Iron Bru › Forums › Blast Furnace › So. Either DH Has Put Loadsa Money Into The Iron or He Has Not. › Reply To: So. Either DH Has Put Loadsa Money Into The Iron or He Has Not.
Especially as we had such a fine credit rating and a happy band of suppliers back in January when we had never heard of David Hilton.
Oh hang on a minute – didn’t we have a raft of unpaid suppliers and an imminent winding up order from HMRC. Oh and were we not already under a transfer embargo from the National League. Not to mention Sharp and Elliot having to pay December’s wage bill. Were we not also bottom of the league and hadn’t owned our ground for 2 years.
Hilton has certainly not solved all off the clubs problems and probably hasn’t got enough spare loose change in his pocket to do so. But neither did he create them. If only we’d had an interested bystander with a personal grudge against Peter Swann pitch up a couple of years ago.
Assuming that you’re not the type of person to rush into a debate without having the facts to hand, can you confirm for the good contributors of this forum:
1) With the exception of this latest batch of CCJs which have been registered against Scunthorpe United Football Club Ltd, how many CCJs have been registered against the company in the past 6 years?
2) What is the current credit rating for Scunthorpe United Football Club Ltd and what was it prior to this batch of CCJs being registered?
As for WUPs, it’s currently 1-1. However, Hilton’s already indicated that HMRC are in the process of applying for one, so for the hard of thinking, that will make two.
1. Nowhere did I suggest Swann had not paid bills for 6 years or indeed mention any period. It is difficult to be sure when Swann stopped funding the club as he stopped communicating with fans long before that happened but according to people close to the club at that time it was sometime from the start of last season but not later than December last year when he refused to cover the wage bill and tax bill. Those running the club on his behalf at that time confirmed this and also that SUFC did not have the funds to cover these outgoings. It is possible that this was just a ploy to convince potential buyers to pay his seemingly inflated valuation for the club. I don’t believe Swann commented publicly at that time so who knows? He must have convinced the Sharp/Elliott consortium at that time that he was prepared to let the club fold hence them stepping in to pay the December wage bill with a substantial gift/loan. The HMRC debt subsequently led to a winding up order that was cleared by Hilton. So that is one winding up order that evidence suggests Swann was not going to pay and one month’s wages that he was not going to pay. Either of these would have likely led to the closure of the club and resulted in sanctions from the National League. Indeed we were under a signing and new contract embargo so we’re unable to offer our leading scorer a contract to cover the remainder of the season. So outstanding debts at that time were well in excess of £300k. Hence my point regarding credit worthiness when Hilton arrived on the scene.
2. I am not aware of the clubs credit rating either in mid January or now and have no desire to find out. Personally I would not have supplied goods or services with credit terms to the club either in January or now. Compared to the overall debt Hilton inherited and the likely overall level of debt now then the value of the CCJ’s is relatively small beer. Not that I don’t have every sympathy with those owed money and am not supportive of any business unwilling to pay it’s debts.
Regarding the winding up petitions this is a football club that many people care deeply about not some childish game of who has the most CCJ’s or WUP’s.