Exiled Bull is in full agreement with Mike Langford– Liquidation is the Only Way
For too long now, we’ve bailed out HMS Hereford United. Over and again, we’ve responded to fund raising appeal after appeal. Buy shares. Buy a piece of grass. Join our Lotto. Bring a friend. Bring another friend. Come to our show. Buy 50-50 tickets. Make a donation and so on. Gimme gimme gimme. The wallet assault appears never-ending.
At what point, Emperor-clothes like, that we realise that the club is sinking rapidly and is beyond our help. I’m grateful to Mike Langford for pointing out the bare truth. The warning light has been winking for months but we collectively just don’t want to face it.
Just suppose by some stretch of the imagination, £78,000 is raised in the next two weeks to pay off HMRC. It will only buy a little more time, a very temporary postponement for what appears to be inevitable end to me. HUFC is a colander. There are just too many holes to plug. The debts are mounting. Every week, those gallant few turning out on the pitch are owed more and more. So too are the over-stressed, horribly underpaid backroom staff. Mike is so right. There is no help out there. Why would anyone want to buy Hereford United in its current state with debts rising all the time and no prospects of making profits?
Any canny group would wait for the club to slide into administration and then pick it up very cheaply, possibly through a pre-pack route. The debts would be somebody else’s problem.
In his highly erudite article, Mike Langford does touch on administration and its attendant horror. One point which I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere is administrators’ fees. They do not come cheap, expecting between £200 and £400 per hour for their intervention. When Port Vale went through the process, they ended up with a £500,000 bill from the administrators. The Pompey saga led to an even higher charge - £1 million. This ridiculous sum almost finished the club completely and only tough negotiating with the threat of a breakaway club reduced the amount.
Liquidation is a better route to maintain a senior football club in Hereford. Undoubtedly we’ll have to start from a very low level (possibly the West Midlands League) and build slowly from there. It will require a lot of work from dedicated people to make it happen. Yet the potential for a real community club which is a pleasure to visit is immense. Think Chester FC, think FC United, think AFC Wimbledon. There is a buzz about these places, a sense of pride and satisfaction. After 3 successive play-off Final failures, FC United remain in the Northern Premier Division but every game feels an occasion. Let us remember, this is a well-trodden path used by Nuneaton, Hednesford, Aldershot, Exeter, Leamington and many others. Community-owned and Social Enterprises in general are a huge growth area.
The only major concern I have is our remaining players and the remaining off-field staff, who under liquidation, will basically get nothing. That is wrong and the worst kind of hypocrisy. Right now, just like the band on the Titanic, they’re currently sacrificing themselves to maintain a kind of normality for everyone else.
I believe there should be some kind of hardship fund to bail out these guys. This worrying sore apart, a new club for me is the only way forward.