Rodney Marshmallow

On 25/07/2026 at 21:48, TrickyTrotter said:

Interesting article by Matt Slater.

This is a non paywall link

https://archive.ph/JzgF3

Do investors have to pass a fit and proper person test?

7 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

Do investors have to pass a fit and proper person test?

Hope it's as stringent as Ken Anderson's

1 hour ago, boltonboris said:

Do investors have to pass a fit and proper person test?

Unless things have changed since Covid time it used to be that they had to 'pass' whatever the test was at the time if their investment was 10% or more of share ownership of the club (that was presumably why the gov loan to the club was 'manipulated' to show it being only 9.6% (or whatever the fraction was at the time).

As we assume Leiweke's EEP have just put in the recently received £5.1m and as Sharon had stated there was already £60m equity in the club, then Leiweke would not have needed to be 'assessed'.

However as far as I know football club 'Director's' DO need to be 'vetted' and the article talks about Leiweke being 'approved' by the new Independent Football Regulator, so I imagine one way or another there is some form of threshold that triggers some form of eligibility check presumably by the club itself, the EFL and now the Football Regulator.

It still would not stop a Chansiri, who could pass all the checks but simply stopped putting any money into his club and let it fall deliberately into Administration,

1 hour ago, Burnden Pies said:

Hope it's as stringent as Ken Anderson's

To be fair Anderson wasn't being prosecuted and facing a 10 year sentence for fraud and had to rely on a pardon by the President of the United States of America.

What get's me is why there is so much hatred of Anderson when the real bad guy was Holdsworth who put none of his own money into the club either but instead did 'a Glazer' by mortgaging the club for a £5m loan (BluMarble), then took £1m for himself as a 'fixers' fee.

Holdsworth did more damage to the club financially AND walked away with £1m in his pocket, than anything you believe Anderson ever did.

Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.

If you believe Holdsworth still to be as white as the driven snow well look what happened to his partner Michael Collins,

Michael Collins was a commercial loan broker and business associate who initially co-owned Sports Shield Investments alongside former footballer Dean Holdsworth during early plans for a takeover of Bolton Wanderers. [1, 2]

Background and Fraud Conviction

• Role with Sports Shield: He helped set up the investment vehicle during initial rescue and funding negotiations for Bolton Wanderers, though he never held an official club position. His ties to the firm ended before the actual takeover was completed. [1]

• Jail Sentence: In November 2016, Collins was sentenced to four years and three months in prison at Warwick Crown Court. [1, 2]

• The Offense: He was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and producing fraudulent documents for acting as a middleman in a large-scale mortgage and loan fraud ring spanning Stoke-on-Trent. [1, 2]

So guilt by association then ? Its a fair cop .

7 hours ago, Sluffy said:

To be fair Anderson wasn't being prosecuted and facing a 10 year sentence for fraud and had to rely on a pardon by the President of the United States of America.

What get's me is why there is so much hatred of Anderson when the real bad guy was Holdsworth who put none of his own money into the club either but instead did 'a Glazer' by mortgaging the club for a £5m loan (BluMarble), then took £1m for himself as a 'fixers' fee.

Holdsworth did more damage to the club financially AND walked away with £1m in his pocket, than anything you believe Anderson ever did.

Dean Holdsworth and his associate Michael Collins had taken out a £5m loan from BluMarble through Sportshield with debentures and also gave charges effectively over everything the club and its associated businesses still owned. Although it has to be said that the club only actually received £4m of the £5m. Subsequent events and what happened to both of them and the loan have already been well publicised.

If you believe Holdsworth still to be as white as the driven snow well look what happened to his partner Michael Collins,

Michael Collins was a commercial loan broker and business associate who initially co-owned Sports Shield Investments alongside former footballer Dean Holdsworth during early plans for a takeover of Bolton Wanderers. [1, 2]

Background and Fraud Conviction

• Role with Sports Shield: He helped set up the investment vehicle during initial rescue and funding negotiations for Bolton Wanderers, though he never held an official club position. His ties to the firm ended before the actual takeover was completed. [1]

• Jail Sentence: In November 2016, Collins was sentenced to four years and three months in prison at Warwick Crown Court. [1, 2]

• The Offense: He was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and producing fraudulent documents for acting as a middleman in a large-scale mortgage and loan fraud ring spanning Stoke-on-Trent. [1, 2]

He was banned from being a company director for eight years though

Anderson and his lot took a lot more out of the club than £1m, and continued to pay himself his consultancy fees even when he wasn't playing the players.

1 minute ago, DLH said:

Anderson and his lot took a lot more out of the club than £1m, and continued to pay himself his consultancy fees even when he wasn't playing the players.

And his son , and his missus .

2 hours ago, DirtySanchez said:

He was banned from being a company director for eight years though

I never said he was an angel.

And fwiw there were two sets of Administration companies who forensically went through the books and both reported than they found nothing to report to the police in respect of Anderson's financial dealings whilst in charge of us.

Leiweke was actively being prosecuted by the US Justice Department for fraud and faced a 10 year prison sentence before Trump pardoned him.

11 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

I never said he was an angel.

And fwiw there were two sets of Administration companies who forensically went through the books and both reported than they found nothing to report to the police in respect of Anderson's financial dealings whilst in charge of us.

Leiweke was actively being prosecuted by the US Justice Department for fraud and faced a 10 year prison sentence before Trump pardoned him.

I never said you did

I was just pointing out he has previous for dodgy dealings

2 hours ago, DLH said:

Anderson and his lot took a lot more out of the club than £1m, and continued to pay himself his consultancy fees even when he wasn't playing the players.

Bolton Wanderers Football and Athletic club Ltd was responsible for paying the players wages not Ken Anderson.

As far as I recall Anderson was not 'employed' in the business (Holdsworth was the CEO on I believe £350k per year?), he took out no directors loans and paid no dividens.

Apart from his consultancy fee (again which I recall to be something similar to what Holdsworth was being paid?) I'm not aware of how Anderson was taking "a lot more out of the club" than Holdsworth did.

7 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

I never said you did

I was just pointing out he has previous for dodgy dealings

Well his previous dodgy dealings led to a ban, Leiweke's dodgy dealings had him having to get a Presidential Pardon to save him from 10 years imprisonment.

Huge difference in the level of seriousness in dodgyness between the two I would suggest.

20 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

Well his previous dodgy dealings led to a ban, Leiweke's dodgy dealings had him having to get a Presidential Pardon to save him from 10 years imprisonment.

Huge difference in the level of seriousness in dodgyness between the two I would suggest.

There is and I was't comparing the two, Iwas just pointing out he's not holier than thou as you probably knew

But an 8 year ban is not a minor indiscretion or oversight

1 hour ago, Sluffy said:

Well his previous dodgy dealings led to a ban, Leiweke's dodgy dealings had him having to get a Presidential Pardon to save him from 10 years imprisonment.

Huge difference in the level of seriousness in dodgyness between the two I would suggest.

has leiweke been convicted of anything?

Anyone defending Anderson (and his lad) of anything need throwing on a bonfire.

Edited August 6Aug 6 by Krimzon

1 hour ago, Sluffy said:

Bolton Wanderers Football and Athletic club Ltd was responsible for paying the players wages not Ken Anderson.

As far as I recall Anderson was not 'employed' in the business (Holdsworth was the CEO on I believe £350k per year?), he took out no directors loans and paid no dividens.

Apart from his consultancy fee (again which I recall to be something similar to what Holdsworth was being paid?) I'm not aware of how Anderson was taking "a lot more out of the club" than Holdsworth did.

As was reported in the DD process he was still getting his consultancy paid when nothing else was getting paid - his "consultancy agreement" put him in the top 13 football executives in the country even when we were in league one iirc at £525k per annum Plus there were the payments to Lee... Something like £125k per annum via offshore holding companies?

That aside, the biggest issue with Anderson was what a vindictive cunt he was.

He would have happily let us get liquidated (which probably tells you all you need to know in terms of his capital at risk in the club). We lost decent potential investors/owners because of his actions/demands over a couple of years. I knew at the time of at least 2 decent consortium that basically pulled out of discussions with Anderson back in 2018 because he had massively unrealistic demands and in general was a complete cunt.

8 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

There is and I was't comparing the two, Iwas just pointing out he's not holier than thou as you probably knew

But an 8 year ban is not a minor indiscretion or oversight

No it is not, I agree and I've never been an apologist for Anderson but both the Administrator's forensic audits of the companies accounts clearly showed that legally he did nothing wrong whilst being owner of BWFC.

Most hatred on here towards Anderson stems from ignorance of how companies work in respect to Company Law and I would suggest also from how Iles and the Supporters Trust both publicly championed Team Holdsworth and demonised Team Anderson at the time (and ever after).

As I stated above the facts showed that Holdsworth did a 'Glazier'.

As I remember it the agreement to bring the club out of Administration was that Holdsworth was to put in £5m up front and Anderson a further £2.5m if needed thereafter.

What Anderson was unaware of (so he claims) was that Holdsworth £5m was funded by placing a £5m debt on the club (the BluMarble loan) which was already in financial difficulties to begin with and then taking a £1m of that money for himself as a 'set up' fee.

(If I recall correctly BluMarble ultimately went after Holdsworth for that £1m?)

The fact that Holdsworth planned to put debt on the club and pocket £1m for himself on day 1, instead of investing £5m 'new money' into the club, showed his prior intent (with Collins being the financial brains between the two of them) and ultimately brought the club down when repayment of the loan fell due.

Collins if you remember 'suddenly' dropped out at the last minute (presumably his impending trial for fraud had become known?) and Anderson stepped in at the last moment.

I don't doubt Anderson thought there would be money in it for him in 'flipping' the club and selling it on quickly to a new buyer but all that went out the window when he discovered Holdsworth not only didn't bring £5m new money to the club but did the exact opposite by securing a £5m loan on what assets the club still had left AND then only putting back in £4m of that whilst keeping £1m for himself!

Think of it this way, Anderson thought that there was £5m 'in the pot' at the club and Holdsworth was adding to it a further £5m (so £10m to work with) when actually Holdsworth had mortgaged away the £5m that was already in the pot with the BluWater loan, then only returned £4m back to the pot, Holdsworth having taken a £1m for himself).

So instead of the club having £10m to survive with on day one, it actually only had £4m.

That's why I can't understand why all the hatred is put on Anderson, whilst the real grifter in all this was Holdsworth (and Collins) whilst Anderson had to do what he did to keep the club going until a buyer could be found.

18 minutes ago, Casino said:

has leiweke been convicted of anything?

He was in the process of actually being prosecuted when Trump issued the pardon.

Apparently Trump had heard about Leiweke from his lawyer who played golf with Trump just a week or so before the pardon was issued.

39 minutes ago, Casino said:

has leiweke been convicted of anything?

As sluffy said, got the pardon before he was convicted. Was accused of Bid-rigging - OVG and another business basically colluded to gain more profitable contracts.

Anderson was disqualified for diverting company funds into his own bank accounts....

36 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

He was in the process of actually being prosecuted when Trump issued the pardon.

Apparently Trump had heard about Leiweke from his lawyer who played golf with Trump just a week or so before the pardon was issued.

No, wouldve done

11 minutes ago, DLH said:

As was reported in the DD process he was still getting his consultancy paid when nothing else was getting paid - his "consultancy agreement" put him in the top 13 football executives in the country even when we were in league one iirc at £525k per annum Plus there were the payments to Lee... Something like £125k per annum via offshore holding companies?

That aside, the biggest issue with Anderson was what a vindictive cunt he was.

He would have happily let us get liquidated (which probably tells you all you need to know in terms of his capital at risk in the club). We lost decent potential investors/owners because of his actions/demands over a couple of years. I knew at the time of at least 2 decent consortium that basically pulled out of discussions with Anderson back in 2018 because he had massively unrealistic demands and in general was a complete cunt.

As I recall it Eddie Davies lent him the money to pay off the BluMarble on a personal basis - ie Anderson himself was personally liable for it.

Anderson put the money as security against the company assets, so this money would have been repaid to him if the company fell into Administration/Liquidation and he would therefore have been able to repay Eddie in full.

The Administrator smelt some sort of a dodgy deal going on between both Davies and Anderson and ultimately Davies waived the debt Anderson had to him and the Administrator struck out parts of both Davies and Anderson's secured creditor claims.

Eddie clearly wanted the BluMarble loan to be settled or he would not have loaned the money in the first place.

Anderson did settle the BluMarble debt with this money (iirc they settled for £4m plus interest and then went after Holdsworth for the missing £1m).

Why Eddie didn't settle the BluMarble debt by some more traditional way I have no idea but unless Anderson did what he did he was on the hook personally for at least £5m and whether you believe him to be the Devil incarnate he did what any other sensible person (including myself and no doubt yourself too) to financially protect themselves.

Fwiw I believe the Administrator ended up paying something like £300k to Anderson to settle his secure creditor status - in other words that's all the capital the Administrator believed he had at risk outside this BluMarble loan business between him and Eddie.

As for his £525k consultancy fee he would have got that back paid in full as all the players got there wages back paid in full due to them being 'footballing' creditors.

He might well have been the biggest cunt in the world but he did not rip us off for £1m like Holdsworth did on day 1, he kept a financially (all but insolvent company) going just long enough to get us sold to possibly the best owners we could have hoped for - whilst breaking no Company Laws as per the findings of two sets of independent Administration companies

As I've said I'm not an apologist for Anderson but legally and financially he did nothing wrong.

I would suggest that Holdsworth did in respect of the £1m.

3 minutes ago, Casino said:

No, wouldve done

It might have done for your needs but it wouldn't have painted the full picture.

The inference being Leiweke paid a substantial bribe to Trump to drop the charges...

We can't seriously be doing the "I'm not a Ken Anderson apologist, but here's chapter & verse on why everyone who was ever against him was wrong" bit in 2026. What a time warp.

21 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

Anderson did settle the BluMarble debt with this money (iirc they settled for £4m plus interest and then went after Holdsworth for the missing £1m).

No he didn't.

The debt was settled via the £5m loan to the club by Eddie Davies. Thankfully he did, because the £5m loan allowed Fildraw to start the administration process. Without that loan we'd be playing Bury.