Guochuan Lai was heavily criticised during his time at West Brom.

Danny Wright

Thu 30 June 2022 14:54, UK

It was on 29 April when West Brom CEO Ron Gourlay told the Albion Assembly that there would be “no issues” to report when it came to publishing the club’s financial accounts for 2019/20.

Albion held back their accounts for as long as possible. It felt as though there was something amiss back in March when the club’s 2020/21 accounting period was tweaked, which led to the club getting another three months to publish their financial figures.

When asked about the finances a month later at the Albion Assembly in April, Gourlay made it clear that the accounts would be released by the end of June and allayed any cause for concern about how long it was taking for them to be publicised.

Well, he was right on one count.

West Brom shared their 2020/21 financial figures at 09:00am on 30 June. Gourlay had just about beaten his self-imposed deadline.

However, his claim that there were no issues to report was – to put it mildly to avoid the risk of upsetting any readers – incorrect.

Whether Gourlay had no clue about it at the time because it happened before he joined the board at West Brom remains to be seen. But if Gourlay thinks that there’s nothing to worry about when the club’s chairman is taking a loan out of the club to help prop up one of his other business ventures, he’s very much living on cloud cuckoo land.

West Brom fans were apoplectic on social media after it was confirmed that majority shareholder Guochuan Lai had taken out a £4.95million loan from West Brom to help support Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited, a “related party” to Lai.

Albion’s club statement confirmed that interest for the loan was fixed at £50,000 and was due to be repaid to the Black Country club on 15 September 2021.

Except it wasn’t.

West Brom are yet to receive that £5million and “a new repayment date of 31 December 2022 has since been agreed”.

Fanning the flames further, Lai sent out a message to Baggies fans, saying: “The club’s annual accounts for the 2020/21 season detail a loan to Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited, a related party to me. Regrettably, the COVID-19 pandemic saw my international businesses suffer, particularly those in the hospitality and entertainment sector, which experienced an almost complete closure for long periods, and in March 2021 I received a loan from the football club.

“The upturn in the global economy has brought with it greater positivity and I can confirm I will repay the loan in full, with interest, by the end of the current calendar year and the funds will be available to the club during the January 2023 transfer window.”

Now, Lai is first and foremost a businessman. No West Brom fan should be surprised to see that Lai doesn’t have the club at the forefront of his mind and that he’s willing to put his other business ventures first.

He’s also said that loan will be paid back in full and with interest by the end of this year.

But that’s not the point, is it?

Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited was loaned almost £5million by a West Bromwich Albion Football Club that was on the verge of being relegated from the Premier League in a season in which they saw a small profit of £100,000.

After being relegated back to the Championship, Valerien Ismael was hired with the Baggies paying a compensation fee to Barnsley. But then, in the summer transfer window after that loan was taken out of the club, Ismael was forced to sign players either on loan or if they were free agents.

Lai left Ismael short of almost £5million that he could have spent on signing one or two more players who could have helped the Baggies win an instant promotion back to the Premier League.

Instead, West Brom sacked Ismael in February, replaced him with Steve Bruce and finished 10th – the lowest the Black Country club has finished since the 1999/00 season.

Lai’s loan has hurt the club. But there were no issues to report, according to Gourlay, remember?

Lai sacrificed the performance of one of his assets to prop up another business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But what seemingly wasn’t on Lai’s mind was that West Brom made redundancies through the pandemic.

Lai was able to take £5million out of the club in March 2021. On 25 August 2020, the Express & Star reported that three staff members in the club shop had been made redundant.

Later in the year, on 21 December 2020, the Daily Mail reported how seven backroom staff members had also lost their jobs in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Former Birmingham Mail journalist Chris Lepkowski has also pointed out that Albion’s previous financial director resigned from his role on the board in March 2021 – the same month that loan was paid to Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited – despite not having another job lined up.

Lai’s loan has not only affected West Brom on a footballing level but it’s also affected the regular folk at the club. Club shop employees and backroom staff members were left out of work while Lai used The Hawthorns as an ATM to help support a “related party” elsewhere in the world.

It’s rotten, rancid behaviour from a man who fans have completely lost trust and lost faith in.

Since West Brom shared that financial statement on their official Twitter account at 9am on Thursday, there’s been a desperate attempt to bury it underneath a swell of tedious video clips and images from Bruce’s pre-season training camp in Portugal.

As of 02:40pm, six tweets have been posted in what seems like an attempt to bury the bad news. Only seven tweets about pre-season training were posted throughout the entire day prior.

They knew this was a shocker. They knew this would upset the fans. And they knew were issues to share in the financial accounts.

But Lai – who already owes the club a loan taken out by previous owner Jeremy Peace – did it anyway.

In other West Brom news, a staff member has quit the Albion to join Wolves.

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