UK Edition
Bolton Wanderers given two weeks to pay unpaid tax bill following threat of liquidation
The beleaguered Championship club were granted an adjournment until Apr 3 over an unpaid tax bill at a High Court hearing in London on Wednesday.
Bolton had been issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue & Customs over a £1.2 million debt, which would have left them facing liquidation or administration and a 12-point deduction.
But after being informed that Bolton have a potential buyer who is willing to clear the club’s debts, Judge Clive Jones, sitting in the Insolvency and Companies Court in London, granted a 14-day adjournment to give the club time to complete a sale and settle their debts.
Bolton’s barrister Hilary Stonefrost, of South Square Chambers, told the court that the club’s prospective buyer “already owns a major stake in a high-level football club”.
Bolton had confirmed in a statement on Tuesday night that, while talks with one potential buyer – understood to be the Football Ventures (Whites) Consortium – had ended, the club remained in discussions “with other parties”. Ken Anderson, Bolton’s owner-chairman, now faces a race against time to secure a deal.
Yet if a proposed takeover falls through and Bolton were placed into administration, the 12-point deduction that administration carries under EFL rules would not come into force until next season as the cut off point for this season is March 28.
This was the sixth time in only 16 months that Bolton had successfully defended a winding-up petition for unpaid tax and VAT. Three years ago, they won a stay of execution in the High Court that enabled former Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth’s Sports Shield consortium and Anderson’s Inner Circle Investments to complete an eleventh hour takeover of the club. Anderson then took majority control in 2017 following an acrimonious fall-out with Holdsworth.
Bolton – currently eight points adrift of safety in the Championship with just eight matches of the season left – were two weeks’ late playing February’s wage bill for players and coaching staff, which was understood to be around £600,000 before tax. March’s wages are due at the end of this month.
As well as substantial seven figure debts to the trustees of former owner Eddie Davies and local businessmen Brett Warburton and Michael James, Bolton still have several loan fee payments for players to make.
Forest Green Rovers, the League Two club, have also initiated legal proceedings against Bolton in relation to the collapse of striker Christian Doidge’s proposed move to the Championship side in January and the football agency, Stellar Group, are pursuing Bolton for unpaid agent and advisory fees they say they are owed.
Anderson has become a deeply unpopular figure among Bolton fans and the Monaco resident found himself under attack from Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner, on Wednesday.
“Looking at the size of the [prospective takeover] deal, I’m perplexed at how a £25 million deal isn’t getting done,” Jordan said. “Bolton must be in a position where the bulk of their restructuring has been done and I can only assume Ken wants to be able to achieve the maximum return for Ken at the same time as Bolton.
“I earned that right at Crystal Palace and put £30 million to 40 million of my money in. I doubt Ken has, and shouldn’t have to, but you do have a responsibility when you take on a football club. You become a custodian – especially one like Bolton which is having to be rebuilt. Otherwise you have no business being involved in football.
“The obligations you have is the business of football. If you own a club you have to go into your pocket and you have to do better than Ken has done.
“Like most things, when the wheels come off at a football club, the dip can be quite significant – see Leeds United, so on and so forth, who fall into the mire.
“It comes alongside people who don’t want to invest any money because they have done enough and then there are people who acquire a club who don’t have their best interest in mind. I, unfortunately, would put the current incumbent/owner of Bolton in that category.”