OFFICIAL CLUB SOLD TO FV!!!!!

Are we ever going to see an end to our issues? I'm seriously worried we will have a club to support in the near future.

Just been reading up on Maidstone who were liquidated as an old Div 4 club in August 1992

They had 2 players on their books  going into the season and had to cancel their opening league match at Scunthorpe on 17 Aug.After the match was cancelled they were given 2 days to guarantee that they could fulfil their fixtures.They couldn't do so and were liquidated on 19 August two days after the league season started.

A new club in Maidstone  was formed that started life a year later in the Kent County League 4th Division, they are now in the Southern Premier Division which is the southern version of the league York and Southport are in

Well that cheered me right up Growler, thanks for that 

Just read the reason FV want a loan from the PFA is because the players want all their owed money paid in full. FV were hoping to stagger the cost which the players must have got wind of and is probably why they have gone on strike again.

Latest -

Understand that Football Ventures won't be getting a loan from the PFA but are still pressing ahead with the bid. I suppose that means they have restructured their own plan, or found an alternate way? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I am now totally convinced that even if this deal goes thru that FV doesn't have a pot to piss in.  Therefore we are once again being sold to people with minimal finances. So where does that leave us in a couple of years......will have to be turned over again IMO.
Has there been any statements from anybody who are supposedly our new leaders....from FV regarding football matters?  All I read is from the Adminstrators. It would be nice to hear something from them even if it's all BS.....would be better than nowt.

terenceanne wrote:I am now totally convinced that even if this deal goes thru that FV doesn't have a pot to piss in.  Therefore we are once again being sold to people with minimal finances. So where does that leave us in a couple of years......will have to be turned over again IMO.
Has there been any statements from anybody who are supposedly our new leaders....from FV regarding football matters?  All I read is from the Adminstrators. It would be nice to hear something from them even if it's all BS.....would be better than nowt.

I assume they can't say anything until they actually do the deal because they must be under Non-Disclosure Agreements

terenceanne wrote:I am now totally convinced that even if this deal goes thru that FV doesn't have a pot to piss in. 

Better to have a skint club than no club at all.

They don't have the money.

And this was the best option? Questions must be asked about the administrators now.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:They don't have the money.

And this was the best option? Questions must be asked about the administrators now.

Administrator said there were no other bids that met the criteria they'd set.

Hobson's choice apparently.

One group that is being paid......the administrators.......no need to see the books on that one.

None of us knows what might happen in the next few weeks but as it stands today we cannot start the season because we can't fulfil league requirements to play all the games. Therefore on that basis alone we must be liquidated. All other arguments about who owns the hotel and who is on the board or management are irrelevant.

Sluffy wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:They don't have the money.

And this was the best option? Questions must be asked about the administrators now.

Administrator said there were no other bids that met the criteria they'd set.

Hobson's choice apparently.

How can it have met the criteria when they are requiring loans from the FA to make it work. Genuine question. Surely the administrators must have questioned that, or not known.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:They don't have the money.

And this was the best option? Questions must be asked about the administrators now.

Administrator said there were no other bids that met the criteria they'd set.

Hobson's choice apparently.

How can it have met the criteria when they are requiring loans from the FA to make it work. Genuine question. Surely the administrators must have questioned that, or not known.

The most plausible scenario I've heard is this from Benny on wways.

"My hunch is that FV have lined up a sale of the football stadium at £12 - £15 million with an institutional investor and that capital sum will be released on completion. That cash will be critical to FV - it will represent 50- 60% of the £25 million they will have proven as available funding to the administrator.

They have probably lined up a tenant for the hotel already and agreed with the stadium buyers a long term rent the football club will pay - on the face of it everyone is happy . .

But then the hotel administrator puts a spanner in the works because he gets indications that higher offers for the hotel are out there - more than FV want to pay, which leaves everything up in the air because the institutional investor will rightly only do a deal on the entire stadium and not just part of it , so without the hotel FV wont be able to fund the club [purchase]".

Hence why they need some deferment from creditors or bridging loans until the hotel can be bought.

The players have refused to defer.

terenceanne wrote:One group that is being paid......the administrators.......no need to see the books on that one.

None of us knows what might happen in the next few weeks but as it stands today we cannot start the season because we can't fulfil league requirements to play all the games. Therefore on that basis alone we must be liquidated. All other arguments about who owns the hotel and who is on the board or management are irrelevant.

And we're so special that 2 sets of administrators are needed.The hotel ones have been here since May but still need another 4- 6 weeks apparantly.I wonder if Ken told them to delay things because some fans booed him for not paying the bills.

My guess is that we will be liquidated the Monday or Tuesday after Wycombe if a philanthropist hasn't appeared by then to pay the backdated players wages and fund this season's wages.It seems that FV can't afford the football club.FV asking the players to accept having their unpaid wages deferred for more months is garbage.

Growler wrote:

terenceanne wrote:One group that is being paid......the administrators.......no need to see the books on that one.

None of us knows what might happen in the next few weeks but as it stands today we cannot start the season because we can't fulfil league requirements to play all the games. Therefore on that basis alone we must be liquidated. All other arguments about who owns the hotel and who is on the board or management are irrelevant.

And we're so special that 2 sets of administrators are needed.The hotel ones have been here since May but still need another 4- 6 weeks apparantly.I wonder if Ken told them to delay things because some fans booed him for not paying the bills.

My guess is that we will be liquidated the Monday or Tuesday after Wycombe if a philanthropist hasn't appeared by then to pay the backdated players wages and fund this season's wages.It seems that FV can't afford the football club.FV asking the players to accept having their unpaid wages deferred for more months is garbage.

Can't see us being allowed to start the season unless someone can give the EFL proof that we can financially finish it.

We have two separate Administrators because there are different secured creditors on the club and hotel - so one auditor can not do it because of the potential conflicts of interests they may be accused of.

It's just how it is.

What is the point of having owners who can't afford to run a club properly.

These people can't afford to complete this deal and should not be allowed too.

Hotel Administrator's report filed at Companies House -

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What have we learned today - Hotel Administrators Report

Loads of stuff in here  so let's start out with a crowd pleaser first then

- Ken's not been cooperating with the Administrator - Appendix 1, para 6.1, page 8.  Boo, hiss!

- Now that's got rid of 90% of the haters, we can settle down and go through this dispassionately and note that indeed PBP/(Michael James) are indeed the First Charge holder (Iles 0, Sluffy 1) and Ken in second place, with no others shown as secured.

- Kens charged as I had previously stated was splattered across Burnden Leisure and everything else under their umbrella (surprising what knowledge you can apparently pick up from Google and CH isn't it Tom?), and as such what he gets from the clubs administrator will be offset against his claim against the hotel.

-  The Administrator has estimated that after the sale there would be some monies left to pay 15p in the £ to them (well 15.33p actually).

- This then would show an estimated sale to bring in around £9.5m being James £5.5m, Ken £3.5m (£5m less £1.5m the club Administrator and assuming the other alleged £2.5m he claims as part of his £7.5m charge is not accepted by these Admins in the same way they hadn't with the clubs Admin) and around £350k as 15.33% of the unsecured creditors who total £2.4m) - in which case James would be the major creditor unless nearly all the unsecured creditors (with their gross claims - not the 15p in the £ settlement amount) would have to vote with Ken to have majority say and seeing that the single largest unsecured creditor is BWFC itself for £1.2m and that's now under the clubs Admins control then it is hard to see that happening.  The Town Hall is next highest with £675k owing to them (us if you pay your Council Tax to Bolton Council)

- The Administrator specifically makes this crucial point - "...the company [the Hotel] is inextricably linked to the football club, the sale of the hotel is highly contingent on the sale of the football club" - App 1, 5.5, page 7.  

- The Administrator states that there is a hierarchy of what is job is about, the first being to save the business, the second to do the best for the creditors (App 1, 4.1/4.2, p 6.) and seems to say that equates to seeing if he could achieve a CVA first and foremost, if not the a sale comes next.  I can only speculate with the clear delay in attempting to market and sell the hotel whose future (and value) is "inextricably linked" to the fate of the club, that the hotel Admin has tried to go down the CVA road first, failed, and now is playing catch up on a sale?  Otherwise his actions of not marketing and seeking a buyer much sooner could be majorly prejudicial to the creditors he represents if the value of the hotel to potential purchasers plummet if the club fails to find a buyer (because of the hotel not being in a position to be sold) and has to be liquidated because of it?  Anyway, it is how it is and we move on.  It is though worth noting that point 1.3 in the Executive Summary (page 3) that they state they believed a CVA was achievable!

- It's worth noting also that the Hotel is currently trading but not profitable enough to pay its outstanding creditors (App 1, 4.3, p6), so in no way - and totally contrary to Nixon's public assertions (and I believe Iles more restrained ones) could the hotel fund the football club and keep it solvent from its own trading position.

- Finally there's a great deal about the Administrators charges that to be honest I'm not particularly interested in - they are what they are - but it seems from the Executive Summary that he states his fee to be somewhere in excess of £525k (Expenses table, 1.4, page3)  The table also shows an anticipated trading loss of £250k, which I presume(?) would be for the hotel during the period of Administration (I'm not absolutely sure though).


Hope this helps a bit in understanding some of the stuff the report is saying.

I don't see how  it is possible for the club to start the first match of the season.

So it's looking as though the party is over.

I can't  believe that it has finally come to this.

We're looking for a miracle.

Nixon saying FV have a new financial ally on board.