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[Alty TV]

Halifax Town drown in a sea of debt - full story

09 May 2008
By Dave Fletcher
HUGE tax debts have buried Halifax Town after almost 100 years as a football club.

Shock new figures put to a reconvened creditors meeting showed the cash-strapped Shaymen owed over £800,000 to the Inland Revenue.

The Revenue refused any deal and that effectively finished the club – already over £2 million in the red.

Administrators had been trying to broker a rescue package but speaking after five hours of talks that left liquidation near inevitable, administrator Rob Sadler said: "Halifax Town will probably perish."

It was originally thought the club – which narrowly clung on to its Blue Square Premier League status on the last day of the season last month – owed the taxman around £500,000. That was thought to leave scope for a deal.

But the news that it owed £814,000 meant that even if all the other creditors had accepted the 2.5p-in-the-pound offer originally on the table it would not have been enough.

Mr Sadler said it would have made no difference because creditors owed 75 per cent of the total debt needed to vote in favour of the offer.
As the club owed £2.1 million it meant the Revenue's share of the debt was too great.

"The cleanest way forward is to start from the bottom and build up debt free," he said. "If there is the appetite for it, that's up to the people of Calderdale."

There were no creditors at the meeting yesterday at the administrator Begbies Traynor offices in Leeds.

On Wednesday, creditors owed hundreds of thousands of pounds rejected the 2.5p proposal put by a consortium wanting to take control of the club. They had demanded at least 10p in the pound.

Mr Sadler said the club could only now exist as long as the consortium was prepared to throw money into it.

"There is no chance of the club playing Blue Square Premiership next season," he said.

"There is next to no chance of Blue Square North and a slim chance of Unibond League."

It is now only a matter of time before the club starts laying people off.

General manager Angie Firth walked away from the talks saying she was gutted.

Administrators had to agree a rescue deal by the end of yesterday to meet a deadline for acceptance into the Blue Square Premier League next season.

Under football rules, the offer to take the club out of adminstration would not be considered for 28 days – and the Football Conference annual meeting is on June 7 when next season's membership will be ratified.

Any new club formed in the wake of Town's demise might have to start five divisions lower under a new name in North Counties East Division One. That would put a new-look Halifax on the same level as Brighouse Town.

One creditor told the Courier yesterday he would not compromise.
Roy Barnett is owed nearly £200,000 and insisted he should receive 10p in the pound.

"I get £20,000 or I don't get anything. There is no room for negotiation."

His company, R M Barnett Ltd, of Huddersfield, was involved in building the half-finished East Stand at the Shay.