EFL currently powerless as West Brom struggles continue with Guochuan Lai
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
Dan Plumley has insisted that the EFL are relatively powerless against Guochuan Lai as West Brom fans prepare to up their protests against his running of the club.
The Finance Expert shared his legal understanding on the matter, with the Chinese businessman still to repay his £5million loan with interest back to the club despite numerous deadlines.
With the independent regulator likely coming into force soon, they would also remain powerless as things stand, as Lai is already in charge of the club.
“My fairly limited legal understanding at the minute is that the EFL cannot really do that much as the owner is in place and they own the club and decisions are handed over to the individuals who own the club,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“Again, if you look at some of the sanctions they can put, they’re all club-specific sanctions, you fine the club or points deduct them, that seems rather unfair in this instance so I don’t think the punishments are in the position where the EFL can do something at the minute, unfortunately for fans of West Brom.
“Moving forward, this is where independent regulation and a wider look at what the owners and directors test is, and the powers that be to the regulators, so the sands may shift in the future to what that regulator can do with regards to ownership or instances where things go wrong when owners already have control.
“It’s one of those where there’s not a lot they could do right now, but in the future, this is maybe one of the things on the table to look at.”
This one is not close to being resolved any time soon, it seems.
In other West Brom news, Ben Foster has apologised to one Baggies fans after what they spotted him with