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10 Sep 2013 12:58Mr Ainsworth call on administrator 'to explain why he sold the company without first establishing what its assets were'
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MP Bob Ainsworth
A Telegraph probe in which Coventry City chief executive Tim Fisher belatedly admitted players were registered in the company in administration has been raised in Parliament.
Coventry North east Labour MP Bob Ainsworth’s latest Commons motion concerning the Sky Blues crisis seizes on club chief executive Tim Fisher’s comments last week following the leaking to us of internal club documents.
The documents - letters from other clubs relating to transfers of players in and out of the club - appear to provide more evidence that between 2006 and 2010 players had been registered in Coventry City Football Club Limited - not CCFC Holdings as the club has repeatedly insisted.
Under Telegraph questioning, Mr Fisher accepted: “In these instances, the documentation clearly shows Limited as the registering company.”
He had added: “Historically the administrative side of the business was a complete mess. We found documentation to be contradictory in some instances, and often error strewn in others.”
It raised further questions over the administration which resulted in a sale of relatively minor assets to former club owner Sisu’s company, Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, minus the players - which administrator Paul Appleton believed were registered in Holdings.
Last month, the Telegraph revealed the Football League had admitted errors and “administrative oversights” in registering players to CCFC Holdings. Crucially, the League would not say whether they related to some or all of the players, or over what timescale.
But the League accepted the players should have been registered in CCFC Limited, as this was the company holding the League’s “golden share”, and therefore constituting “the club”.
Mr Ainsworth’s motion states: “That this House notes that at the time when Coventry City Football Club Ltd went into administration on 21 March 2013, the club’s owners claimed on the club’s website that Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Limited is the club and that Coventry City Football Club Ltd, now in administration, was merely a property subsidiary which owns no material assets and has no employees on or off the pitch.
“Further notes that in response to evidence that some players were registered with CCFC Ltd, Mr Tim Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, told the Coventry Telegraph there had been errors and that, in these instances, the documentation clearly shows Limited as the registering company.
“Further notes that since then the intangible assets register, signed off by Mr Fisher on 19 June 2012, has come to light, and shows that 23 named players at a closing value of £5,507,953.63 were registered as assets of the limited company as at 31 May 2011.
“Further notes that this information flies in the face of what has been claimed repeatedly by Mr Fisher and that this information has been passed to the Football League, the Football Association, HM Revenue and Customs and the joint administrator who has been asked whether he accepts that these assets were held by the limited company at that date; and calls on Mr Fisher to say, in light of the above, why he has made the claims he has, and on Mr Paul Appleton, the joint administrator, to explain why he sold the company without first establishing what its assets were.”
Mr Appleton has repeatedly said his ongoing investigation includes examining evidence about the location of assets including players between companies. His findings will go to the government’s Business Innovation and Skills department (BIS) next Thursday - before he is expected to complete CCFC Ltd’s liquidation within ten days.
Liquidation has been expected since August 2 when part council-owned Ricoh firm Arena Coventry Ltd refused to sign a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to bring the company out of administration - resulting in the Sky Blues losing ten Division One points.
HM Revenue and Customs also refused to sign the CVA. But the Telegraph understands HMRC - a creditor based on a small sum related to the Sisu group of companies - would not have had the power to block the CVA on its own.
ACL has publicly called on Mr Appleton to re-start the administration process, and for the Football Association to intervene.
Mr Appleton has also stated CCFC Holdings Ltd could have had a claim to “beneficial ownership” over assets located in Limited - and that such claims could be open to court challenge.
ACL is tightlipped over whether it might seek further costly court action - after its failed attempts via the courts and administration process to prevent Sisu companies continuing as club owners with the League’s crucial “golden share”.
Some experts on both sides believe it is unlikely.
Insolvency expert and Coventry City supporter Alan Limb, of BRI (Business Recovery and Insolvency), which has a Coventry office, said: “There’s nothing to stop ACL as a creditor from taking action in the court if they don’t think Paul Appleton has done a good job.
“Whether it would be successful would depend on the quality of the job he’s done. I’m sure he’s taken legal advice over every move, knowing this is a high profile administration, and knowing everything he does would be highly scrutinised and criticised.
“For any ACL action to succeed, they would need to show that someone else doing the job would have been able to achieve a better outcome for them as a creditor.
“From everything the administrator’s disclosed, I don’t really see how that could be the case.”
Mr Appleton declined to comment, other than to say his investigation continues.
The club’s directors also declined to comment this morning.
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A Telegraph probe in which Coventry City chief executive Tim Fisher belatedly admitted players were registered in the company in administration has been raised in Parliament.
Coventry North east Labour MP Bob Ainsworth’s latest Commons motion concerning the Sky Blues crisis seizes on club chief executive Tim Fisher’s comments last week following the leaking to us of internal club documents.
The documents - letters from other clubs relating to transfers of players in and out of the club - appear to provide more evidence that between 2006 and 2010 players had been registered in Coventry City Football Club Limited - not CCFC Holdings as the club has repeatedly insisted.
Under Telegraph questioning, Mr Fisher accepted: “In these instances, the documentation clearly shows Limited as the registering company.”
He had added: “Historically the administrative side of the business was a complete mess. We found documentation to be contradictory in some instances, and often error strewn in others.”
It raised further questions over the administration which resulted in a sale of relatively minor assets to former club owner Sisu’s company, Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, minus the players - which administrator Paul Appleton believed were registered in Holdings.
Last month, the Telegraph revealed the Football League had admitted errors and “administrative oversights” in registering players to CCFC Holdings. Crucially, the League would not say whether they related to some or all of the players, or over what timescale.
But the League accepted the players should have been registered in CCFC Limited, as this was the company holding the League’s “golden share”, and therefore constituting “the club”.
Mr Ainsworth’s motion states: “That this House notes that at the time when Coventry City Football Club Ltd went into administration on 21 March 2013, the club’s owners claimed on the club’s website that Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Limited is the club and that Coventry City Football Club Ltd, now in administration, was merely a property subsidiary which owns no material assets and has no employees on or off the pitch.
“Further notes that in response to evidence that some players were registered with CCFC Ltd, Mr Tim Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, told the Coventry Telegraph there had been errors and that, in these instances, the documentation clearly shows Limited as the registering company.
“Further notes that since then the intangible assets register, signed off by Mr Fisher on 19 June 2012, has come to light, and shows that 23 named players at a closing value of £5,507,953.63 were registered as assets of the limited company as at 31 May 2011.
“Further notes that this information flies in the face of what has been claimed repeatedly by Mr Fisher and that this information has been passed to the Football League, the Football Association, HM Revenue and Customs and the joint administrator who has been asked whether he accepts that these assets were held by the limited company at that date; and calls on Mr Fisher to say, in light of the above, why he has made the claims he has, and on Mr Paul Appleton, the joint administrator, to explain why he sold the company without first establishing what its assets were.”
Mr Appleton has repeatedly said his ongoing investigation includes examining evidence about the location of assets including players between companies. His findings will go to the government’s Business Innovation and Skills department (BIS) next Thursday - before he is expected to complete CCFC Ltd’s liquidation within ten days.
Liquidation has been expected since August 2 when part council-owned Ricoh firm Arena Coventry Ltd refused to sign a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to bring the company out of administration - resulting in the Sky Blues losing ten Division One points.
HM Revenue and Customs also refused to sign the CVA. But the Telegraph understands HMRC - a creditor based on a small sum related to the Sisu group of companies - would not have had the power to block the CVA on its own.
ACL has publicly called on Mr Appleton to re-start the administration process, and for the Football Association to intervene.
Mr Appleton has also stated CCFC Holdings Ltd could have had a claim to “beneficial ownership” over assets located in Limited - and that such claims could be open to court challenge.
ACL is tightlipped over whether it might seek further costly court action - after its failed attempts via the courts and administration process to prevent Sisu companies continuing as club owners with the League’s crucial “golden share”.
Some experts on both sides believe it is unlikely.
Insolvency expert and Coventry City supporter Alan Limb, of BRI (Business Recovery and Insolvency), which has a Coventry office, said: “There’s nothing to stop ACL as a creditor from taking action in the court if they don’t think Paul Appleton has done a good job.
“Whether it would be successful would depend on the quality of the job he’s done. I’m sure he’s taken legal advice over every move, knowing this is a high profile administration, and knowing everything he does would be highly scrutinised and criticised.
“For any ACL action to succeed, they would need to show that someone else doing the job would have been able to achieve a better outcome for them as a creditor.
“From everything the administrator’s disclosed, I don’t really see how that could be the case.”
Mr Appleton declined to comment, other than to say his investigation continues.
The club’s directors also declined to comment this morning.
