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Articles about football clubs facing or going into administration.
Dundee Football Club is to enter administration. The Division 1 club has been unable to negotiate a settlement with the tax authorities over an outstanding £365,000 bill. The club had been hoping to make a one-off payment and benefactor Calum Melville lodged a payment of £200,000 with the club’s solicitors earlier in the week.
For the second time this year, Plymouth Argyle has survived a winding up petition from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the High Court on Wednesday. The tax authorities asked for it to be dismissed, presumably a sign that it had been paid.
Sheffield Wednesday is facing a winding up order for the third time in three months. They have to appear in court on November 17th over a tax debt. The club has debts of over £20m and estimates that it has lost 20 per cent of its revenue as a result of relegation to League 1.
Scottish first division club Dundee face financial problems and a possible points deduction through administration. The club was last in administration in 2004 and some fans think that the situation was more serious then. However, there are uncertainties about the future involvement of the club’s benefactor, Calum Melville, while Revenue and Customs are pressing for settlement of a £250,000 tax bill and have apparently rejected a suggestion of payment by instalments.
The future for Ilkeston Town looks bleak after they were wound up last week over a 50k tax debt. Their match against Redditch yesterday did not go ahead and the receiver has not had any offers for the club as a going concern. Fans are talking of forming a phoenix club.
Crystal Palace have come out of administration. The club went into administration with debts of £30m. At one point the survival of the club was in doubt but CPFC 2010 were able to make an acceptable offer at the very last moment. The administration was a complicated one because the ground was separately owned and club officials have thanked administrators for their help. Administrators are not popular by definition but their expertise can save a club.
Portsmouth will learn on Thursday whether the tax authorities have succeeded in their High Court bid to overturn their Company Voluntary Arrangement on the grounds that the amount owed to Revenue and Customs was underestimated and hence their vote on the CVA was affected. In Court learned counsel for the taxman argued that Portsmouth was operating a ‘sham’ arrangement to avoid tax.
Sheffield Wednesday are the latest club to face a winding up order from HM Revenue and Customs. They have unpaid tax debts of £550,000, but are working with the Co-operative Bank to sort things out and are hopeful that they can do so by the court hearing scheduled for 11 August. Sheffield MP David Blunkett has criticised the move by the tax authorities, but perhaps football clubs should keep up with their tax payments.
Crystal Palace administrator Brendan Guilfoyle is hopeful that Friday’s deadline to appeal against the club’s CVA will pass without any action being taken by HM Revenue and Customs. The tax authorities were the only creditor to vote against the CVA and have become increasingly assertive in relation to football clubs. However, the administrator has been in contact with Revenue and Customs and the case is not re
HM Revenue and Customs are launching an appeal against the process by which Portsmouth entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement. They are alleging that there were irregularities in the calculation of the basis on which the vote was counted and they also have concerns about what they believe are irregularities in relation to insolvency rules.