Although the High Court found in favour of the Football League in a ruling on the football creditors rule, it does not finally resolve the issue. The rule allows clubs and their employees to be paid ahead of other creditors if a club becomes insolvent.
Revenue & Customs, who have an obvious interest in overturning the rule, have failed in an attempt to have the rule declared null and void. The Revenue is considering an appeal, a move it was given permission to take.
Although the High Court found in favour of the Football League in a ruling on the football creditors rule, it does not finally resolve the issue. The rule allows clubs and their employees to be paid ahead of other creditors if a club becomes insolvent.
Revenue & Customs, who have an obvious interest in overturning the rule, have failed in an attempt to have the rule declared null and void. The Revenue is considering an appeal, a move it was given permission to take.
In giving his ruling, Mr Justice Richards said that the issue was not ‘whether giving propriety to football creditors is socially or morally justified’. The question was purely one of law and whether the provisions conflicted with two fundamental principles of insolvency law.
The judge warned that the Football League ‘should not regard the result of this case as an endorsement of its approach to football creditors.’ It was ‘a decision on a challenge brought on a particular legal basis.’
There have been 36 Football League insolvencfies between March 2002 and 2011.