What we know so far: UCFC's financial debacle and its withdrawal from the 2022/23 PFL Season

Photo by: Philippines Football League

A lot of questions are still floating around about the reason behind United City Football Club's withdrawal from the remainder of the 2022/23 Philippines Football League season and that's where we come in.

The speculations of them either folding or withdrawing from the current season came up earlier this year when they went into silent mode while the rest of the clubs in the PFL stayed up-to-date for their stakeholders.

The departure of their key players like Amirbek Juraboev, Andreas Esswein, Kenshiro Daniels, and Mark Hartmann also made the speculations even stronger knowing that without these players, it would make their title defense a lot more difficult.

In an effort to provide more information to the Philippine football stakeholders as well as the supporters of UCFC, this publication did its research to learn more about the real score of the club. Without further ado, here are the things we gathered about UCFC's financial debacle and how they are currently dealing with it.

1) Who is Riau Capital Live and what is their involvement with the club?

Riau Capital Live is a Singapore-registered sports and entertainment company that was incorporated on May 10, 2021, as per their business information found in the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) which is a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Singapore.

Photo by: themonitor.sg

One of its directors, Bambang Sugeng Kajairi, is a former Football Association of Singapore Council Member and a former committee member of Geylang United.

RCL came in as an investor in the club and not as a sponsor. This would mean that they bought a certain amount of equity from the club where the money that UCFC would receive from the agreement would be used for the club's long-term assets.

This would also mean that RCL would be gaining part-ownership of the club making them involved in the decision-making process had the deal gone through smoothly.

2) When did RCL's involvement with UCFC start?

UCFC and RCL came to an agreement back in May 2021, coincidentally within RCL's early days in the business. However, RCL would then default on their payments in October 2022.

Though they would come up with an agreed final settlement deadline earlier this month, RCL still failed to honor it forcing the defending PFL and Copa Paulino Alcantara champions to withdraw from the remainder of the 2022/23 PFL season.

3) How about the club's other partners, specifically, Allianz PNB Life?

UCFC and Allianz PNB Life have been in partnership for almost three years now and it seems like their partnership will continue past this fiasco that the club is currently dealing with. Gottschalk said, "Allianz is our long-term partner and this will remain going forward," assuring UCFC fans that despite this difficult time, Allianz PNB Life will remain their partner.

4) What does the board of directors/owners currently doing for the club?

To keep the club alive during these trying times, Gottschalk said, "All original individual shareholders, including myself, have financed the club from their personal funds to operate the club."

He also added, "We seek a solution for the current situation in order to meet our obligations as a club towards players, staff, suppliers, etc. If we didn't want to do this we could have just closed the business and walked away."

"But this is not what the club stands for. As bad as it was at some point, the club has always found a way to meet its obligations. We have committed to pursue all avenues to find a solution again so while this is frustrating especially for some of the previous players, they should sit tight and let the involved parties deal with this including the legal representatives."

5) What would happen to the club's franchise license?

"We are not closing the club - we have withdrawn from the current competition. The Club is a registered business and it owns the license and voting rights with the PFF. The PFF is to decide the next steps," said Gottschalk.

Apart from being the country's most prestigious football club, UCFC is a registered business and it owns the license and voting rights with the PFF. As for their license, Gottschalk said, "We expect certain requirements to be met in order to keep the license current - just like all clubs in order to maintain its good standings and to be granted the rights to compete. We will push for a solution to resolve the financial situation of the club and then we will provide the requirements for the PFF and AFC licenses renewal. Once all have been met UCFC would be back on its feet."

It may take some time but the club's supporters as well as its stakeholders are confident enough that they will come back stronger after this and would continue to make a mark in the Philippine club football scene.