Kieran Maguire lambasts West Brom after ‘appalling’ £5m reveal
Guochuan Lai and West Brom have behaved in an “appalling” manner with regard to the club’s finances.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Baggies’ end-of-year results.
Albion announced a small profit of £100,000 for the year ending 31 May 2021, with revenue totalling £106.9m.
But the full results revealed that Lai had loaned himself £4.95m out of the club’s purse.
The interest rate on the borrowing is a meagre £50,000 and the Chinese billionaire has still not paid the money back.
The club’s transparency over this issue and other financial matters leaves a lot to be desired, insists Maguire.
“The club has been disingenuous through all of this,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“First of all, they used a loophole to delay the accounts by three months. Second, Ron Gourlay said there was nothing to report when there was. Thirdly, they have only given a selective overview of the accounts on the club website and haven’t actually published the accounts alongside them.
“All of this is indicative of a club where the quality of governance looks very, very poor. There is also the outstanding loan with respect to Jeremy Peace.
“That hasn’t been resolved. That appears to have disadvantaged the minority shareholders.
“The loan looks pretty appalling given that the football industry has had to make do during Covid to make up for the shortfall.
“Ultimately, that money has come out of the playing budget.”
In other news, expert predicts West Brom “on the brink” of mass exodus after behind-the-scenes blow.