Minority interest!

Posted by: Mike Hughes on 28 October 2004

The club I support, Wrexham AFC, are likely to be liquidated on the 17th. November 2004. Scottish Power cut off the electricity today and Saturdays' game against Hull is now under threat. There is no consortium on the horizon etc. and so it would appear that the Football League is likely to drop down to 91 clubs.

The owner of the club has the club itself and the ground owned by two separate companies and thus the club has no assets as such and administration (plus the instant deduction of 10 pts.) is unlikely to be an option.

IMHO the owner (one Alex Hamilton) went public with debts and the fact we were trading insolvently in order to invite the Revenue in so he could liquidate the club and then sell the land and still make a profit. He then had the ex Chair (and ex- alleged owner) one Mark Guterman take him to court in what is seen by many as a bogus case. Guterman claimed Hamilton owed monies and Guterman got an injunction to prevent Hamilton selling the ground. Of course, this is irrelevant to liquidation but it did serve its purpose of prompting the Revenue to think that other creditors were about to get ahead of them and...

the end is nigh.

If I make melancholy posts over the next few months, this will explain why!

In the meantime, does anyone have a spare £16k to pay Scottish Power? £800k for the IR and between £2m and £5m for the rest?

Thought not! Frown

Day to day we are now breaking even but the historical debt will kill us.

Mike

www.red-passion.com for further information.
Posted on: 28 October 2004 by NB
Quote:-

In the meantime, does anyone have a spare £16k to pay Scottish Power? £800k for the IR and between £2m and £5m for the rest?
______________________________________________________________

I'll have a look in my back pocket for you Mike!

Its a bit of a shame the club has to go to fund the owners expensive lifestyle. Once again the average supporter loses out.



Regards


NB
Posted on: 28 October 2004 by Not For Me
My lawyer works for Alex Hamilton and served the notice to reposess the land.

He has had t change phone numbers and barracade himself in his office since this all went off!

DS

ITIR - Wire - Song 1

*** All the views expressed within this e-mail are the sole responsibility of DS, or the other person in his head ***
Posted on: 28 October 2004 by Mike Hughes
David,

I know who your lawyer is but I have little sympathy for them. Dodgy, devious client and the intent appears to have always been to liquidate the club. Looks like he's got his way.

Mike
Posted on: 29 October 2004 by Mike Hughes
The power is back on but the club bank account has been frozen. I had hoped that our little pieces of history were to be

a) the team that Bill Shankly once described as the best lower division team he had ever seen.

b) the team that beat Arsenal in '92 when they topped the league and we were 92nd.

It now appears we are to be the first that lowers the league to 91.

If anyone is in North Wales tomorrow an appearance at the Hull game would be much appreciated.

Mike
Posted on: 29 October 2004 by Paul Hutchings
Did anyone watch "Trouble at the top" last night about Luton Town FC?

Paul
Posted on: 31 October 2004 by Mike Hughes
Hi Paul,

I felt duty bound to watch it. You can substitute Hamilton for Gurney and Reames for their latterly enlightened financial chap. Problem is that Hamilton isn't so stupid as to use a company that a Supporters Truts can invest in. If you thought that programme was scary you should see what's happening with us.

Hamilton has now resigned from the Board but is "reconsidering". The Supporters Trust are aiming to put a proposal to the two remaining directors on Monday. Everything is crossed right now.

Mike

PS: My only consolation yesterday was a good performace against Hull and two cracking goals.
Posted on: 12 November 2004 by Nime
Bløødy football? Roll Eyes
No wonder the thread didn't get rated!

Nime
Posted on: 14 November 2004 by Mike Hughes
Nick,

Current situation is that the remaining two Directors have finally appreciated that if we get as far as Wednesday then we will be liquidated as administration is not going to be an option selected by the court. Who would buy a club that have £2m debts and no grounds?

Consequently, I understand that tomorrow (Monday) steps will be taken to place us into voluntary administration prior to Wednesday. This will also not achieve a sale but it will buy a small amount of time to challenge the alleged illegal transfer of the ground. The only people who can issue that challenge appear to be the shareholders/directors or an administrator. The latter seems unlikely to do so as they would be the last people in the world to speculate to accumulate but the former have had two years to deal with this problem so I'm afraid my resevoir of mindless, football fan type optimism has finally run dry. Think AFC Wimbledon!!!

Yours, profoundly distressed,

Mike