Northampton Town have been issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs while, to add to their problems, they have been given a deadline of close of play on Thursday to pay back a £10.25m loan to the borough council.
The club’s chairman, David Cardoza, issued a statement, saying we “‘are aware that HMRC have published that they have issued legal proceedings against the club for monies outstanding.
“The HMRC debt is a temporary issue due to the delays in completing the takeover and during this interim period the club not receiving the investment that it needs to meet all of its commitments when they fall due.”
He said he had “put a proposal to HMRC late on Wednesday to head off these proceedings. This proposal was too late to prevent the proceedings being published, but the chairman fully expects the matter to be resolved by the end of next week.”
The League Two club had hoped to strike a takeover deal with an unnamed Indian consortium but that had collapsed on Monday over what were described as “insurmountable” complications.
The consortium said that “during the process of due diligence, which is integral to any business deal, it became apparent that there were a number of complications surrounding the proposed acquisition.
“Sadly, at a very late stage in the process we concluded that these problems were insurmountable and, with great reluctance, decided we had no option but to withdraw our offer for the club.”
The £10.25m debt due to the council is for money which, according to the BBC, “was given to the club for the redevelopment of Sixfields Stadium, and was to be used to build the new East Stand, along with a hotel and conference centre – none of which have been completed”.
A spokesman for the borough council told the Northampton Chronicle: “We can confirm that [yesterday] afternoon we met with people introduced to us by David Cardoza. We have not received any firm proposals and any that we do receive would have to be subject to proper due diligence and scrutiny.”
Cardoza said: “We are putting proposals to Northampton borough council regarding the repayment of the loan which we hope will prove satisfactory to them and that process is ongoing as we speak.
“I fully appreciate that, off the pitch, there only seems to be bad news for supporters at the moment but we are working towards, and we believe we are close to, a conclusion on all matters that tidies up all of the issues surrounding the club and allows it to move forward to a much brighter future.”
