on the field. Questionable decisions with tactics. Questionable decisions in the transfer market. And sure, questionable decisions in the boardroom.
The club does need more hands-on football expertise, bringing us once again to the need for a director of football (DoF) to support Sparks. The DoF conversation was getting louder when Derek Adams was sacked in February 2022. Paul Jewell was mounting a convincing pitch for the role, and when Richie Wellens was spotted in the stands for the Harrogate game – when there remained a managerial vacancy – the pieces seemed to be falling into place. Jewell and Wellens had worked well together at Swindon in a DoF/manager partnership. Jewell had the experience to make the role work.
The appointment of Hughes changed the conversation, and the DoF talk went away. Given Hughes’ stature in the game, plus likely expense of his wages, appointing someone above him was potentially an awkward fit. Instead, City at least appointed a head of recruitment – Stephen Gent – to work with Hughes. The results have been mixed.
Sparks is as close to a DoF as we have. Off the field, his track record as CEO is very promising, but on footballing matters the jury has to remain very much out. Sparks has hired and fired several managers, allowed players to be signed on lengthy contracts that leave the squad top-heavy. Rightly or wrongly, Sparks’ lack of football experience leaves many fans unsure he has the ability to oversee football matters. He just doesn’t yet have the body of work to inspire widespread confidence. At least yet. Having someone between him and the manager/head of recruitment could make a massive difference.
Rupp might have even less football experience, but you would think he does have something to offer here. His experience and expertise building up his helicopter seat business, to such a considerable level, must have taught him a lot about the importance of good infrastructure. Does he look at the current Bradford City set-up and truly see the ingredients for success? Can he see a genuine depth of expertise across all areas? These are undoubtedly things he could look at. Improvements he could make.
And there’s no way getting away from the fact Rupp must do more to communicate with supporters. Rupp doesn’t want to be the public figure, but a big football club like Bradford City needs one. Right now, there is no one trying to rally fans as the mood gets darker. No one offering up a vision to buy into. No one prepared to answer tough questions and provide assurance. And though some of the toxic reaction on Valley Parade matchdays feels over the top, with such a communication vacuum you can understand where the concerns come from.
Ultimately, I think it’s fair to say there are clear limitations for Bradford City under the Rupp ownership (just as there were under the Mark Lawn/Julian Rhodes tenure for that matter). They are not going to get to the Premier League this way (worth adding here, I’m not sure most City fans would have that as their dream anyway). And the last few years have shown it’s difficult to move forwards in a meaningful way. But it doesn’t mean City can’t have some level of success with Rupp at the helm. To begin the recovery. The set up and resources are there to be much more successful. Rupp needs to do more – that much we can all agree on – but this doesn’t need to be a club sleepwalking into crisis.
It comes back to the point – Rupp doesn’t seem to be a bad guy. Neither is Sparks. Neither is Hughes. Neither is Gent. This is a football club generally run competently, but one that so far lacks the ability to deliver the extraordinary. You want us to make more of the fact we’re the biggest club in the division. To show the resilience and courage needed to be successful.
Nothing feels like it should be beyond the club’s wit and grasp, and yet here we still are. Muddling along.
Categories: Opinion
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Jason. Rupp does take money out of the club every year. £600k I hear. Are you aware of the 4/5 academy products sold in 2 years for c£250k each plus substantial add ons? (ie McBurnie). If so,you should be asking the question. Where has this money gone? Don’t say running costs because as a club with good season ticket sales, the fans and TV money pays the majority of the bills. So, where is approx £1 million in transfer funds…..The answer is…In Rupp’s pocket
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your comment That is not my understanding and I would challenge you to provide proof of this? Just saying “I hear” isn’t evidence. My understanding is that the money for the youth player sales has gone into the transfer budget. Happy for you to correct me, but proof is needed not hearsay. Thanks. Jason
Hi Jason. Thanks, and yes I agree. It is hearsay. But also stating that Rupp doesn’t take money out of the club is a statement that cannot be proven. I guess that unless we are in a position to know properly, its going to be speculative either way. Lets not bicker amongst ourselves however 🙂 Well done on the article, because yes. The Rupp debate is relevant to the clubs problems.
Cheers Scott.
My understanding is the accounts clearly show no money taken out. About 20 months ago someone on Bantam Talk claimed Rupp was taking money out. It was disputed with evidence by another fan and the original poster accepted they were wrong and apologised.
I just want to keep to known facts as much as possible.
Cheers
Jason
The known facts are that, for the year ending 30 June 2022, the club made an operating profit of £1.1m, including transfer revenue of £450k, on a turnover of £7m.
The club also paid out non-football “administrative expenses” of £1.1m. The financial statements are silent on what these expenses are.
The rent for VP is £410k, and overall the club made a loss of just under £300k.
I am sure that people like Jason are more knowledgeable than I about the club’s finances and have no reason to disagree with what Jason has said.
But if the club gave more information about these £1.1m “administrative expenses”, it would be a quick way for Stefan to silence the rumours.
Quite honestly, if Stefan chooses to take some money out of his investment – Bradford City – then fair play to him. FFS he’s been left with something he didn’t want and now runs the club sustainably. Some might not like that but I’m sure those who can clearly remember the harrowing times where we nearly lost our beloved football club, do not want the boat rocked so badly again. I couldn’t careless about being in the premier league getting slapped silly and being the laughing stock!! Been there, done that and it was ok for a bit. However, I would like championship football but not at the expense of losing City forever. We’ve had a less than mind blowing start to this season (hardly the end of the world!) but we’re not going out of the league through the trapdoor either! The clubs highlighted in this article (and many others) who have suffered at the hands of BAD owners would snap our hands off for what we’ve got right now! Be very careful what you wish for is how I feel! Happy to see a DoF employed to help Ryan and take him out of the footballing spotlight. In saying this, I also think Ryan’s doing a great job for our club and tries his very hardest to make us an attractive proposition in commercial terms. It pains me to hear him slated for decisions that at the time they’re made i.e. Mark’s appointment, we were all chuffed beyond belief but then some come back in hindsight saying he got it wrong. As a senior manager myself, I always laugh at people who can’t / don’t want to make big decisions but are so quick to point out the errors of other’s decisions in hindsight How smart you must be! Sometimes in life, if it’s not broken it doesn’t need fixing. We’re nowhere near broken!! We’d do better by sticking together rather than looking for someone to hang!
To deliver – or at least provide a better chance of delivering – the success that we crave and to make good the historic underinvestment at Valley Parade requires an owner to make a significant financial commitment in BCAFC. The same individual needs to be able to afford (and be willing) to lose a good chunk of his fortune whilst living the dream.
It is questionable whether you could make a business case for investing in BCAFC and whether in all probability you would get a return on your money. A new owner could well find himself following in the steps of Stefan Rupp, struggling to sell the club in the future and asking for an even bigger amount next time.
In all of its history the club has never had a local benefactor and in fact Stefan Rupp has spent more on BCAFC than any previous owner. In the absence of a local benefactor with an emotional attachment the question then is whether you would actually want the sort of people who might be prepared to invest in BCAFC in the first place, a kind of Catch 22. A case in point is the WAGMI Utd approach to buy the club in January, 2021. There were calls in haste on social media for it to go ahead but the Crawley fans can tell us that it was a bullet dodged. In hindsight maybe Stefan Rupp wishes that he’d taken their money and run.
In the absence of a genuine benefactor you put yourself at the mercy of sports capitalism and at worst, the sort of buyers known for generating the wrong type of headlines. Locally for example, ownership of the club would be a very attractive proposition for someone seeking to launder their money.
Of course we could be incredibly lucky and a couple of Hollywood actors could discover a love of Bradford that they never knew existed. Thereagain, given the amounts likely to be involved it could go spectacularly wrong and we could end up in deep shit that will need more than collection buckets to rescue the club.
Wrexham on the one hand and Bury, Oldham, Scunthorpe, Southend and Wednesday on the other. It really is a case of being careful about what you wish for.
(NB As regards the conspiracy claims about Stefan Rupp taking money from the club, isn’t the evidence in the audited financial statements?)
Did Lawn/Rhodes “make a significant financial commitment”, when we got out of League2 and into the League1 play-offs?
Did owners of Morecambe, Stevenage, Carlisle, Exeter, Port Vale, Cheltenham, Cambridge, Accrington etc etc “make a significant financial commitment” to get out of L2? Why should we be any different?
As Jason points out, the Manager/HoR have the budget to get out of this league, but for reasons only they know, we constantly get recruitment very wrong!!!!
The underlying issue (which you make little mention of) is the sale of the club to Rahic & Rupp by Rhodes & Lawn back in 2016. They seem to have something of a free pass in all this. I can recall well meaning comments at the time that they would only sell to the right people who could take the club forwards. That hasn’t turned out particularly well has it? Lawn got banned from the ground and Rhodes parachuted in as a PR exercise to help stave off another administration.
Rhodes and Lawn struggled to sell the club – not unlike Stefan Rupp now – which in itself speaks volumes.
Well they should have struggled harder or been a little more diligent in my humble opinion.
Andrew, its a fair point and with the benefit of hindsight it’s a lot easier to undertake. Diligence of football owners is a mute topic generally but at the time of the sale, Rupp and Rahic definitely passed the sniff test and I recall the positive feedback from just about everyone who met them. In relative terms I’ll bet they were far more respectable than some of the other parties rumoured to have been interested in a purchase.
Agreed.. I have no issue with Rupp. He got sold a pup. He could have bailed leaving us in the mire. I have no idea about the deal to sell the club but I do know we came within a whisker of going into the Championship under openers who decided they couldn’t sustain it. It’s gone South since then.
I think that Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes commented at the time.thst they would only sell to someone who could take the further forward than they could.
In actual fact like any.commodity once you have sold it, you have no control over the way the new owner uses his purchase.
Do you really think ML and JR would have sold had they known what Rahic was going to do? And the vast majority.of supporters only have a small knowledge of what Rahic did which still has implications on the club
Well I’m going to assume you are Mark Lawn based on your seemingly ongoing knowledge of the club finances. No – you can’t be responsible for what happened once the sale went through. The fact is though we haven’t progressed. We’ve gone backwards as things stand today.
With Crawley sitting atop the league I doubt their fans would now be telling us we’d dodged a bullet John.
It’s all about the manager Mick, he has cobbled together a team after the Wagmi people had sold off all their best players. Their fans are worried about having the finances to keep the club going. In another words Crawley are doing well on the field despite Wagmi.
Ask the Crawley fans. Apart from their unlikely league position they are not happy. Let’s see where Crawley finish the season.
There is an excellent 30 min documentary on You Tube channel HITC Sevens that’s explores Crawley Town and all the problems it’s had. We dodged a bullet and I admit I was one who was willing to try and go with Wagmi at the time.
They have definitively struck lucky with the manager because the club is a financial shambles and it’s long term future again in doubt
I saw a comment on The Cows Arse (booo) twitter yesterday, which asked a legitimate question – if Rupp owns other businesses, would he allow a 28 year old Head of Media to become Director of Commercial and Communications (2 roles in itself), to then becoming CEO all in the space of just of over two years anywhere else? Especially in a business overseas and very much different to anything else Rupp would have experience of.
Not a personal dig a Sparks as he’s obviously had to put up with all sorts of pressure and has rejuvenated the commercial side of the club.
However, while we’re not demanding silly money be spent and we know we won’t win every game, the football product is the ultimate reason why pay our money and turn up. The high level, short and long term strategic decisions regarding the football side are just not the right ones being made and haven’t been for a long time.
My opinion is Rupp is happy for the club to be ‘sustainable’ as an ultimate priority, and if success on the pitch comes along then it’s a bonus. Like investing in the stock market, the idea is you leave your investment and over the term it will improve.
However, that attitude doesn’t resonate with fans, especially as we’ve just declined over the last 6+ years.
We are a clichéd local, working class, community club and I think most of us would have some more day-to-day involvement or presence, as that’s what we relate to. They don’t have to be here every day or be shaking hands with the people for photo opportunities, but being so silent and absent makes you think they really only are in this for themselves and asset portfolio.
For Sparks, he seems tasked with spinning plates to satisfy a fan base who don’t demand or expect much – just something to get a bit excited about on a Saturday.
I think this is a good point. Was Sparks appointed because it was convenient or because Rupp saw something in him. A bit of both I suspect. You can’t deny his passion or enthusiasm for the job and the club but let’s be honest he’s made some poor decisions. Awarding of contracts, managerial and scouting appointments, recruitment ….. Rupp had to rubber stamp these decisions of course but how involved or interested was he? Perhaps Sparks would benefit from having an experienced pair of hands alongside him? They say age is but a number but ultimately experience is experience and it’s an area we appear to be lacking. I’m sure Sparks would argue he has numerous people to bounce ideas off or give an opinion but if you keep making the same mistakes time and time again something will give. He like MH has to accept some responsibility. We just seem to have more questions than answers at the minute which I’m sure wasn’t the plan when Sparks was appointed. We don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes but maybe a frank and honest conversation about what’s gone wrong would be a good place to start.
One point
The jury is not “out” on sparks football related ability
He has failed
Spectacularly failed
4 times
Rupp ripped the heart out of this club by bringing Rahic here and it has never been replaced
It is a miserable place to visit these days and I am 100% in favour of rolling the dice
I can’t get behind Rupp, sparks Needs to focus on what he’s good at and we need a fresh start
Interesting to see the majority thumbs down here
I have absolutely no interest in watching another 5 years of dismal mid table league 2 football
I suspect a lot of people will drift away now unless a better vision can somehow be provided
Rupp did not bring Rahic here. Rahic approached Rupp with an investment opportunity and Rupp stumped up nearly all the cash. Hoping to.become a silent partner and rake in the profits. Rahic only ‘ invested’ £250k.and had profited from that when he was paid off.
Ryan has been an excellent commercial manager, the commercial revenue in the club is light years ahead of what it was. He deserves huge credit for that.
But being a very good marketing and commercial man doesn’t make you a good football man. I don’t understand the thumbs down, the managerial appointments he’s made have all failed.
Great piece Jason,
In effect its not Rupp that’s making the decisions on which players we bring in or what tactics we play, which is whats causing all our concerns. He is creating a stable base that is allowing the focus to be on the football not on off field matters. At this level, with reputably a top seven budget year on year its the football side, and in particular the continued signing of average players that’s the root cause of our woes. At the end of last season we needed a striker to offer some decent cover and competition to Cook, more energy and passing ability in midfield to go with Pattison and wingers to replace Banks and Wright, say 4 players of decent quality at this level. What we got hasn’t improved the squad just enlarged it, which brings its own problems. The hope is the existing management team have the ability to recognise, and the honesty to acknowledge the mistakes to give them the clarity to move forward with a robust improvement plan, not waste time defending, head in sand, the bad recruitment decisions. Build on the platform lets not rip it up again and start from scratch.
Apparently a leaner squad ? Well that didn’t work did it, we have the biggest squad we’ve ever had in my memory. That gives you an idea of the muddled strategic work going on or not going on between messers Rupp-Sparks/ Gent and Hughes. There is a missing link that’s not allowing the machine to work effectively. It needs identifying and rectifying immediately but I feel it’s too late. That said a 2 wins in next 4 days will silence much of the noise and negativity for a while. We have approx 7 lads in squad who must be rightly peeved off and feeling miss-led right now and that can’t be good behind the scenes. Very little said about this for some reason after the last debacle but what an earth would make you leave Pointon out of things after his recent positive introduction?
Good to see the DOF brought up again. For me, this is a key area that needs addressing. Nobody above Hughes has much knowledge about football – Sparks or Rupp. We need a role that can take care of the long term direction of the football side of things, and leave the commercial side to Sparks.
Fully agree. A lot of admiration was placed on Richie Wellens’ job at Leyton Orient last season but it was in fact the culmination of something wider.
Orient were finally taken over in 2017 after the nightmare of two relegations in three seasons under Francesco Becchetti – which included 11 managers/head coaches and the end over a century of history in the EFL. The new owners were a consortium of successful businessmen with no previous history of operating a football club. 24 Twenty-four hours into the new ownership, they’d appointed Martin Ling as DoF.
Ling already had close ties with Orient having played and managed the club. But he was set the initial task of hiring a first team coach and develop the squad with increased focus on developing academy products. The longer term view was to reverse the damage of the Becchetti era and return to L1 in five years – which they achieved on schedule last season.
It wasn’t all plane sailing as the club had to navigate the most difficult of challenges following the death of manager Justin Edinburgh. It led to a turbulent period with numerous managers in the dugout but Orient still continued to progress with Ling as a constant leader. Eventually the perfect match was found with Wellens and the perfect season followed.
There are lots of other clubs where DOFs haven’t been successful leading to fall outs between them and the first team coach. And it’s another big wage for a club at this level.
What is needed is for managers to step up to the plate and deliver to expectations whoever appoints them. We don’t need another level of management we need a level of competence.
There is zero evidence that Rupp is taking money out of the club. Just look at the audited accounts freely available online. It is important that we do not throw the baby out with the bath water with the off the field aspects of the club working well. There is a strong argument for restructure on the football side with or without MH with the rider that it seems to me there are already plenty of bodies with the first team and an experienced D of F will not come cheap.
At the end of the day for all of our pretensions to being a big club at this level our business model provides only a slightly better than average playing budget. Smaller clubs making better football decisions can outperform us relatively easily. Our stadium and fan base gives the illusion of a big club but as others have stated elsewhere we have historically not had a pot to piss in and there is no evidence that this is going to change without an outside injection of cash which can bring its own problems.
At the moment we are a solid business run competently in the main with significant improvement needed in one area. There is no reason why the club cannot run with successfully with a CEO and an absent owner if you look elsewhere in football or business generally. We do know that we can make a success of it if we make better football decisions so in the absence of a credible alternative we have to make the best of what we have
The need for a DOF or sporting director (whichever terminology you prefer to use) is essential. Ideally we’d have a more invested chairman but there are definitely changes that can be made right now without changing the chairman that make us better.
I think Sparks has done the right thing in bringing in a head of recruitment but he hasn’t done it in the right way. With all his footballing appointments he goes for who looks best on paper without taking into account the bigger picture e.g Adams people skills (or lack of) and Hughes lack of lower league experience.
There needs to be an overarching vision/strategy that all align into. This should come from a DOF that says I want a Bradford City side to be like A, B and C. A manager and head of recruitment are then appointed that fit into that strategy.
Whenever we change manager we completely change style which means its a full rebuild that is required, it shouldn’t be like this, everyone should be singing off the same hymn sheet.
Whilst I don’t agree with Hughes tactics, the recruitment from Gent clearly isn’t on the same page e.g signing full backs who can’t play wingback and centre backs who can’t play out.
Dead easy in hindsight isn’t it Adams did miracles on a small budget which was us at the time we poached him from a promoted club.
And Hughes never managed lower than the premiership. With his contacts and experience there was hardly anybody without the benefit of hindsight didn’t think it was a great appointment
Whether the fans thought it was a good appointment or not isn’t really relevant. All a fan does is a 5 minute Google search, they don’t sit in on the interviews or get to view the applications. It’s the CEOs job to get it right, the CEO is paid very well to make that call and they should be cutting out the noise from the fans in order to make the right call from the fans.
There were plenty of negative references for Adams due to the way he conducts himself and a CEO needs to determine if someone like that is a fit for their club. Being able to behave like that at Morecambe is completely different to a club with our fanbase.
Those aren’t the only 2 appointments Sparks has made managerial and let’s not forget neither of his head of recruitment have been a success.
Hindsight isn’t an acceptable excuse
A great Article Jason. One which reflects my own viewpoint of what has gone wrong at VP.
I don’t get the response from supporters who paint Rupp as the bad guy. Yes, he should’ve done his due diligence on Rahic before he bought the club, but he has stood by the club when he could have taken WAGMI’s crypto currency and run for the exit. The football league is currently littered with clubs where the fans want the owners out. Many of these owners got involved because they saw football, and especially the EPL, as a way to make huge amounts of money. The trouble is to make a small fortune in football, you often need to start with a large fortune.
Talking of WAGMI, have a watch of the very good HITC Sevens video about them on YouTube. We have dodged a bullet there, purely on the basis that the funding for Crawley really is built on a very volatile Ponzi style business model.
One thing that WAGMI have done, which we’ve lacked since the mess Rahic created, is a have a clear plan that they’ve stuck to. WAGMI wanted to bring possession based, attacking football to Crawley. They initially appointed Kevin Betsy from Arsenal’s U21 coaching staff to do this. It failed. But they went on to appoint Scott Lindsay from Swindon, who was tasked with the same remit as his predecessor and has the credentials to do this. So far this season, it’s working.
So, what’s all this got to do with City? Well, WAGMI have a clear plan. They’re sticking to it and (at the moment) it’s working. We on the other hand have been schizophrenic in our management recruitment. Rather than having an overall plan and finding a round peg for a round hole, we’ve gone for managers who’ve had differing ideas on how to play football, and this has left us time and again, with a rip-it-up and start-again recruitment of players. Each successive manager having to work with players he inherited from the previous manager. MH is probably the first manager since SM was left with only 7 professionals on the books after PP left, to have a team this season largely of his own making. His attempts to play possession based, attacking football is currently it’s not working. If MH does go, then the club needs to look for someone who can carry on the work MH has implemented, albeit better.
Great article, I don’t understand why Rupp is painted as the bad guy. Per the financial statements he’s not taken money out and he has actually put a substantial amount in. It’s not reasonable to expect him to tip loads more money in chasing success. Why should he?
I understand why people are unhappy with the current status quo, the football is dire. But my question to those calling out the chairman is who are you expecting to replace Rupp? If there was somebody with deep enough pockets and a passion for the chickens Rupp would sell. The issue is at the moment there are no suitable suitors.
I hope that changes, but until it doesn’t we should be thankful that we have an honourable steward which for me was evidenced by him knocking Wagami back.
The Mail reported sometime ago that Wagmi are already looking to cash out. Scott Lindsay certainly talks a good game and so far the results are impressive and the clubs possession stats have been off the scale but more importantly that has translated into shots/shots on target and ultimately goals. He is certainly one to watch given that the impression was that they had just thrown together a team over the summer.
Agree with everyone so far. Rupp hasn’t been amazing, but we could have had a lot lot worse – let’s remember Darlington (remember them??!!) as well.
No. The budgets all the managers have been given under his ownership have been good to very good and should yielded a better outcome than has occured before.
Agreed. I have no problem with Rupp and, providing he has allocated sufficient funds for the playing budget, which he appears to have done, he’s entitled to make a return on his investment. What that is, is none of my business. He’s a businessman, not a charitable institution.
Far better use should have been made of the playing budgets. We’ve made wholesale changes each transfer window during Hughes’ tenure and, once again, have ended up with an inflated squad, containing a number of very average players, who’ll have very limited playing time. We can’t blame Rupp for that.
Absolutely bang-on analysis. Rupp’s got much more about him than some of the more emotionally unstable fans give him credit for. So does Sparks. On paper, Derek Adams was a smart signing, it showed a quiet ambition, and you can’t account for him turning out to be such a massive d***head, and I still think Stephen Gent will turn out to be a great appointment too in the long run. We need to keep the faith, and not lose our heads over a shakey, but not yet disasterous start to the season.
For all the talk of Rupp out, Sparks out, everything out, all it needed or needs is a manager and his recruitment team to get the right balance of squad together to look half decent out on the pitch. And as much as I’d like a new owner with a futuristic vision ala BFG it isn’t Rupps fault that we’ve acquired a set up that at times in midfield looks like Rigor Mortis has set in. It wasn’t Rupp who made the substitutions that made us look even more important than a bloke shooting blanks from his pump action yoghurt shooter.
Simple fact in the short term everything falls at Hughes feet If he can’t get a tune out of the squad then get someone else in who can
Sparks is the one who appoints the manager and head of recruitment. He needs a strategy that both align into if he wants to get that balance right. Personally think he should appoint football man to do that for him and stick to the non football side of things
Great article Jason.
I do have some sympathy for Stefan Rupp, he was left holding the baby when Rahic conned him into buying the club in the first place. He can no longer have a hands off approach, it clearly isn’t working. He needs to get involved more in the running of the club he owns & ensuring that the repeated mistakes are resolved. Why should this be any different to the other businesses he has run in the past? As reported by Ryan Sparks there has been zero investment since he was made CEO. The Covid loan was repaid out of the McBurnie sell on clause.
We can’t go on with current business management off the field. A DOF is needed ASAP and allow Ryan Sparks to continue the success of the commercial side of BCAFC (the one improvement there has been over recent seasons at VP). This will need investment from Rupp, even if it was a part time role for say a recently retired manager from the other side of Brighouse? If you look at Peterborough, they have an overseas based owner in DMac, but he is involved in the day-day running in conjunction with the “old head” Barry Fry. If it works for them, then why not BCAFC?
Is Rupp, being a non-football man, is still taking advice from a certain ex-chairman whose approach of “balance the books at all costs, no investment needed” leads to little or no ambition?
I find it worrying that when fans start to talk about protest, the counter statements of “at least we aren’t Bury/Scunthorpe/Reading/Sheffield Wednesday” is trotted out. For each of these clubs there is another who has turned a dire situation around to become a success such as Burnley, Luton, AFC Wimbledon, Notts Forest, Accrington Stanley, Huddersfield… even bloody L***s.
We can’t continue to doff our caps, see 17,000 tickets sold as the only success and fear the unknown. Its time for real change at BCAFC on and off the field as repeating the same mistakes as before again leads nowhere. Remember there is “No room for mediocrity at this football club.”
No-one is proposing that we doff our caps but the sobering reality is that we are not in a position to stick two fingers up at Stefan Rupp and nor is it fair to do so. And beg what protests anyway, the futility of an aircraft with trailing banner? And what does it achieve?
In all the history of the club no Bradfordian has ever banged on the door of VP with an offer to inject his or her fortune. If the club had had such a benefactor as at Boro or Blackburn we’d probably have never found ourselves in the current situation and the history of the club would have been remarkably different. But sadly, as Stafford Heginbotham bemoaned no wealthy Bradfordian has ever come forward and Ken Morrison was remarkably deaf to our pleas. A wealthy owner with an emotional attachment to BCAFC would be the best outcome but in the meantime it really is a case of thinking carefully about what we wish for. Sadly the folk who have invested in the clubs you mentioned seemingly overlooked BD8, but that’s hardly a phenomenon unique to the last ten years is it?
John you are missing the point. Yes it could be worse, but it could be a whole lot better. The fear of change is one of the curses that has held back the whole City of Bradford for decades.
Who is to say that Stefan Rupp couldn’t turn this around by restructuring the operational board at BCAFC, bringing in a DOF or even selling up? The lack of progress in the years since he took ownership isn’t just down to him, it isn’t just down to his old business partner, but he is part of the problem & the solution. He owns BCAFC 100% so its up to him to get his team to turn it around, if that clearly isn’t happening, its down to him to make those improvements. Doesn’t matter if its a football club, racing team, manufacturing company, its good business practice.
The question has to be while the likes of Carlisle & Newport as recent examples have attracted new investment, why doesn’t BCAFC? The question you raised of why they “overlooked BD8” is key.
The days of a local wealthy custodian taken over his local football club are over. Football is a global game and now attracts global investment.
On paper Bradford City with its fanbase, history and catchment area should be a attractive option, but we always seem to be left behind.
You say be careful what you wish for. I would say be careful of doing nothing, you will get left behind.
I’m talking about ownership of BCAFC, I’m not talking about how the club is run or fear of change. The point you miss is the extent of historic under-investment at VP which undermines the investment case and the relative attractiveness of the club to an investor.
So are you saying that because Bradford City has a history of a lack of investment that that is it? We shouldn’t expect any better than we have. Should we not want an improvement, some ambition? Or just accept that Mediocrity does have a place at Bradford City?
Sorry jonfozz it’s actually quite simple. An investment proposition is viable if (a) the asking price is attractive, (B) you don’t need to spend a fortune on the business having bought it, and (C) the business model is profitable. Of course you also need the confidence you can sell the business in the future.
Back in 1999 BFG attempted to raise shares but was told candidly that BCAFC was not sexy enough to do so. This at the time when the club was challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
In the same way that there are agents trying to flog the services of players there are agents trying to flog football clubs. And English football being a global game attracting global interest you can bet that just about every English club on the market has had its particulars passed around anyone with the remotest interest in buying. Given that it’s a pretty open secret that Stefan Rupp is not averse to selling BCAFC then you can bet all those global investors have run their eyes over our circumstances and have followed our progress with interest. Clearly there hasn’t been a deluge of potential buyers so work out for yourself why that might be the case.
As BFG discovered in 1999 maybe it’s because we are not sexy enough. But I suspect also it’s because the numbers don’t work and the historic underinvestment in the club does not help. Is it really that complicated?
The club, perfectly legitimately, only files “total exemption full accounts” at Companies House.
These accounts show that the club made a football profit of £1.1m on a turnover of £7m. £450k of this came from transfer revenue.
These accounts also show the club paid “administrative expenses” of £1.1m. Adding in the rent for Valley Parade, this means the club made a loss of about £300k.
The accounts, perfectly legitimately, do not explain what these “administrative expenses” are and who they are paid to. The rent for VP is listed separately.
The accounts do not “prove” that Stefan does not take money out of the club. There are any number of ways in which he could take money out via “administrative expenses”, football clubs typically use mechanisms like “consultancy fees” for funding to their shareholders. The accounts of most big Premier League clubs show these fees to the likes of the Glazers at Man Utd, but most big Premier League clubs have to legally issue full financial statements because of their turnover.
I’ve got no reason at all to disbelieve Stefan when he says he takes no money from the club. But when the club only issues the barest minimum of financial statements, you can see why people start to wonder what those “administrative expenses” truly are.
I think Rupp.has been particularly fair to the people of Bradford Post Covid and also after Rahics involvement, both of which werw a cost to him.
It’s widely accepted that the way to make a small fortune out of a lower league club is to start with a large fortune.
Wrexham Hollywood backers may well lose interest as the reality of their investment dwindles as they find it more difficult to storm the leagues.
ML and JR were very honest when they publicly said they were personally unable to fund a Championship club.
I would be very surprised if Rupp was taking money our of the club, mainly because I don’t think it is there to take.
Certainly not in the amounts that would make much difference to.soneone of his wealth.
And he turned down Wagmis advances.
I would think that City has cost him money with funding us through Covid and paying off Rahic.
There is no question that there are much worse owners than Rupp, we could easily be out of business without him… but while we’re not dead, we’re not really alive either.
And that is what frustrates most fans.
We have to have.a belief that we are moving forward.
Otherwise apathy reigns and there is a lack of interest.
That’s why fans are staying away st the.moment.
The danger is that they find other things to do.on a Saturdsy.
Then.srason ticket sales take a tumble.
And it’s even harder to entice fans back.
Just to be clear , it’s worth pointing out that as per the last set of financial statements, the club is technically insolvent. It owes £1.7m to term creditor(s) , assume this is Lawn given he has a debenture as a lender in place. So we make little profit unless we sell on our young players (of which I understand there are 4 or 5 that have some good clauses in place that have already left) , we don’t own anything, and aside from season tickets, our revenue is minimal.. I’m not sure we are attractive to an investor becuase an investor expects a return !
Whilst Stefan Rupp is not going to bankroll City to serious success I do not believe it’s Rupp who is preventing
us achieving our first aim, promotion.
Agree an experienced DOF is the way to go.
On the face of it, the appointments Adams and Hughes were reasonable,
but for whatever reason we keep getting it wrong.
The performances on the pitch are ultimately with Hughes, he has been
well backed, but has assembled a bloated squad and choses the tactics.
I’m not advocating or pushing for this. But the only effective way to “protest” at the ownership / leadership / management is to stop turning up.
Nothing grabs the attention as much as the customers staying away / going elsewhere
Dunc makes a really good point about fans drifting away. This feels like a very real danger right now. Anecdotally albeit a very small sample size my friends are all saying they’ve had enough. Guys from Sheffield don’t travel up to VP anymore. Me myself I have stopped watching on tv. (I live in another country) this apathy for the football product being served up is very very dangerous. I noticed that the attendance v both Middlesbrough and Walsall was lower than one might have expected. All it takes is for droves to stop going and that’s really damaging
We need a very quick uptick in entertainment and results
This seems to be happening anyway. I know of lots of fans who have lost interest, or faith.
If this is reflected in Season ticket sales over the summer then the club might get a shock.
In my experience once a supporter finds something else to do its hard to.win them.back.
It’s OK.MH saying that the cup was never a priority after the Boro defeat but a lot of people made considerable effort to get to the game.
I think a lot of fans took that remark as an insult.
The Bradford public have backed the club over several seasons now, but allied to recent results and performances I think that loyalty might have been compromised recently.
The product that Rupp and Sparks have to sell at present is woeful, hence the anger amongst fans. If Rupp were selling his helicopter seat that used £20 leather and fell apart after a month he would have people at his door. If however he used a £200 leather and it lasted for 5 years he would have very few complaints.
The same can be said here, the players and the football management have been bang average, therefore a bang average product is made. Remember the days of spending £1 million on Lee Mills ? A quality product was brought in to propel the team forward. There are of course examples of how this didn’t work – David Hopkin etc, but the message is clear, if we fail to invest in the product correctly we are trying to produce then it will inevitably be just average.
We also cannot live beyond our means either, so smart recruitment, clear management, having a clear plan from top to bottom on how we should play, players required and size of playing squad would enable us to srltay within our means.
Rupp is certainly not the overall bad guy, the manager has to take some responsibility along with the players who step out onto the pitch. Hughes needs to be honest and hold his hands up too – ultimately he is the one leading the team on the shop floor producing the end product.
You’d think to get in the Championship we’d need some substantial investment from Rupp, but not to get out of League 2, as he’s given a competitive budget to the likes of Bowyer, Adams and Hughes and they’ve simply not delivered, particularly the 1st two.
League 2 is a bit unique in that it is all about physicality, athleticism and will to win, yet because we are Bradford City who we believe shouldn’t even be in this division, we kind of feel it is a bit beneath us, and we have to play with a certain style, but to get promoted we need to “slum it” and battle as hard as the rest of them. If you can then add that bit of quality like Leyton Orient had last season, then there is every chance you will be top 3.
Totally agree with all of that.
However if we reached the Championship.then the likelihood is that Rupp would have sold us anyway.