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Do not know if anybody has seen this or if it has been posted before :thinking about:
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Tag Archives: Paul Appleton
Coventry City FC’s administrator’s contradictory position on players’ contracts
28 June 2013 9:56 am / 11 Comments
In yesterday’s statement about the sale of assets from Coventry City Football Club Ltd to Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, the administrator Paul Appleton said: “as I’ve stated on many occasions, it is Holdings which employs the players…”
This statement is in line with previous public comments made by both him and by Tim Fisher, a director of Coventry City Football Club Ltd, its owner Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd and its owner, the proposed purchaser, Otium Entertainment Group Ltd.
This is the reason that Mr Appleton gives for the joint administrators not running the football club during the administration: that the football club is Holdings rather than Limited.
In my post yesterday I spoke about this bizarre set-up of two seemingly interchangeable and interoperable companies running a football club; and I did so, on the basis of the statements made by Mr Appleton and Mr Fisher.
But I did so knowing that something wasn’t right with the statement and I wanted more time to consider the implications.
The difficulty with the statement is that the players aren’t registered to Holdings, as Mr Fisher and Mr Appleton have said; but to Limited.
What’s my source for this?
My source is Mr Appleton and Mr Fisher themselves.
In his report to the creditors, Mr Appleton includes an appendix listing the director’s estimates of Coventry City Football Club Ltd’s assets as of the 21st March 2013 – that’s Mr Fisher’s estimates.
Appendix 4 of Mr Appleton’s report clearly shows that Mr Fisher believes that the company in administration owns players’ registrations as an asset with a book value of £466,742; and an “uncertain” release value.
The players’ registrations can’t be an asset of Ltd if the contracts are held by Holdings.
The Footy Law Blog is a vehicle for legal analysis rather than personal opinion; and I do not want people to assume that I am accusing or implying that Mr Fisher and Mr Appleton are lying. What I am saying is that they have made seemingly contradictory statements.
As I considered how to approach this self-contradictory position, a story appeared in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, reporting a similar claim from a different source.
Arena Coventry Ltd, owners and operators of the Ricoh Arena, told the paper that: “CCFC (Holdings) Ltd did not employ the Sky Blues players as per the most recent set of accounts filed for the business reporting upon the financial year ending 31 May 2011, signed off by BDO as an independent auditor on 20 June 2012.
“On the basis of this publicly available information, Mr Appleton’s statement today is not entirely factually accurate.”
We don’t know the current position, because neither Coventry City Football Club Ltd or Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd have filed their 2012 accounts with Companies House; and it could be that the players’ registrations are amongst the assets sold by the administrator yesterday to Otium Entertainment Group Ltd.
If they are, then the administrator has definitely has jumped the gun because until the Football League agrees to transfer its share to Otium, the proposed new owner has no right to compete in the Football League or its associated competitions.
http://footylaw.wordpress.com/tag/paul-appleton/
Tag Archives: Paul Appleton
Coventry City FC’s administrator’s contradictory position on players’ contracts
28 June 2013 9:56 am / 11 Comments
In yesterday’s statement about the sale of assets from Coventry City Football Club Ltd to Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, the administrator Paul Appleton said: “as I’ve stated on many occasions, it is Holdings which employs the players…”
This statement is in line with previous public comments made by both him and by Tim Fisher, a director of Coventry City Football Club Ltd, its owner Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd and its owner, the proposed purchaser, Otium Entertainment Group Ltd.
This is the reason that Mr Appleton gives for the joint administrators not running the football club during the administration: that the football club is Holdings rather than Limited.
In my post yesterday I spoke about this bizarre set-up of two seemingly interchangeable and interoperable companies running a football club; and I did so, on the basis of the statements made by Mr Appleton and Mr Fisher.
But I did so knowing that something wasn’t right with the statement and I wanted more time to consider the implications.
The difficulty with the statement is that the players aren’t registered to Holdings, as Mr Fisher and Mr Appleton have said; but to Limited.
What’s my source for this?
My source is Mr Appleton and Mr Fisher themselves.
In his report to the creditors, Mr Appleton includes an appendix listing the director’s estimates of Coventry City Football Club Ltd’s assets as of the 21st March 2013 – that’s Mr Fisher’s estimates.
Appendix 4 of Mr Appleton’s report clearly shows that Mr Fisher believes that the company in administration owns players’ registrations as an asset with a book value of £466,742; and an “uncertain” release value.
The players’ registrations can’t be an asset of Ltd if the contracts are held by Holdings.
The Footy Law Blog is a vehicle for legal analysis rather than personal opinion; and I do not want people to assume that I am accusing or implying that Mr Fisher and Mr Appleton are lying. What I am saying is that they have made seemingly contradictory statements.
As I considered how to approach this self-contradictory position, a story appeared in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, reporting a similar claim from a different source.
Arena Coventry Ltd, owners and operators of the Ricoh Arena, told the paper that: “CCFC (Holdings) Ltd did not employ the Sky Blues players as per the most recent set of accounts filed for the business reporting upon the financial year ending 31 May 2011, signed off by BDO as an independent auditor on 20 June 2012.
“On the basis of this publicly available information, Mr Appleton’s statement today is not entirely factually accurate.”
We don’t know the current position, because neither Coventry City Football Club Ltd or Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd have filed their 2012 accounts with Companies House; and it could be that the players’ registrations are amongst the assets sold by the administrator yesterday to Otium Entertainment Group Ltd.
If they are, then the administrator has definitely has jumped the gun because until the Football League agrees to transfer its share to Otium, the proposed new owner has no right to compete in the Football League or its associated competitions.