Why The World's Richest Football Club Is In Crisis 

As an Albion fan, thank you for making this video and highlighting the club’s staggering issues, it’s heartbreaking to see such a slow death.

I’m an American who got into football in late 2020. I wanted a club to support but couldn’t get into any of the big 6 clubs, felt like a bandwagoner. Traced back family lines to brierley hill so I became a baggies fan. Tough time to pick up being a fan of them, but now I am obsessed with the club. Hoping for the best in the future but certainly expecting the worst

Very impressed with the research you have done on this Alfie, it's shocking that none of the media have reported on this despite all of the protests of our club. Thank you for shining a light on our predicament

Banger video once again mate, it's honestly unbelieveable you're not a bigger channel with how much research and effort you put in

This sounds like Portsmouth Version 2 and football still won't sort out it's regulations As a Pompey fan, I'm gutted for baggies, they've got a great fanbase.

Not a Baggie, but a 45-year English football fan. I remember them in the old First Division during 'The 3 degrees' era. It's disgusting how the rot has set in. These clubs need to be protected, not destroyed by shady foreign gangsters laundering their dodgy cash at the expense of loyal supporters. Come on FA sort it out!

As an Aussie whom is 50yrs old now and became a WBA fan at 8yrs old. Because of an English kid that moved to Australia. We became best friends and because Paul was a Baggies fan I became one. It's so disappointing to see whats happening to our beloved club.

It’s scary to be a baggies fan at the minute. Disgraceful how the FA and EFL have allowed situations like this to occur time and time again

And this is why the Bundesliga system of club ownership will always be the best despite cases like RB Leipzig.

this is heartbreaking to watch, even as a villa fan. yes im not a fan of the baggies one bit but seeing a historical founding club get destroyed by rich greedy uncaring owners is terrible. it also makes me as a villa fan feel very blessed as this easily could have been us. hopefully this situation gets resolved with minimal damage to club any further.

Albion fan from birth from an Albion supporting family going way back this club is in my blood and it’s heartbreaking and devastating our club could really disappear. Excellent video Alfie and we need more coverage as this could happen to any club without proper regulation the fit and proper person test is a joke and football is being used to allow corrupt individuals or groups to take advantage. Villa also was in this predicament before nswe took over and Pompey was also in this boat. One things you missed in the video was another loan taken out by Jeremy peace which we have no idea what it was for that yunyi promised to pay when they bought the club this is also outstanding. The action 4 Albion also wanted this investigated because it is alleged peace used this money to actually increase his shareholding to sell the club. Peace although he ran a tight ship his legacy is tainted with all this and this is after he promised he would only sell to those he knew would look after the best interests of the club in reality he took the overinflated price and ran.

Hey Alfie, great video as always. I had no idea it was so bad at WBA, gotta feel for the fans. You touched upon Birmingham being owned by Carson Yeung in this video who was infamously in prison for money laundering whilst still owning the club. I'd love you to do a deep dive into the shenanigans that have gone on there ever since the league cup win in 2011 - as they've managed to avoid League 1 forever (so it seems) I don't think the situation there has ever had much attention outside of the Midlands. Thanks and keep up the good work 👍

Thank you for making this video, as an Albion fan it’s a scary time when we used to be so good with our money, everything looks very dire if we fail to go up next season…

Thank you for making this video, as a life long albion fan this is the worst time the club has had in my lifetime and yet there has been such limited coverage about the terrible state of affairs.

As a baggies fan this helps us all understand more. Thank you Alfie. We can only hope 💙

Thank you for covering this Alfie- the state of West Brom has been ignored by a lot of people for a long time. Excellent video

Honestly thank you so much for this video! As an Albion fan it’s great to see that we’re being spoken about in the public, we’re in crisis and don’t even know our future. It is looking likely day by day that if we don’t get new owners that we could be in liquidation and the club dissolved. I pray this doesn’t happen as I wouldn’t know what to do if my club dissolved, just hope that this gets sorted out in the near future. We’re one of the founders members of the football league we deserve better than this! This takeover should never of been approved dodgy since day 1! COYB💙

Been waiting for a video like this one, i am from Mexico but for some reason i love this club so much and this frikkin situation makes me so very angry i want nothing but the best for West Brom! Their fans deserve much better!

As a wolves fan, I should be laughing but I'd love to see albion in the Premier league competing with us and villa. Wolves seemed to have hit the jackpot as far as Chinese ownership is concerned. My albion fan mates are just fed up and I don't blame them. Hopefully it's sorted

Another West Brom fan here. I hope this coverage San shed some light on our situation. Unbelievably none of this makes the mainstream news and like you said because we are not on of the big 6/7/8 teams in England. Hopefully this sheds some light and gets some people to ask more questions.

I'm glad you covered the Baggies, a friend of mine (Baggies fan) explained how strange their ownership is and I had no idea.

As an outsider looking in this whole situation is truly devastating and I hope this gets resolved for the fans... I just can't see how. I'm getting really sick of new owners coming in and using clubs as playthings, tons of wealth yet dubious financial shenanigans and absolutely no clue how to organise things what-so-ever. It's additionally sickening that it's also happening to clubs that have been around since the late 1800s... (stares at my local club Reading for another example), hopefully I'm not sounding too hyperbolic when I say that's literally history and ought to be protected, no matter who you support. Great video Alfie, well made, truly spells out the mess that I hope WBA can get away from intact!

As an Albion fan, Lai has led the club into a hole of despair and he doesn’t seem bothered to do anything to fix the issues he created. We will not get promoted with his revolving door policy of leadership.

It's criminal how these owners are sucking the life out of football clubs like parasites, but at least there's people like you Alfie, bring light to these scandalous proceedings.

Thank you so much Alfie for putting this video out. As I am a West Bromwich Albion fan, our plight needs to be told. It's a real shitstorm of immeasurable proportions. Our once great club is in serious danger of following the likes of Bury and Chester. We hope against hope someone, decent and proper will buy the club. Otherwise Administration, transfer embargos and points deductions will follow. It's as infuriating as it is heart breaking. Thank you again for sharing our plight.

Great vid Alfie, very well covered and proves that only certain clubs owners are looked at

Brilliant video. Tied together all of the ongoing research into the murkiness.

Thanks for covering

i've been enjoying your videos for a long time now, and I feel the need to point out, I'm not even a casual football fan. They're just that interesting and well done. Great work and thank you.

Another amazingly researched video Alfie. I feel for the west brom fans

My local team, just down the road. I go to the games quite often, such a shame to see the fall they've had. Theres still glimpses of hope, the squad isn't as bad as it's made out to be having seen them play in person. Theres some young talent that should keep them around even if they have to sell the bigger players. The owner simply doesn't care, he never shows up, he never invests. Just takes loans out in the clubs name

It's a great video highlighting what is actually going on. I went to my first game with my father and gramdfather in 96 at home to grimsby when the ground was not its best and neither were the team but we had players like Bob Taylor and Richard Sneekes. Later it was Gary Megson who built the club it became. Pulis' final months started the death of the football. Which was completely finished off by Bruce. In between we took on owners who are decimating the club itself. I used to love the black country derby days against Wolves. Within 5 years, we'll be lucky to give Walsall a game.

As a west brom fan couldn't thank you more for making this video, about some time someone highlights the circus going on at albion

As a fellow baggies fan. I am thankful for you raising awareness of out great club which is slowly dying due to incompetent owners who don't care about the club. Its heartbreaking to see it happening.

Been waiting on this one for a while. In short, we are fucked. When Lai took over we were one of the best run clubs in the country…six years on and we are on the verge of losing our stadium and training facilities to the same firm that took Derby down. It’s not an ideal situation

Good work on the video mate

Cheers for the video 💙🤍

Baggies fan here, thank you for covering this🙏🏻

Thank you so much for raising awareness of our struggles

We had a Chinese owner at Southampton from August 2017 to January last year. Yeah. It is all Chinese businessmen - all of them, because frankly, it's the same for all businessmen regardless of their nationality. They're not in it for sympathy, they couldn't care less about 100-year-old institutions or club supporters. Win and enrich yourself as much as possible, and whatever the cost is to others, that is an acceptable price for them to pay, and it's not your problem anyway; your task is to make money, and that's it.

Hello Alfie, can you make What the Earth is Going On to Hamburg, a former German champions in 80s and previously won European Cup now face a crisis in Bundesliga 2 when they missed chance to promoted to Bundesliga when they finish third place in automatic spot. They also lost to Stuttgart in Bundesliga playoff tie in this season.

my favorite source of football news does it again, thanks for the video

Getting just £18 mil for Pereira after the two ‘owners’ spoke when other clubs were willing to pay £30-40 mil for him just shows how badly we are run.

Thanks so much for spreading our story

I'm a french west brom fan, I knew there were monay problems but not this extent thank you for informing me better

Amazing journalism Alfie 👍

Very good assessment

Nicely done Alfie...👍🖖✊️

Many thanks for highlighting my club's plight. A very detailed and well researched piece. I truly fear for my club under the current ownership whoever the hell they are.

Thank you for making this video. The issues the Albion have do/potentially affect a lot of other clubs as well, which is why it's so important this is addressed, not just for the Albion. Sadly I fear our only hope now is to go into administration and hope we can get better owners that way.

Finally, thanks for highlighting this, massive wba fan and its sad what has happened to us

thank you for this i hope it gets the story spreading wider as a west brom fan i am gutted for us but the more we have on our side the better

Great video. One small thing is that Bilic wanted to sign Pereira, that was Diangana (I think) that he didn't want us to sign

Espero que supere la mala racha que ha tenido estos últimos años, soy nuevo seguidor de los Baggies, apenas desde 2018 estoy al tanto de ellos y viendo sus partidos, no se como me enamore de este club, hay algo en el que me encanta, seguiré con ellos siempre porque se que pueden llegar a la premier league otra vez, grande west brom

Cheers for this

Brilliant video

As a Baggies fan and thank you for covering this!

Amazing vid

As a baggies fan thank you for covering this excellent work

As a West Brom fan cheers for making this video

Many thanks for describing the plight of our club so eloquently. Thanks also for showing what football journalism can be (in comparison with the inane babble about Mbappe/Kane 'transfers') as well as highlighting that clubs are more than just commodities and that the lack of adequate regulation is a failure in duty of care

As a overseas WBA fan, this was an fascinating video - I knew we were up the creek without a paddle but I didn’t realise that it was THAT bad

could you do a video on jon obi mikel? i know you talk about him in the video about footballers who never player for their club, but i feel like an even more indepth video on what exactly happened could be really interesting

Very insightful, cheers Alfie 👍🏼

Fantastic video and thank you for giving this story the coverage it deserves. Also want to mention Actuon 4 Albion who have really pushed the envelope on this subject. It's looking bleak for us at the moment but one saving grace is the fact that The Hawthorns has some protection to it.

Nice video Alfie. Please kindly do a video about the possibile take over of Sheffield united by the Nigerian business man. The situation surrounding that and the challenges.

Great video which highlights the awful situation our club is going through. Albion will have to sell our best players this summer, and with the standard of the Championship looking increasingly stronger next season, we could be in a relegation battle.

a documentary of Borussia Dortmund and how they were extremely close to bankruptcy in 2002 time and how Bayern had to save them. The extreme difficulties the club has had to manage within to get back to where they are #thepeopleschannel

Day 17: 7 Best Loan moves ever. The loan moves that have greatly benefited the team receiving the player for a limited amount of time. While not exactly the best, I always think of Morientes to Monaco as an example. Maybe they wouldn’t be in crisis if they did better loans!

In short and a picture of Insigne? That's art!

Are you willing to do a breakdown of the richest current/former footballers? Full disclosure, I'm an Arsenal fan, and would like to see what you make of Mathieu Flamini.

West Brom have been in such a decline for ages and ages. From poor recruitment, and adjusting the squad, to how the club is run in general. A lot of their players either need moving on, or need a refresher. It's clear as day, but the trouble is, when you basically cannot afford the luxury of signing top level players for your division, there is next to no point. With the only chance being signing a decent free that'll hopefully push you forward. The signing of Bruce was pretty poor in mindset. Not because of his manager skills per say. But more the timing. WBA were in a downward patch. VI was rightly sacked, as the club were at one point 3rd, but then they entered a 7 game run where they had only won ONCE to Peterborough. He needed to be gone, but what you don't do, is replace him with a manager who was on his own downward spiral, and brought nothing in SB. Giving him another season with a crop of players on the decline themselves, was just a disaster waiting to happen. How this team managed to finish 9th with barely any good players that can score is beyond a miracle. Grant has been on such a downhill, yet he's still the club's overall top scorer for two seasons now. Says it all really. They need investment, and good one in that squad to get them not only the right track, but to score goals too. Otherwise, this is only going end up in them going to league 1.

Video idea for you Alfie - best retirement league transfers. Which players that left Europe to get a big contract in a non-European league made the best decision as to where they went, in retrospect. Which players settled best and had the greatest success and experience in the league they went to to get some money. Maybe a good way of pointing out the players that did it in the least terrible way, both from a moral/political perspective as well as what was most lucrative for the player and club they joined. Could also be followed up by a worst retirement league transfer seven. Feel like it would be a nice balance of some of the things you like to analyse - sensible football career decisions and political motives. Love your videos mate.

brilliant vid pal, as hopeless as it makes me feel

As a West Brom fan. I am annoyed with the owner Lai Guochuan as since he took over the club In 2016 when we was a mid table Premier League team. We had 2 relegation, 8 managers in 6 years, terrible signings. And could get the club relegated to League One.

Excellent video...... what a mess.

As a Birmingham fan with a similar Syrup of ownership. Since Carson Yeung albion have my sympathies

As a baggies fan, I just want to say thank you for making this. One big Lai! #laiout

Can you provide a link for the WBA ownership schematic for us here to see?

This is the sort of video tifo would and should have made before they sold out. Great work.

I’m Nigerian so the only thing I knew about WBA was Semi Ajayi 😂 had no idea they were in crisis, didn’t they do okay last season?

Albion fan - we have to get promoted or we are fucked. Thank you for covering this

Really good video, highlighting a shocking plight that is going under the radar. At this stage it seems that that only conceivable way out of this mess would be to go into administration and hopefully get rescued by new buyers. It would undoubtedly mean getting relegated in the process.

As a West Brom fan, it’s great that you’ve highlighted the issue around the club. I don’t think others fans realise the dire situation we are in.

As a baggies fan I lost my love of the club with watching Pulis football. But the summer transfer window of 2018 was the final nail in the coffin. I still keep informed with them but I’ve just had to distance myself from the anger and disappointment the club caused me. Being a Chinese expat for 2 years the ccp will never bend to anyone in the UK. Chinese culture places such a focus on not losing face and selling the club for anything other than the £190-200 million it was brought for would be considered losing face. My only hope is a phoenix club to replace the baggies in a couple of years.

As an Albion fan this is crazy where we fell from too where we are now

Would appreciate a more in-depth video on Wigan's current issues Alfie, in case this current takeover bid goes tits up

Alfie lad, you have to make a video on Heidenheim! The story is insane

Without the parachute payment or prospective promotion this coming season may well be the defining one for transparency over WBA’s future.

Thanks for making this video. There isn’t enough attention on our situation From the outside yet but this will get very ugly very soon. The owners are clearly asset stripping, they tried to look into selling our ground. Also blatant money laundering They tried to sell pereira to the Chinese league but then sold him to Al hilal for 20m under his value at the time in which the money is nowhere to be seen (this was questioned by the shareholders but no answer). Rondon was sold to the Chinese league & the money just disappeared from that. Hegazi was sold to the Saudi league, behind bilics back after the English transfer window shut so we couldn’t replace him. The yan zuning signing for 6m & never even got a work permit & seemingly disappeared back to China for nothing

Hope you can make one on my club Partick Thistle, HITC

Anything the Chinese touch turns to shit. Poor West Brom :(

"in short" 5:15 no Alfie, no 🤣 Savage

The story of Farul Constanța romanian champions this season winning their first (or maybe second?) title. Club owned, run and managed by romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi, a native of the city of Constanța. Youngest champions in Europe this season (average players age), important contribution (some of the vital) from: 2 players born in 2005, one in 2006, 1 in 2003 and 3 in 2002 - all products of the club academy. Came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in the decisive match against Gigi Becali's team FCSB(who has a claim to Steaua Bucharest history).

They should make owners sign a personal guarantee for any debts not directly linked to capital expenses (stadium, training grounds). So when a club is sold, the debt stays with the owners. It would make owners far more careful about borrowing in the hope of future success.

Steve Bruce man, seriously. How can people look at Newcastle before and after his tenure and ever consider employing him?

I had no idea of any of this. Media is awfully quiet on this.

Hey Alfie, unrelated question to the video. As you are a Hull city fan, your club's GK from last season Nathan Baxter looks set to join my club Maccabi Haifa💚 acoarding to rumours in the media, what do you think on him as a GK?

Liverpool also won a treble, the fa cup, leauge cup and uefa cup previously

Hey Alfie, you should look at doing a video on Fleetwood and Waterford FC's owner Andy Pilley who is the subject of a massive court case right now and is currently awaiting sentencing