Well, it's been a while - but I'm back, with the blog now retitled. Has much changed since February?
Yes.
And No.
Towards the end of the previous post there was a reference to Wrexham, saying that they had been taken over. It appeared to be true at the time I wrote it . . . but in Wrexham, even more than in the rest of Nonleagueland, things are never quite straightforward.
The people fronting the takeover were Rob Bickerton, Tony Allan and Jon Harris, who had previously been connected with Macclesfield, Chester City ans Shrewsbury, respectively. Chester City - now just Chester - are Wrexham's nearest and bitterest rivals, and their name is forever connected with that of their former chairman, Stephen Vaughan.
Bickerton, Allan and Harris were the public face of an investment vehicle, Van Morton Investments, but they didn't know who the people behind VMI were, having been put in contact with them by Geoff Moss and Ian Roberts, the current owners of Wrexham. Vaughan then admitted that he had been part of a team making a bid for the club.
Vaughan has a background in professional sport, including spells with Barrow and Chester City
and it's not difficult to see why fans of Wrexham - or anyone else - wouldn't want him anywhere near their club.
There were other bids, too. One came from local hotelier Stephanie Booth, who largely communicated with the fans through a dedicated facebook page. It emerged quite early on that she was subject to a disqualification from acting as a director, something that a member of Wrexham's fans' message board, red passion, raised on facebook - much to Ms Booth's annoyance. She does seem to get annoyed quite easily - I was left with the impression that she had no understanding whatever of the relationship between a football club and its fans.
The other bid came from Steven Cleeve, another businessman with a past. Goodness knows why Wrexham attracts such oddballs and ne'er do-wells.
But there were more to come. It emerged that one of the people involved in the VMI bid was "controversial businessman" Colin Poole. Poole knew Jon Harris from Shrewsbury Town; he is subject to a directorship ban, too - it will expire in 2008 - following his involvement with the ambulance-chasing firm, Claims Direct; and last week it was announced that he had been struck off as a solicitor.
The directorship ban means that Poole - who still owns just over 5% of the shares in Shrewsbury Town - can't have an active role in running any sort of company.
This week, Geoff Moss announced that the new owner of Wrexham FC was to be Jon Harris, and it was acknowledged that Poole had given some advice during the takeover talks. Where the money to back the bid - or cover Wrexham's debts - came from is not clear, but Wrexham fans fear the worst.
While all this was going on, Wrexham managed to swat away a winding-up petition from HMRC, to whom the club owed something like £200,000. That amount was raised through a mixture of donations and loans, mostly, I understand, interest-free. The petition was to have been heard on May 11th, just after the second leg of Wrexham's play-off semi-final; they hadn't secured their place in the play-offs at the time the petition was served and the whole issue set the Football Conference into a panic - I guess that their rules didn't cover the possibility of a club being in the play-offs while being under the threat of being wound up, something that I am sure they will change at their next AGM.
The solution that the Conference found was to insist that Wrexham paid off the whole of the debt before their last match in the regular season, which they managed to do.
So, what now?
Well, the sale of Wrexham - but not the Racecourse Ground - to Jon Harris hasn't yet been finalised. It's caught the attention of local MP Ian Lucas, who may refer it to the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, citing the background of Colin Poole.
There's much discussion about it on the Wrexham fan's messageboard, red passion which is a terrific read. It reminds me of the Labour Party in the 1970s and 1980s - lots of people shouting at each other and being rude about "the party opposite" but, if you look closely enough, you'll see that they all care deeply about their club. The Wrexham Supporters Trust (WST) play the role of the Parliamentary Labour Party, finding themselves on the end of all sorts of invective, most of it unfair. The WST was set up with the specific purpose of buying equity in the football club. They are a properly-constituted body, with their own rules; they have been not so much courted as flirted with by all the potential club buyers. The Harris team have said that they will offer the WST 25% of the shares in the club. At a price, obviously. And I'd guess that that price will be more than the £1 that Harris paid for the club.
They have had a meeting with Supporters Direct, discussing issues surrounding a club run by its fans. Some have, wrongly, interpreted this as a "phoenix" club; it isn't. A phoenix club is one formed out of the ashes of a failed club - like AFC Telford Utd. Some, I believe, are thinking about forming a rebel club - something like Bromsgrove Sporting, or Burscough; I'll discuss Burscough in the next couple of days.
The takeover has been cautiously welcomed by Wrexham manager Dean Saunders, and he has taken some stick from red passion as a result - though he could be forgiven for not saying "I don't like the look of this lot! I'm offski!"
Take a look, though, at this photo from the press conference where Saunders made his remarks. Jon Harris is on the left, and Geoff Moss in the middle.
I can't help but be struck by Dean Saunders' facial expression - he doesn't exactly look fired with enthusiasm. Add to that the fact that he is sitting a little way away from the other two - and close to the door . . .
I'm sure I'll return to the subject of Wrexham before too long!
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Friday, 18 February 2011
Better the Devils You Know . . .
Saturday will bring a 5th round FA Cup tie between Manchester United and Crawley Town, a tie which puts a team from the Premier League up against one from the Conference.
Whatever else it will be, it will certainly be a cliché-fest: the biggest club in the world up against their plucky part-time opponents and all that kind of stuff.
Citizens of Nonleagueland may beg to differ.
They will probably take the view that this game will see a team nicknamed The Red Devils, who have far more money than their competitors and have a rubicund Scottish manager with a history of intimidating referees, visiting Manchester United. It may come as a surprise to some, but many in Nonleagueland hope that Crawley get thrashed on Saturday. Why? Here's why.
It was only a year or so ago that Crawley were in financial difficulties, and congratulating themselves on remaining competitive in the Conference Premier. Indeed, they were rather more than competitive: they finished sixth, just two places - but twelve points - from the play-offs.
Then in the summer they sourced a great deal of money, and proceeded to spend it: they have by far the biggest wage budget in their league, and reputedly a bigger one than most of the teams in the league above. Players like Matt Tubbs and Richard Brodie were signed, and the whole thing was dubbed "Project Promotion."
All of this on a median gate over the past three seasons of around 1500.
It certainly seems to have worked: Crawley are currently second in the Conference Premier, three points behind leaders AFC Wimbledon but having played four games fewer.
So why all the feelings against them? Is it jealousy?
Partly. Non-league - even in the Conference Premier - still retains, to an extent, its semi-professional ethos, though nearly all the teams are full-time. It's one thing having, and exploiting, a large fanbase; it's quite another doing what Crawley have done.
There's more to it than that, though: the one thing that really annoys the rest of non-league about Crawley is their manager, Steve Evans.
There's his conduct on the touchline, for one thing: the most notorious example coming at Blundell Park, Grimsby, in February 2006. At that time Evans was manager of Boston, and the game was being played in League Two. Evans disputed a referee's decision with the fourth official, and finished up being escorted from the ground by the police. Not just escorted to the stands, but thrown out of the ground.
Evans was already known for touchline behaviour of that sort by then. But it was in another area entirely that he became most notorious.
Boston Utd already had a strong reputation as a non-league club when Evans arrived: they were founder members of the Northern Premier League in the 1960s (having won, bizarrely, the West Midlands (Regional) League twice in a row before the formation of the NPL) and went on to win the NPL four times in the 1970s. They were founder members of the Conference - then called the Alliance Premier League - and stayed in it for fourteen years, before being relegated to the NPL again; they spent five years there, never finishing outside the top six, before transferring to the Southern League in 1998. This is when Evans joined the club.
In his first season - he only joined them in October - he took them to second place; the following year they won it, and were promoted to the Conference (this was before the formation of Conference North & South). In their second season in that competition, they finished as champions - beating Dagenham & Redbridge, on goal difference, and thereby gaining promotion to The Football League.
And then, it all began to come unravelled.
To the outrage of many, Boston were docked a mere four points for their first Football League season. Most thought that their place in the League should have been denied; and almost everybody felt some sympathy for Dagenham and Redbridge.
Evans resigned, and was banned from the game for twenty months by an FA tribunal in early 2003. Again, many thought he had got off lightly.
To general amazement, he returned to the manager's job at Boston in February 2004, but in September 2005 he, and four other people, stood trial charged with fraud; the charges related to the goings-on at Boston. Evans was convicted, and sentenced to a suspended prison sentence.
As the FA had already dealt with the matter, they could do no more. Boston, presumably, could have, but chose not to. At the end of that season, Boston were relegated; Evans resigned shortly after, and, two days later, took the vacant job at Crawley.
Crawley have staggered along since then, facing a winding up petition from HMRC as recently as January 2010, though they claimed the debt had already been paid; the petition was dismissed, with the agreement of HMRC's lawyers, 28 days later.
And it's becuase of their new-found wealth that many people are sceptical.
Whatever else it will be, it will certainly be a cliché-fest: the biggest club in the world up against their plucky part-time opponents and all that kind of stuff.
Citizens of Nonleagueland may beg to differ.
They will probably take the view that this game will see a team nicknamed The Red Devils, who have far more money than their competitors and have a rubicund Scottish manager with a history of intimidating referees, visiting Manchester United. It may come as a surprise to some, but many in Nonleagueland hope that Crawley get thrashed on Saturday. Why? Here's why.
It was only a year or so ago that Crawley were in financial difficulties, and congratulating themselves on remaining competitive in the Conference Premier. Indeed, they were rather more than competitive: they finished sixth, just two places - but twelve points - from the play-offs.
Then in the summer they sourced a great deal of money, and proceeded to spend it: they have by far the biggest wage budget in their league, and reputedly a bigger one than most of the teams in the league above. Players like Matt Tubbs and Richard Brodie were signed, and the whole thing was dubbed "Project Promotion."
All of this on a median gate over the past three seasons of around 1500.
It certainly seems to have worked: Crawley are currently second in the Conference Premier, three points behind leaders AFC Wimbledon but having played four games fewer.
So why all the feelings against them? Is it jealousy?
Partly. Non-league - even in the Conference Premier - still retains, to an extent, its semi-professional ethos, though nearly all the teams are full-time. It's one thing having, and exploiting, a large fanbase; it's quite another doing what Crawley have done.
There's more to it than that, though: the one thing that really annoys the rest of non-league about Crawley is their manager, Steve Evans.
There's his conduct on the touchline, for one thing: the most notorious example coming at Blundell Park, Grimsby, in February 2006. At that time Evans was manager of Boston, and the game was being played in League Two. Evans disputed a referee's decision with the fourth official, and finished up being escorted from the ground by the police. Not just escorted to the stands, but thrown out of the ground.
Evans was already known for touchline behaviour of that sort by then. But it was in another area entirely that he became most notorious.
Boston Utd already had a strong reputation as a non-league club when Evans arrived: they were founder members of the Northern Premier League in the 1960s (having won, bizarrely, the West Midlands (Regional) League twice in a row before the formation of the NPL) and went on to win the NPL four times in the 1970s. They were founder members of the Conference - then called the Alliance Premier League - and stayed in it for fourteen years, before being relegated to the NPL again; they spent five years there, never finishing outside the top six, before transferring to the Southern League in 1998. This is when Evans joined the club.
In his first season - he only joined them in October - he took them to second place; the following year they won it, and were promoted to the Conference (this was before the formation of Conference North & South). In their second season in that competition, they finished as champions - beating Dagenham & Redbridge, on goal difference, and thereby gaining promotion to The Football League.
And then, it all began to come unravelled.
To the outrage of many, Boston were docked a mere four points for their first Football League season. Most thought that their place in the League should have been denied; and almost everybody felt some sympathy for Dagenham and Redbridge.
Evans resigned, and was banned from the game for twenty months by an FA tribunal in early 2003. Again, many thought he had got off lightly.
To general amazement, he returned to the manager's job at Boston in February 2004, but in September 2005 he, and four other people, stood trial charged with fraud; the charges related to the goings-on at Boston. Evans was convicted, and sentenced to a suspended prison sentence.
As the FA had already dealt with the matter, they could do no more. Boston, presumably, could have, but chose not to. At the end of that season, Boston were relegated; Evans resigned shortly after, and, two days later, took the vacant job at Crawley.
Crawley have staggered along since then, facing a winding up petition from HMRC as recently as January 2010, though they claimed the debt had already been paid; the petition was dismissed, with the agreement of HMRC's lawyers, 28 days later.
And it's becuase of their new-found wealth that many people are sceptical.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Two more down, and others struggling
It's been a while since I last posted - and in that time two more senior non-league clubs have folded.
First was Leyton of the Isthmian League, Divsion One North. That was hardly a surprise - the club had drawn six home crowds of under thirty, and had missed a subscription payment to the league.
Leyton want their youth team to continue in the youth league. IN effect the first team has resigned from the Isthmian League, while the clubhasn't. It's a case, I suppose, of having their cake and eating it, and the matter has perplexed the people who run the league.
In the last few days, a more high-profile casualty. Windsor & Eton, of the Southern League Premier Division, were wound up with debts comfortably into six figures - around £60,000 of that, and the subject of the winding-up petition, was owed to HMRC.
They seem to be a well-liked club, and there has been much sympathy for them. But I wonder what AFC Totton think about it all. Totton finished second to Windsor in last season's South & West Division, despite gaining 100 points, and were knocked out in the play-offs. Windsor will now be deemed to have finished bottom of the division, and will be "relegated" along with three others. They will probably be placed next season at step 5 or step 6; that would mean another club being reprieved from relegation in the first division.
Two of the four relegation places have already been decided there, with Bromsgrove Rovers folding in the first few days of the season and taking one of the S&W places, while Atherstone have indicated their intention to resign from the Central division at the end of this current season. The Southern League reprieve created by Windsor & Eton's demise will almost certainly go to a team from the Central division.
Windsor & Eton will, of course, have their results in the league this season deleted from the records. That's extremely bad news for Didcot, the only team to have beaten them twice this season. Diddy find themselves in the bottom of three relegation places; Weymouth move out of the relegation places altogether.
There are other clubs in difficulty: Redditch Utd of Conference North will not be paying any wages to their players for the rest of the season. Fellow Worcestershire team Kidderminster, of Conference Premier - and, not so long ago, The Football League - are facing a winding-up petition on February 23rd. Kiddy are in the throes of a takeover bid from local businessman Chris Swan. Swan had been in talks with Redditch Utd about taking them over as recently as January 24th.
Cambridge Utd, another ex-Footbal League team now in the Conference, have had to let several players go in recent weeks to cut their wage bill - they've also fired their manager Martin Ling, but may have to pay him
a substantial amount to settle the outstanding period of his contract.
And then there's Wrexham.
They've had issues over their ground for some years now. The latest is that their owner wants to separate the club from its ground, and charge them rent for it - even though they've played there since the 1870s. Now Wrexham has been taken over; there is no firm indication that the new owners will have control over the ground - and there are fears in North Wales that the new ownership is connected to Stephen VBaughan, late of Chester City.
First was Leyton of the Isthmian League, Divsion One North. That was hardly a surprise - the club had drawn six home crowds of under thirty, and had missed a subscription payment to the league.
Leyton want their youth team to continue in the youth league. IN effect the first team has resigned from the Isthmian League, while the clubhasn't. It's a case, I suppose, of having their cake and eating it, and the matter has perplexed the people who run the league.
In the last few days, a more high-profile casualty. Windsor & Eton, of the Southern League Premier Division, were wound up with debts comfortably into six figures - around £60,000 of that, and the subject of the winding-up petition, was owed to HMRC.
They seem to be a well-liked club, and there has been much sympathy for them. But I wonder what AFC Totton think about it all. Totton finished second to Windsor in last season's South & West Division, despite gaining 100 points, and were knocked out in the play-offs. Windsor will now be deemed to have finished bottom of the division, and will be "relegated" along with three others. They will probably be placed next season at step 5 or step 6; that would mean another club being reprieved from relegation in the first division.
Two of the four relegation places have already been decided there, with Bromsgrove Rovers folding in the first few days of the season and taking one of the S&W places, while Atherstone have indicated their intention to resign from the Central division at the end of this current season. The Southern League reprieve created by Windsor & Eton's demise will almost certainly go to a team from the Central division.
Windsor & Eton will, of course, have their results in the league this season deleted from the records. That's extremely bad news for Didcot, the only team to have beaten them twice this season. Diddy find themselves in the bottom of three relegation places; Weymouth move out of the relegation places altogether.
There are other clubs in difficulty: Redditch Utd of Conference North will not be paying any wages to their players for the rest of the season. Fellow Worcestershire team Kidderminster, of Conference Premier - and, not so long ago, The Football League - are facing a winding-up petition on February 23rd. Kiddy are in the throes of a takeover bid from local businessman Chris Swan. Swan had been in talks with Redditch Utd about taking them over as recently as January 24th.
Cambridge Utd, another ex-Footbal League team now in the Conference, have had to let several players go in recent weeks to cut their wage bill - they've also fired their manager Martin Ling, but may have to pay him
a substantial amount to settle the outstanding period of his contract.
And then there's Wrexham.
They've had issues over their ground for some years now. The latest is that their owner wants to separate the club from its ground, and charge them rent for it - even though they've played there since the 1870s. Now Wrexham has been taken over; there is no firm indication that the new owners will have control over the ground - and there are fears in North Wales that the new ownership is connected to Stephen VBaughan, late of Chester City.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Adders To Subtract Themselves: Threat Fought Off By Club
First, the sad news: Atherstone Town of the Southern League, Division One Central, have announced that they will resign from the League at the end of the current season. Atherstone pay their players nothing at all, but still find the costs of playing at this level prohibitive. They are just about the northernmost club in their division, as the Northern Premier League edges ever further southwards; more on that in a moment.
Now to the good news. Sheffield FC, the oldest football club in the world - they rather pompously nickname themselves "Club" - have survived a winding-up petition, which I must confess I was unaware that they were facing. Club's chairman Richard Tims was quoted in the Sheffield Star thus:
"The HMRC are playing hard ball - it doesn't matter if clubs owe £500 or £500,000, they go after you," he said.
"Small businesses are stretched and pay bills at the last minute; we just stretched it (paying the bill) out too long.
"If I said how much we are talking about you'd laugh. It was a small amount and we paid it off. Small companies always have to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. None are awash with cash.
There's an interesting discussion here on the way non-league football in England is structured. Broadly speaking, there is an imbalance of clubs between the North and South of the country, which is causing the Conference North to move ever further southwards. There are a number of reasons for this, of which two stand out.
One is the number of leagues at step 5. There are 14 of them; but if you draw a line separating the North of England from the South - which would roughly be from the southern end of the Welsh border to the southern corner of The Wash - the imbalance becomes obvious, despite that line dividing England near enough equally in terms both of population and area.
Just 4½ of the step 5 league areas would find themselves to the north of that line; 9½ would find themselves to the south of it.
The 4 to the North would be the Northern League, Northern Counties (East) League, North-West Counties League and Midland Alliance; the half would come from the United Counties League.
Those 14 leagues, of course, supply clubs to the three leagues at step 3 & 4. Except one of them rarely does - and that is the Northern League, which covers the North East of England, plus Cumbria. Teams from that league rarely seek or accept promotion; teams from the other 13 leagues usually do. As the rules currently stand, 12 teams are relegated from step 4 - two from each of the 6 divisions at that level - and the 12 teams with the best records from step 5 are promoted, though only one promotion is allowed per division. Ultimately this will exarcerbate the north-south imbalance at steps 3, 3 and 2. So, what solutions?
My favoured one is this - though there is very little chance of its happening!
* Merge League 2 and The Conference. No other major country in Europe has five national divions (sorry Scots) and only two - France and Germany - have as many as three. This would be a north-south split.
*At the next level down, have four divisons. These would cover the North, South-East, South & South-West, and Midlands.
*The level below that, have 8 divisions. Two would supply each of the four divisions above them. Most of these teams would come from the current step 4, with a handful from step 5.
*The next level down would have 16 leagues, instead of the current 14. The balance between north and south would be restored.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Kidderminster Worriers
The good news from Welling Utd and Windsor & Eton has been followed by bad news for two Blue Square Premier clubs, Histon and Kidderminster Harriers.
Both have been charged with breaches of the Conference's stringent financial reporting regulations. The regulations were put in place to help identify clubs who might be heading for trouble, particularly with HMRC.
Part of the ides behind the regulations, I suspect, was that they would force clubs to examine what they were doing - having to make written reports of their standing with the tax people might, just, help clubs avoid getting into really deep trouble.
Kidderminster and Histon are both charged with submitting misleading or inaccurate information in their financial reports. Histon have, for some time, shown all the signs of a small club that has risen above its natural level, and spent too much money in trying to stay there: now there's a reckoning to be paid and their troubles will surprise no-one greatly. Kidderminster are a little different: they find themselves pretty much at the level they are used to - they even managed a short spell as a Football League club. But for them, the difficulties are potentially even worse.
It's not just that they will face a disciplinary hearing which could see them facing a points deduction: their very future is under threat. They have been up for sale for quite a while now, and this worrying statement appeared, not on the club's official site but in that run by the Supporters' Trust. KHIST:
Despite a tremendous amount of hard work our football club still has major financial hurdles to overcome. To survive the club needs £150,000 before the end of the month and a further £50,000 by the end of January. Although costs are being looked at so that the club is run in a sound financial manner going forward, let’s make no bones about it, without an immediate large cash injection the future of the club is uncertain.
So, not only are Harriers facing a points deduction for their financial reporting issues - Welling Utd were docked 5 points for much the same thing earlier in the season - they are now facing, I fear, administration which would cost them another 10 points, at the very least.
Worcestershire seems to have more than enough non-league clubs in difficulty. Apart from Kidderminster, Worcester City have their difficulties with their new stadium; Bromsgrove Rovers became the first senior non-league club to go to the wall this season when they closed down in August; Redditch Utd have a tiny playing budget and face almost certain relegation from Conference North; and Halesowen fans seem, by and large, to loathe their owners, the Ingram brothers.
Both have been charged with breaches of the Conference's stringent financial reporting regulations. The regulations were put in place to help identify clubs who might be heading for trouble, particularly with HMRC.
Part of the ides behind the regulations, I suspect, was that they would force clubs to examine what they were doing - having to make written reports of their standing with the tax people might, just, help clubs avoid getting into really deep trouble.
Kidderminster and Histon are both charged with submitting misleading or inaccurate information in their financial reports. Histon have, for some time, shown all the signs of a small club that has risen above its natural level, and spent too much money in trying to stay there: now there's a reckoning to be paid and their troubles will surprise no-one greatly. Kidderminster are a little different: they find themselves pretty much at the level they are used to - they even managed a short spell as a Football League club. But for them, the difficulties are potentially even worse.
It's not just that they will face a disciplinary hearing which could see them facing a points deduction: their very future is under threat. They have been up for sale for quite a while now, and this worrying statement appeared, not on the club's official site but in that run by the Supporters' Trust. KHIST:
Despite a tremendous amount of hard work our football club still has major financial hurdles to overcome. To survive the club needs £150,000 before the end of the month and a further £50,000 by the end of January. Although costs are being looked at so that the club is run in a sound financial manner going forward, let’s make no bones about it, without an immediate large cash injection the future of the club is uncertain.
So, not only are Harriers facing a points deduction for their financial reporting issues - Welling Utd were docked 5 points for much the same thing earlier in the season - they are now facing, I fear, administration which would cost them another 10 points, at the very least.
Worcestershire seems to have more than enough non-league clubs in difficulty. Apart from Kidderminster, Worcester City have their difficulties with their new stadium; Bromsgrove Rovers became the first senior non-league club to go to the wall this season when they closed down in August; Redditch Utd have a tiny playing budget and face almost certain relegation from Conference North; and Halesowen fans seem, by and large, to loathe their owners, the Ingram brothers.
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Welling saved, Royalists receive a stay of execution
Very good news tonight from Welling Utd, who have raised sufficient funds to pay off the debt owed to HMRC - with a surplus, too, so that "other liabilities" can be addressed.
Almost as good news from Windsor & Eton, who went into last Saturday's match against Hednesford believing it could have been their last but managed to get a 56-day adjournment of their winding-up order. There is still work to be done; the club will almost certainly enter administration - or at least arrange a CVA, which would also be regarded as an "insolvency event" and would lead to a 10-point deduction. A player exodus is likely, with striker Dave Chennells expected to leave, for a fee, during the January window. Goalkeeper Delroy Priddie has already left.
Meanwhile . . . . the Worksop v Mansfield FA Trophy tie will be played at Ilkeston Town. That's two clubs without a ground, playing at a ground without a club.
Almost as good news from Windsor & Eton, who went into last Saturday's match against Hednesford believing it could have been their last but managed to get a 56-day adjournment of their winding-up order. There is still work to be done; the club will almost certainly enter administration - or at least arrange a CVA, which would also be regarded as an "insolvency event" and would lead to a 10-point deduction. A player exodus is likely, with striker Dave Chennells expected to leave, for a fee, during the January window. Goalkeeper Delroy Priddie has already left.
Meanwhile . . . . the Worksop v Mansfield FA Trophy tie will be played at Ilkeston Town. That's two clubs without a ground, playing at a ground without a club.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Battle Royalist (cont) and Mansfield of Bad Dreams
As ever there are a number of clubs who find themselves sailing in choppy waters, though few can be in as much peril as Windsor & Eton or Mansfield Town. Let's begin, though, with a quick look at some others . . .
I can only imagine the reaction of Bishop's Stortford to seeing themselves due for a High Court appearance in connection with a winding-up petition from HMRC. The petition had come about because Basingstoke had missed an agreed payment of outstanding tax to HMRC. Except that they hadn't: all payments had been made and the petition should not have been served. Stortford's complaint triggered this response from HMRC:
"I am sorry to learn about the appearance of the advert in the Gazette. I appreciate that your email of 10th November confirmed electronic transfer had been made; to cover the November instalment. Unfortunately, the payment itself doesn’t trigger any reminder here to move on withdrawal of the advert. In the circumstances HMRC will seek dismissal of the petition, rather than the planned adjournment, at the Hearing on 1 December 2010."
Meanwhile Welling Utd managed this week to have a winding-up petition adjourned, for fourteen days. The club is in negotiations with potential buyers, but nothing has yet materialised - not enough to be made public, anyway. Presumably they managed to convince the court that something was in the pipeline. I'm not so sure, and Wings fans don't seem to be too optimistic, either.
On to the two clubs mentioned at the start of this post. In each case, there's a dispute between past and current owners.
IN the first case, that of Windsor & Eton, the former owner is also a potential new owner. There's an outline of their case in the Battle Royalist post of November 5th. Significant developments there in the last few days.
First, this outburst from current chairman Peter Simpson. From which this bit caught my eye:
If income is just 30% of expenditure, expenditure is far too high. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but sadly quite a number of non-league clubs operate in much the same way. What caught the eye of more people, however, was another passage from that story:
Royalists, with the financial backing of former vice-chairman Kevin Stott, had been working around the clock to form a business plan to satisfy HMRC. However, Stott decided to pull the plug on Wednesday, leaving Royalists with nowhere else to turn.
It certainly excited Keith Stott's interest - he was quick to speak to another local paper, the Maidenhead Advertiser but the article doesn't make it clear which part of Simpson's statement is "highly inappropriate and factually incorrect" and I don't think Stott's words can accurately be described as a "refutation," but this evening's public meeting should see Stott put some more flesh on those bones. The meeting is going on as I type this. Windsor & Eton played what could have been their last ever game this afternoon, beating Hednesford 3-2. There were just 197 people there.
Let's move some way north - and a couple of steps up the pyramid - to Mansfield.
The club was taken over a couple of months ago by "mega-rich local businessman" John Radford. He almost immediately set about trying to recover money paid out by the previous board - either in dividends, to a remarkable £2.4million when the club didn't appear to be making a profit; or in loans to directors, most of which haven't been repaid. The beneficiary of those dividends and loans - the greater part off them, anyway - was Keith Haslam, the club's former chairman. He used a large part of the dividend he received to buy Field Mill off the club, and he has rented it to them ever since.
Mr Radford offered to pay the rent due to Mr Haslam's company - Stags Ltd - into an escrow account while the dispute over the dividends and loans was settled. Mr Haslam declined the offer and, this week, evicted the club from Field Mill.
It looks as though this will take some time to be settled. In the meantime, Mansfield are likely to play their home games either at Alfreton or, just possibly, at Hucknall.
The demise of Ilkeston Town and the possible or likely demise of Welling Utd and Windsor & Eton will have implications for relegation further down the pyramid. I'll address that issue in my next post.
I can only imagine the reaction of Bishop's Stortford to seeing themselves due for a High Court appearance in connection with a winding-up petition from HMRC. The petition had come about because Basingstoke had missed an agreed payment of outstanding tax to HMRC. Except that they hadn't: all payments had been made and the petition should not have been served. Stortford's complaint triggered this response from HMRC:
"I am sorry to learn about the appearance of the advert in the Gazette. I appreciate that your email of 10th November confirmed electronic transfer had been made; to cover the November instalment. Unfortunately, the payment itself doesn’t trigger any reminder here to move on withdrawal of the advert. In the circumstances HMRC will seek dismissal of the petition, rather than the planned adjournment, at the Hearing on 1 December 2010."
Meanwhile Welling Utd managed this week to have a winding-up petition adjourned, for fourteen days. The club is in negotiations with potential buyers, but nothing has yet materialised - not enough to be made public, anyway. Presumably they managed to convince the court that something was in the pipeline. I'm not so sure, and Wings fans don't seem to be too optimistic, either.
On to the two clubs mentioned at the start of this post. In each case, there's a dispute between past and current owners.
IN the first case, that of Windsor & Eton, the former owner is also a potential new owner. There's an outline of their case in the Battle Royalist post of November 5th. Significant developments there in the last few days.
First, this outburst from current chairman Peter Simpson. From which this bit caught my eye:
“Our income is £60,000 per year but our expenditure is £200,000. So it almost certainly looks like liquidation and you can’t trade if you are insolvent.
If income is just 30% of expenditure, expenditure is far too high. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but sadly quite a number of non-league clubs operate in much the same way. What caught the eye of more people, however, was another passage from that story:
Royalists, with the financial backing of former vice-chairman Kevin Stott, had been working around the clock to form a business plan to satisfy HMRC. However, Stott decided to pull the plug on Wednesday, leaving Royalists with nowhere else to turn.
It certainly excited Keith Stott's interest - he was quick to speak to another local paper, the Maidenhead Advertiser but the article doesn't make it clear which part of Simpson's statement is "highly inappropriate and factually incorrect" and I don't think Stott's words can accurately be described as a "refutation," but this evening's public meeting should see Stott put some more flesh on those bones. The meeting is going on as I type this. Windsor & Eton played what could have been their last ever game this afternoon, beating Hednesford 3-2. There were just 197 people there.
Let's move some way north - and a couple of steps up the pyramid - to Mansfield.
The club was taken over a couple of months ago by "mega-rich local businessman" John Radford. He almost immediately set about trying to recover money paid out by the previous board - either in dividends, to a remarkable £2.4million when the club didn't appear to be making a profit; or in loans to directors, most of which haven't been repaid. The beneficiary of those dividends and loans - the greater part off them, anyway - was Keith Haslam, the club's former chairman. He used a large part of the dividend he received to buy Field Mill off the club, and he has rented it to them ever since.
Mr Radford offered to pay the rent due to Mr Haslam's company - Stags Ltd - into an escrow account while the dispute over the dividends and loans was settled. Mr Haslam declined the offer and, this week, evicted the club from Field Mill.
It looks as though this will take some time to be settled. In the meantime, Mansfield are likely to play their home games either at Alfreton or, just possibly, at Hucknall.
The demise of Ilkeston Town and the possible or likely demise of Welling Utd and Windsor & Eton will have implications for relegation further down the pyramid. I'll address that issue in my next post.
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