Post by paula_m on Sept 4, 2009 2:09:34 GMT
Accrington club statement!!!!!!
If you need a reason to go on the 11th then read the paragraph in BOLD. Remember how we felt, we are football fans united and our fellow fans need our help.
This morning Chairman David O'Neill, Vice Chairman Peter Marsden and myself travelled down to the High Court in London to seek a further adjournment of the winding up order brought by HM Revenue and Customs.
Just over twelve weeks ago HMRC agreed not to oppose an initial request for an adjournment after the football club submitted details proposals to repay the petition debt of £300,000 over a twelve month period. However in recent weeks it became clear that HMRC were going to seek a much shorter period of repayment ahead of the second hearing scheduled for today, and although negotiations continued until late last night it was not possible to avoid having to travel down to the court this morning.
Knowing that there was a good chance that HMRC were not going to accept an application for an adjournment the club and our legal team had put together what we were confident was a strong case that would convince the judge to allow us a little more time in order to reorganise our plans to be able to work towards paying the debt in full within a much tighter time period. Although we initially set out to aim for an additional four weeks to show that we could set about raising funds to significantly reduce the debt, we have in fact been granted an eight week adjournment.
With our original twelve month plan we had sought to repay the money owed from the club’s annual turnover, by significantly reducing costs in some areas and increasing revenue streams in others. Because of this it would not have been necessary to go out and fundraise specifically for this cause.
Now with our much shorter deadline the club is appealing for help from all interested parties who share our desire to keep the club moving forward. Over the next few days and weeks we will be announcing a number of initiatives to bring in funds to be specifically used to clear this debt, some of which will bring in relatively small amounts, some hundreds of pounds, some thousands of pounds and some tens of thousands of pounds.
We are aware that there is some disappointment amongst supporters that this court appearance was not made public sooner, particularly as going forward we have stated that we are very keen to be as open and transparent as is possible. The decision not to make the news public was made for two reasons, both with the specific intention of keeping control of the situation at a very difficult time. Firstly the news that the club was to make an appearance in the High Court to defend a winding up order would have had a massive effect on the day to day trading of the football club, and secondly the local, national and indeed international media attention that such a story would have attracted would have had a significant impact on our ability to concentrate on our negotiations with HMRC and on working on our defence with our legal team.
The club was in receipt of an offer of support from the Accrington Stanley Supporters Fund, backed by Ilyas Khan, offering to repay the entire debt but only on the condition of a new share issue that would see the fund take a 50% stake in the club, and subject to the usual due diligence procedures. The club have not dismissed this offer out of hand, indeed it may still transpire as an option for Accrington Stanley in the future. However the current owner David O’Neill has now been in control of the club for the last five or six weeks, and already I am sure that anyone who has had any dealings with the Accrington Stanley in this time will have noticed a change to the way that the club is run and managed. David put a significant sum into the club last summer to in effect keep the club running, and has done so again this summer. I would suggest that it is only fair that David, along with the other major stakeholders and the current management team at the club is allowed to continue to the good work that has been done so far, and to build on this as we look to the future.
We now openly appeal to all who support the club, all who name us as their second team, all who simply look for our result or indeed anyone who simply has a genuine interest in football and would like to see one of the sport’s most famous names continue to progress, to get behind Accrington Stanley and help us to resolve this issue once and for all.
Far from being a story of doom and gloom, I firmly believe that the shorter deadline that we are now working towards will ultimately prove beneficial to the club. Rather than hanging over us for the entire twelve months, a successful fundraising campaign will satisfy the revenue in a much shorter period and enable us to use the £18,000 that we set aside in our budgets to meet the regular monthly payment, together with several larger lump sum payments, to instead continue to strengthen our squad and to develop our ground.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. We are Stanley.
Remember every penny counts!!!!!!
Originally Posted on OS mb
This is from Alan Knill's programme notes on Saturday
'Recent news from Accrington has not been good and I’ve been told about an event that happened a few years ago when Bury FC were in administration. Accrington laid on a benefit game for the club, and although the money raised from the night wasn’t the greatest, the fact that Accrington helped us has not been forgotten here at Gigg Lane.
Now in their hour of need, we can do something to return the gesture that Accrington made to us. They play Darlington on Friday 11 September (7:45pm Kick Off). I know that many Bury supporters are planning to attend this game and I would urge as many Bury supporters as possible to get yourselves to that game to show our support and our thanks for the gesture that was made to us in bad times. It may be a small gesture but I am sure that we can help them out by attending their game in as many numbers as possible to help repay the gesture they showed to us.'
Join the Facebook group
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=265364155404
If you need a reason to go on the 11th then read the paragraph in BOLD. Remember how we felt, we are football fans united and our fellow fans need our help.
This morning Chairman David O'Neill, Vice Chairman Peter Marsden and myself travelled down to the High Court in London to seek a further adjournment of the winding up order brought by HM Revenue and Customs.
Just over twelve weeks ago HMRC agreed not to oppose an initial request for an adjournment after the football club submitted details proposals to repay the petition debt of £300,000 over a twelve month period. However in recent weeks it became clear that HMRC were going to seek a much shorter period of repayment ahead of the second hearing scheduled for today, and although negotiations continued until late last night it was not possible to avoid having to travel down to the court this morning.
Knowing that there was a good chance that HMRC were not going to accept an application for an adjournment the club and our legal team had put together what we were confident was a strong case that would convince the judge to allow us a little more time in order to reorganise our plans to be able to work towards paying the debt in full within a much tighter time period. Although we initially set out to aim for an additional four weeks to show that we could set about raising funds to significantly reduce the debt, we have in fact been granted an eight week adjournment.
With our original twelve month plan we had sought to repay the money owed from the club’s annual turnover, by significantly reducing costs in some areas and increasing revenue streams in others. Because of this it would not have been necessary to go out and fundraise specifically for this cause.
Now with our much shorter deadline the club is appealing for help from all interested parties who share our desire to keep the club moving forward. Over the next few days and weeks we will be announcing a number of initiatives to bring in funds to be specifically used to clear this debt, some of which will bring in relatively small amounts, some hundreds of pounds, some thousands of pounds and some tens of thousands of pounds.
We are aware that there is some disappointment amongst supporters that this court appearance was not made public sooner, particularly as going forward we have stated that we are very keen to be as open and transparent as is possible. The decision not to make the news public was made for two reasons, both with the specific intention of keeping control of the situation at a very difficult time. Firstly the news that the club was to make an appearance in the High Court to defend a winding up order would have had a massive effect on the day to day trading of the football club, and secondly the local, national and indeed international media attention that such a story would have attracted would have had a significant impact on our ability to concentrate on our negotiations with HMRC and on working on our defence with our legal team.
The club was in receipt of an offer of support from the Accrington Stanley Supporters Fund, backed by Ilyas Khan, offering to repay the entire debt but only on the condition of a new share issue that would see the fund take a 50% stake in the club, and subject to the usual due diligence procedures. The club have not dismissed this offer out of hand, indeed it may still transpire as an option for Accrington Stanley in the future. However the current owner David O’Neill has now been in control of the club for the last five or six weeks, and already I am sure that anyone who has had any dealings with the Accrington Stanley in this time will have noticed a change to the way that the club is run and managed. David put a significant sum into the club last summer to in effect keep the club running, and has done so again this summer. I would suggest that it is only fair that David, along with the other major stakeholders and the current management team at the club is allowed to continue to the good work that has been done so far, and to build on this as we look to the future.
We now openly appeal to all who support the club, all who name us as their second team, all who simply look for our result or indeed anyone who simply has a genuine interest in football and would like to see one of the sport’s most famous names continue to progress, to get behind Accrington Stanley and help us to resolve this issue once and for all.
Far from being a story of doom and gloom, I firmly believe that the shorter deadline that we are now working towards will ultimately prove beneficial to the club. Rather than hanging over us for the entire twelve months, a successful fundraising campaign will satisfy the revenue in a much shorter period and enable us to use the £18,000 that we set aside in our budgets to meet the regular monthly payment, together with several larger lump sum payments, to instead continue to strengthen our squad and to develop our ground.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. We are Stanley.
Remember every penny counts!!!!!!
Originally Posted on OS mb
This is from Alan Knill's programme notes on Saturday
'Recent news from Accrington has not been good and I’ve been told about an event that happened a few years ago when Bury FC were in administration. Accrington laid on a benefit game for the club, and although the money raised from the night wasn’t the greatest, the fact that Accrington helped us has not been forgotten here at Gigg Lane.
Now in their hour of need, we can do something to return the gesture that Accrington made to us. They play Darlington on Friday 11 September (7:45pm Kick Off). I know that many Bury supporters are planning to attend this game and I would urge as many Bury supporters as possible to get yourselves to that game to show our support and our thanks for the gesture that was made to us in bad times. It may be a small gesture but I am sure that we can help them out by attending their game in as many numbers as possible to help repay the gesture they showed to us.'
Join the Facebook group
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=265364155404
