Furneaux: We Will Survive (For a Year)

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 15/10/2002

TOWN Chairman Peter Furneaux in an interview with the Grimsby Telegraph has claimed that the Mariners have avoided the immediate spectre of administration, after nipping their financial problems in the bud during the summer with a series of drastic cost-cutting measures.

Furneaux claims that in stark contrast to some of the other First Division clubs, who now face financial ruin to the extent where they have no option but to enter into administration, Grimsby have "no immediate plans" to go down the same avenue as many of their more illustrious counterparts are heading or have already gone.

"Because of our history we recognised the problems before other clubs who were still handing out big contracts and living in cloud cuckoo land," the chairman told the Grimsby Telegraph.

"Because of what we did in the summer, there is no danger of us going into administration. We've seen the way forward and have planned for the next 12 months. That's as far as anybody looks in football.

Although Town still have debts of £4-million, Furneaux believes that by acting early the club's finances have been reined in to the extent where the board expect to reduce their overall losses on a year-on-year basis, despite having lost 55% of their income due to the collapse of ITV Digital during that time.

There are only so many cuts you can make before there's nothing left...

"We've just been trying to react to the problem for a long time and we've minimised it. There are only so many cuts you can make before there's nothing left."

The club's measures to cut costs involved: