Post by QPR Report on Jan 5, 2010 6:45:26 GMT
Guardian/Matt Scott
Notts County face new threat from taxman• Club served with second winding-up petition
• HMRC says bankruptcy proceedings a 'last resort'
Notts County's future has been plunged into fresh doubt after it emerged that the club have been served with a second winding-up petition by the taxman.
According to an insolvency notice published on Christmas Eve in the London Gazette, a petition was served by HM Revenue & Customs on 27 November. That was just 15 days after County's executive chairman, Peter Trembling, said the club had "resolved the dispute" with HMRC over a six-figure tax debt that had been the subject of a previous petition due to be heard in court on 18 November.
A spokeswoman for HMRC said yesterday: "Bankruptcy proceedings are a last resort. We provide time to pay for viable businesses."
Unless County can find the funding to cover their tax obligations, the latest dispute will head to the high court in London on 27 January. There lawyers for HMRC will press for the club to be placed into administration.
Trembling, who could not be contacted yesterday, claimed publicly when he completed what he described as a "management buyout" last month that the Meadow Lane club have sufficient funding to continue operations until the end of the season. But the latest winding-up petition would seem to cast doubt on that announcement.
Indeed, the club's apparent cashflow difficulties will have been worsened by the postponements of two home matches in recent weeks. The loss of the Boxing Day match against Grimsby, who would have expected to bring a travelling crowd of between 1,000 and 2,000, was compounded by the deferment of the FA Cup third-round tie against Forest Green Rovers on Sunday. That match also carries the incentive of a potential £67,500 in prize money and the promise of a possibly televised fourth-round tie against Premier League Wigan Athletic. Trembling also reportedly planned to use it as an opportunity to entertain potential investors in the club.
The recent turmoil at Meadow Lane notwithstanding, Sven-Goran Eriksson, the director of football, remains involved. But despite his ongoing commitment he has conveyed for the first time his feeling that he has been "let down" by the club's former owner, Qadbak. That British Virgin Islands-registered company pledged millions of pounds in transfer funds to Eriksson when it used Russell King, the businessman who is under investigation for his alleged involvement in a multimillion-pound fraud in Jersey, to recruit him.
Speaking on the BBC's Sportsweek, Eriksson expressed in bullish terms his belief that the club's fortunes will rise again. "The project to get Notts County in to the Premier League in five years is on hold unfortunately for the moment because things went bad," he said.
"But hopefully in just a couple of weeks it will take off again. That's what we are hoping and that's what we are working very, very hard for. I still believe it's possible. What is needed is funding. It's money. It's very easy if you want to reach the Premier League from the position we are in you need money of course.
"When I signed we saw and we believed that everything which was said was true but obviously it wasn't. Of course I feel let down. But you can't talk so much about it you have to find other people, and real people.
"It's been too many bad things about Notts County during these six months but hopefully in a couple of weeks' time things will change."
Precisely how that will change is unknown but the Magpies are reported to have received a six-figure sponsorship commitment from Ludo, a Norwegian mobile telecoms firm, in December.Eriksson is believed to have been instrumental in those sponsorship negotiations, having visited the company's founder, Idar Vollvik, at his home in Marbella last month.
When asked why he is still involved, Eriksson said: "Because of the challenge to take a team from 19th place in League Two up to the Premier League, that is the biggest thing you can do in football, if we can do it. Because of the challenge, it is very easy [to stay]."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/04/notts-county
Notts County face new threat from taxman• Club served with second winding-up petition
• HMRC says bankruptcy proceedings a 'last resort'
Notts County's future has been plunged into fresh doubt after it emerged that the club have been served with a second winding-up petition by the taxman.
According to an insolvency notice published on Christmas Eve in the London Gazette, a petition was served by HM Revenue & Customs on 27 November. That was just 15 days after County's executive chairman, Peter Trembling, said the club had "resolved the dispute" with HMRC over a six-figure tax debt that had been the subject of a previous petition due to be heard in court on 18 November.
A spokeswoman for HMRC said yesterday: "Bankruptcy proceedings are a last resort. We provide time to pay for viable businesses."
Unless County can find the funding to cover their tax obligations, the latest dispute will head to the high court in London on 27 January. There lawyers for HMRC will press for the club to be placed into administration.
Trembling, who could not be contacted yesterday, claimed publicly when he completed what he described as a "management buyout" last month that the Meadow Lane club have sufficient funding to continue operations until the end of the season. But the latest winding-up petition would seem to cast doubt on that announcement.
Indeed, the club's apparent cashflow difficulties will have been worsened by the postponements of two home matches in recent weeks. The loss of the Boxing Day match against Grimsby, who would have expected to bring a travelling crowd of between 1,000 and 2,000, was compounded by the deferment of the FA Cup third-round tie against Forest Green Rovers on Sunday. That match also carries the incentive of a potential £67,500 in prize money and the promise of a possibly televised fourth-round tie against Premier League Wigan Athletic. Trembling also reportedly planned to use it as an opportunity to entertain potential investors in the club.
The recent turmoil at Meadow Lane notwithstanding, Sven-Goran Eriksson, the director of football, remains involved. But despite his ongoing commitment he has conveyed for the first time his feeling that he has been "let down" by the club's former owner, Qadbak. That British Virgin Islands-registered company pledged millions of pounds in transfer funds to Eriksson when it used Russell King, the businessman who is under investigation for his alleged involvement in a multimillion-pound fraud in Jersey, to recruit him.
Speaking on the BBC's Sportsweek, Eriksson expressed in bullish terms his belief that the club's fortunes will rise again. "The project to get Notts County in to the Premier League in five years is on hold unfortunately for the moment because things went bad," he said.
"But hopefully in just a couple of weeks it will take off again. That's what we are hoping and that's what we are working very, very hard for. I still believe it's possible. What is needed is funding. It's money. It's very easy if you want to reach the Premier League from the position we are in you need money of course.
"When I signed we saw and we believed that everything which was said was true but obviously it wasn't. Of course I feel let down. But you can't talk so much about it you have to find other people, and real people.
"It's been too many bad things about Notts County during these six months but hopefully in a couple of weeks' time things will change."
Precisely how that will change is unknown but the Magpies are reported to have received a six-figure sponsorship commitment from Ludo, a Norwegian mobile telecoms firm, in December.Eriksson is believed to have been instrumental in those sponsorship negotiations, having visited the company's founder, Idar Vollvik, at his home in Marbella last month.
When asked why he is still involved, Eriksson said: "Because of the challenge to take a team from 19th place in League Two up to the Premier League, that is the biggest thing you can do in football, if we can do it. Because of the challenge, it is very easy [to stay]."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/04/notts-county