Bristol City get cash injection

In a week which has seen many people fearing for their savings, Bristol City Chairman Steve Lansdown has invested more of his own in the club he is nurturing towards the Premier League.

The financier, who made his money as a stockbroker, founding Hargreaves Lansdown with business partner Peter Hargreaves, has put a further £2.3million into the club.

According to documents registered with Companies House this week Lansdown has bought 1.15m worth of shares in Bristol City Holdings Limited, the parent company of Bristol City Football Club. Vice chairman Keith Dawe has also invested £200,000 for an increase in his share holding.

Steve Lansdown declined to comment on the specific use of the money. A Bristol City spokesman said: “Steve Lansdown and Keith Dawe have put money into the club regularly over the years and will continue to do so.”

The businessman, listed by the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 as the sixth richest person in the West of England with an estimated fortune of £338m, has always played down his role in financing the club.

Lansdown backed manager Gary Johnson in the close season with the purchase of the highly rated Maynard following the club’s Play-Off final defeat to Hull City in their first season back in the Championship.

City’s chairman, who took over the club in October 2002 and is now in his seventh season as Chairman, has revealed in Q&A sessions with fans that the club's wage bill has risen from £2.5m a year to £6m a year since promotion to the Championship.

And the businessman told the Fanancial Times in February this year the club's turnover for their first season back in the Championship would be about £8m - before the trip to Wembley.

The latest accounts filed at Companies House show the club made nearly a million pound loss in the year up to 31 May 2007 and the reports of their auditors Deloitte & Touche make it clear the club, like most others, runs on the financial promise of its board.

According to Ben Sulaiman of leading lawyers Lovells, the allotment of shares is one of two main ways for a football club to raise money. The other is debt, which in the current climate is expensive due to higher interest rates.

In August 2006 for example the Bristol City Supporters Trust bought 2,500 shares in Bristol City Holdings Limited for £5,000 which went towards improvements at the club's Abbots Leigh Training Ground.

Bristol City's shot at the billionaires

The Queens Park Rangers show comes to Ashton Gate today complete with its Formula One owners and Real Madrid loan starlet, but Bristol City chairman Steve Lansdown believes the Robins can steal some of the limelight.

Flavio Briatore, manager of the Renault Formula One team, and Grand Prix supremo Bernie Ecclestone took over at Loftus Road a year ago and have overhauled the team in their bid to take Rangers back to the top tier of English football.

Lansdown is not planning on letting them have it all their own way, though, and insists City have the resources and the quality to continue their progress and another flying start to the season.

He said: “We have got something to prove. I think we go into the game probably as underdogs because of the situation, but we know what we’ve got here (at Ashton Gate) and we want to show we deserve to get to the top of the table. Competing against teams like QPR will be a good test for us.”

Money has been lavished by Briatore and Ecclestone on hauling QPR out of debt and into the role of Championship contenders.

Exotic imports such as Real Madrid’s teenage midfield sensation Daniele Parejo and Genoa’s Argentinian forward Emmanuel Ledesma have been brought in on loan to add flair to new manager Iain Dowie’s side.

Lansdown said: “From a QPR perspective, it’s probably one of the best things that could have happened to them. You had people who had wealth to their name and who were in a situation to help the club through a very bad patch.

"From a Bristol City perspective, obviously you watch with interest how they progress with regard to how they invest in the club, what they spend on players and the squad they build up.

“They have spent quite a considerable amount of money. One shouldn’t be misled about the fact there haven’t been major transfer fees paid. Players are only going to go there for a good salary and knowing there is cash there and the club is ambitious to get to the Premiership. Make no mistake about it - they have invested heavily in the squad.”

QPR are cited as one of the favourites for promotion given the new investment, yet their temperament on the road was tested and found wanting in a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United.

And Lansdown is hoping City can further dent Rangers’ aspirations as manager Gary Johnson continues to further aspirations of his own.

Lansdown said: “I am really looking forward to this one because it is so interesting for all sorts of different reasons, and hopefully the results will prove we are on the right track. And I’m confident we can give a good account of ourselves and come away with a result. But I have to say, it’s not going to be easy. They never are.”

City chairman - I will invest

BRISTOL City chairman Steve Lansdown has insisted the Robins are not in the Coca-Cola Championship to “make up the numbers” and will invest in the club until they reach the top.

Speaking ahead of the visit of big-spending Queens Park Rangers today, whose new owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone have vowed to take them back to the top tier, Lansdown was not shy about his own aspirations – including the new stadium.

He said: “We want to play at the highest possible level with the best possible facilities and that’s what I’m going to work towards, and that’s what Gary (Johnson) is going to work towards, as well.

“We have our own plan of how we go about doing things. That’s not going to change. We go about our job quietly but efficiently.

“If you look at the record over the last however many years, there’s been constant investment in the football club, and that’s all you can ask for. We are working on opportunities to take the club forward and we’re there to compete (with the likes of QPR).

“We’re not there to just make up the numbers. The idea is to progress as much as we possibly can.

“The stadium is progressing satisfactorily. It’s a long process, so there are no sudden announcements to make.

“It’s on target at the moment and that’s all I can really say. There are lots of difficult decisions to be made and we are working our way through those.”

Lansdown was particularly proud of the way Johnson’s team have started this year’s Championship campaign, showing no signs of “second-season syndrome”, despite their opponents having a much better knowledge of the Robins’ tactics and armoury.

He said: “That’s our challenge this year. They may know about us but can they stop us playing? I think we showed against Coventry and in the first half against Derby that, if we play our football at the tempo at which we play it and in the manner we play it, it takes good teams to live with us.

“You just don’t know how a season’s going to pan out. You’re in that situation where you’ve had a great year. You’ve almost had the success you desired or could hardly have imagined at the start of the previous season, and then you have to start all over again. That’s always a difficult thing to do and I think full credit to everyone at the club.

“The game away to Blackpool was probably one of the biggest games we’ll ever have. We knew we’d have to go there and battle, and to come away with three points was a great fillip and that’s set us up quite nicely.

“But we can’t get carried away; we’ve only played three League games. Reading would have said they weren’t suffering from second-season syndrome in the Premiership last year after three games, but it caught up with them in the end. There’s a lot of work to do.”

Meanwhile, Ebsfleet United striker John Akinde is expected to complete a move to Ashton Gate over the weekend. City are understood to have had a bid in the region of £140,000 accepted for the highly-rated 19-year-old. The decison to sell Akinde has to be voted on by the club’s 29,000 shareholders with the results expected to be known late last night.

The transfer, however, looks likely to recieve the go-ahead with City beating off competition from Millwall and Peterborough United.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said last night: “John rang me to say he had decided to join Bristol.

“He said it was a football decision based purely on the chance to play at a higher level.

“I’m disappointed because we were chasing him for a long time and I am convinced he would have been a great signing for us.”