Tom Davies examines the financial crises at Chester City and Southend United
It’s already been a season of high-profile financial crises and ownership murkiness, as recent developments at Portsmouth, Notts County and Leeds demonstrate. It’s no brighter further down the scale either. Chester City continue to dangle tortuously over the precipice, a threat of expulsion from the Conference delayed until November 16.
Tom Davies looks at the fortunes of three clubs struggling with finances
Suddenly, football ownership is all about selling, with predatory would-be owners outnumbered by chairmen seemingly desperate to offload – and not being able to. Portsmouth and West Ham’s travails have had the highest recent profile, while at Newcastle Mike Ashley’s decision to withdraw the club from sale has rekindled some of the fan anger of earlier in the season, sparking long-awaited stirrings of organised supporter activity.
Relegation to the Conference could spell the end for Mansfield or Wrexham largely thanks to their destructive chairmen
It has been a while since relegation to the Conference was tantamount to dropping into a black hole. In the past ten years, seven clubs have been promoted back into the League after falling out. That won’t be any consolation to fans of Mansfield Town and Wrexham, who remain stuck at the foot of League Two with games running out fast.
Tom Davies gives us our regular update on clubs in crisis
A huge debt to the Inland Revenue is hanging over the future of Grimsby Town, a now wearily familiar legacy of the ITV Digital collapse and some profligate spending in the late 1990s. The Mariners owe the taxman £700,000 and, as WSC went to press, the club were in final negotiations with the Revenue in a bid to find an acceptable repayment schedule. The League Two club have already had two such offers turned down this season, with Town chairman John Fenty complaining that the terms the IR were putting forward were unaffordable. Failure to reach agreement this time could land the club in administration.
Tom Davies reports on three of the Football League's troubled clubs
The fight to secure the future of Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground (reported in WSC 208) has acquired a new urgency over the summer. Elusive chairman Mark Guterman has left the club, leaving the abrasive Alex Hamilton in charge. Hamilton, now revealed as the real power behind Guterman from the start, wants to sell the ground (which could fetch up to £25 million) and move the club to an out-of-town site, claiming that the sale would be the only way to stave off the lingering threat of administration and clear debts of around £5m.