HMRC Serve Petition Against Owls

HMRC have sparked a new row in their ongoing battle with football as they now try to make an example of arguably the largest club yet.

Four times English top flight champions, Sheffield Wednesday have had a winding up petition served against them regarding an outstanding tax bill of around half a million pounds, thought to be the PAYE bill for May.

The winding up petition reflects similar cases involving Portsmouth, Cardiff City and Chester City as HMRC continues to try and make an example of football clubs in general to support their appeal against the football creditors rule.

In this instance, the winding up petition has come much sooner than usual and may well have caused a problem as Wednesday fight to tackle summer cash flow problems.   Certain cases have seen debt build and build for months before the petition is finally submitted, it is thought Wednesday’s bill is from much more recently.

The recently relegated club released a statement saying, "We have been involved in dialogue with HMRC for a number of weeks. As such we have been somewhat surprised and disappointed by their decision to seek a winding-up order at this time,

"We understand that HMRC is taking a tougher line in general with football clubs, but feel their actions are disproportionate and will raise unnecessary speculation as to the financial position of the club.

"We can inform supporters that the club, working in partnership with the Co-operative Bank and their advisors, will seek to settle this matter as soon as is practical."

The Owls have struggled throughout the past decade since being relegated from the Premier League and currently owe the Co-operative bank around £26m along with outstanding debts to former chairman Dave Allen. 

The club have been trying to secure some form of investment over the course of the summer, however a deal with American company Club 9 Sports failed to materials amid worries over whether they had the funds in place that they stated.

Certain Owls fans are now hoping the impending winding up hearing will force potential investors to act more quickly as they bid to secure the long term future of the club.

The case will be heard at court on 11 August 2010.

Posted at 03:17PM Jul 23, 2010 by Marc Stenton in Insolvency  |  Comments[0]