Friedel declared bankrupt

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The ruling was made at Macclesfield court on Thursday after the US keeper was found to have built up debts of £5 million.
The 39-year-old is reportedly to have got into financial difficulty after his US football academy ran up millions of pounds of debt.
The academy, in Friedel’s native Ohio, was opened in 2007 as a non-profit venture.
However, lender RBS Citizens was forced to take action and court documents show Friedel and his company owed almost £5 million last August.
In December, repossession proceedings also began on a £260,000 house owned by the Villa keeper.
A spokesman for Friedel quoted in the Mirror as saying: ‘This is a technical bankruptcy and it is not anticipated that it will be in place for long as an application for an annulment will be submitted in the next few days.
‘Arrangements are in place to deal with the issues which gave rise to the bankruptcy.’
Friedel is out of contract in the summer and is set to leave Villa as manager Gerard Houllier reshapes his squad.

Sad news a Blackburn legend, hope your sort it out soon Brad.
 
won't believe it until I see it posted on BBC/SSN. Hopefully not true
 
£260k house? Either house prices where he lives are low, or he is a man of modest taste (for a footballer).
 
Yeah, we've been discussing this on the VIlla forums.

What he's been doing is putting money into funding non-profit football organisations in the States, as well as paying many charities. As the recession hit, sponsors pulled out of his football organisations and he had to fund them by himself even more.

Poor bloke has been undone by his own niceness. Hope he pulls through this fine.
 
That's what happens when footballer's try to start businesses. Nice idea but it was never going to work without a grasp of the finances involved.
 
Total shame. Punished by the recession for try to help others out. Real shame to hear about this.
 
Apparently Lerner, being a decent sort of bloke, is looking into it himself. Maybe a short-term loan to Brad to tide him over, or maybe sponsoring it himself. Part of the reason Brad came to us was because Lerner would support his efforts in the States.
 
Sad thing is, majority of people in this country seem to think all footballers are made of money, and don't really care. So they'll just go "oh well hes a footballer, he'll be loaded with cash so i dont really care". The sort of work that Brad does probably doesnt get mentioned, so the poor ****** will probably get no sympathy whatsoever which is pretty dam unfair.
 
As nice a gesture that goes wrong, I just wonder, what's the MLS/USSF (and they're not exactly skint) stance on this? I mean I'm pretty sure Friedel wouldn't start something like this and pour this much cash into it if he felt their programs were hitting the mark. One of the American pioneers along with McBride, hopefully he can sort something out. Pretty sure he'd be in hot demand Stateside for one of the MLS teams or sports networks needing a knowledgeable commentator if he chose to do so
 
Well, all the Americans have done so far is repossess his house.
 
Bless him, hope everything turns out okay for him, heart was in the right place.


GodCubed said:
Well, all the Americans have done so far is repossess his house.
Click to expand...

They've been doing a lot of that recently. ;)
 
Absolute shame, all his money was spent for good intentions, too. :(
 
More rumours regarding Lerner. Apparently it's possible he'll buy the whole business from Brad, give him a small loan to tide him over, and use the business as a non-profit organisation in the states which would also promote Villa.

If this happens... Randy, what a guy you are.
 
GodCubed said:
More rumours regarding Lerner. Apparently it's possible he'll buy the whole business from Brad, give him a small loan to tide him over, and use the business as a non-profit organisation in the states which would also promote Villa.

If this happens... Randy, what a guy you are.
Click to expand...

Wow sounds like a great guy if it's true, I guess not all Americans are bad chairmen.
 
declaring bankcrupcy isn't actually that big a deal, especially in the states. It's basically a way to walk away from debts, that's what all those hicks did when they couldn't afford their trailer park mortgages thus starting the 'credit crisis'.
He'd be fine either way but if Randy steps in to save the academy that would be nice for him, also i'm sure a non-profit organization wouldn't be bad for his tax return either
 
As an American I have to say that this is a giant bummer. He spends millions of his own money trying to develop grassroots football in the states and this is what he gets. I hope Lerner and the MLS get involved and keep his academy running (I think it closed down a year or two ago though). He's a real class act and we need people like him in US soccer. Too bad this has to happen to him and I hope it turns out OK for him in the end. He should make a decent salary (in normal peoples' terms, not footballers') playing in the MLS for the next couple seasons, then hopefully as a commentator or something.
 
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