Rage Online Blog
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Noises from North Lincolnshire suggest that Grimsby Town are the latest club to be staring down the barrel of administration, or possibly worse. According to Electronic Fishcake, the club owes the Inland Revenue £500,000 in unpaid taxes and the Revenue will be seeking a winding-up order against the club, if they haven't already done so (and I doubt that they have as these things aren't exactly easy to keep quiet!).
This puts the club into a difficult position. One possible way out is for the club to go into administration. However, as the article points out, this would mean that all of the clubs debts would have to be taken into account, including sums owed to directors who have no pressing need to get their money back. In these circumstances, the administrator may consider the business not to be viable and be forced into selling off the clubs assets. There is no confirmation about any of this from the club itself, but things could be bleak for the Mariners.
This puts the club into a difficult position. One possible way out is for the club to go into administration. However, as the article points out, this would mean that all of the clubs debts would have to be taken into account, including sums owed to directors who have no pressing need to get their money back. In these circumstances, the administrator may consider the business not to be viable and be forced into selling off the clubs assets. There is no confirmation about any of this from the club itself, but things could be bleak for the Mariners.
Labels: Grimsby Town
Friday, September 24, 2004
English football’s latest golden boy – you know, the tubby scouser – seems to have past a crossroads in his life. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) he appears to have selected Best Avenue rather than Lineker Street. Hot on the heels of his daliances with Merseyside’s more mature, ahem, entertainment providers, comes the story from the BBC that he has shown contempt to the local rozzers by failing to comply with a “producer” and turn up at the local nick with his licence and insurance documents, having been stopped whilst cruising Shellsuit City in his Beemer. To compound his misdemeanour, he then failed to turn up in court and was found guilty in his absence. He’s due back on October 4th for sentencing, and it’s a fairly safe bet that the beaks will take a dim view of his earlier no-show.
Labels: Wayne Rooney
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Strange goings on in North Wales, home of our illustrious former leader, Dennis NEM Smithout. I first noticed this story on Clubs in Crisis a couple of days ago and have done a bit of digging in places such as the North Wales Daily Post to find out more. Apparently, two and a half years ago the Chairman of Wrexham, Alex Hamilton, bought the freehold to the Racecourse Ground from the brewery which owned it, and promptly transferred it to another of his companies. Then, last year, he changed the terms of the lease to the detriment of the football club and on 21st July gave the club 12 months notice to quit. Rumours of a sale to property developers abound and the ex-Chairman, Mark Gutterman, has served a court order on Hamilton preventing sale of the ground as Gutterman still has loans to the club, believed to be secured on the ground. In the meantime, Hamilton has called an extraordinary general meeting for 29th September, the only agenda item being the expulsion of the clubs 3 other directors, including John Reames who attempted to blow the whistle in the club programme. Also, Hamilton is in negotiations to defer payment of the £850,000 the club owes to the Inland Revenue. The club also owes £60,000 in unpaid VAT and has short-term debts of £2.75m. Further to this, the club's solicitors have resigned following "abusive" messages from the clubs fans. Mysteriously, the say that "client confidentiality" prevents them from saying all that they would wish. All-in-all, it’s not a pretty picture. Wonder how long the notice period on the KasStad is?!
Labels: Wrexham
