Continuing BN's look back at the summer of 2014, local MP Jesse Norman spoke about the situation at Edgar Street.
Jesse Norman MP And The Situation At Hereford United
BN caught up with Hereford MP Jesse Norman earlier this evening just before the news of a likely CVA for Hereford United.
Firstly BN asked whether the MP had received a reply to his letter sent to HMRC. (http://bullsnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/mp-pushes-for-hmrc-action.html)
"I not sure I would expect one but if I do I'll see if I can make it public."
BN - Should Herefordshire Council be making more effort to get payment of the £65K the club owes?
"I certainly think they should be
pressing for the money because that is council tax payers money and if
you look at the situation with grass cutting etc that's money that could
be put to good use elsewhere in the country.
"We've seen promises to pay creditors before from Mr Agombar so it's not clear that has any real credibility.
"Instead of persuing him
directly, they could attach that debt to some of the proceedings that
are already going to be in front of the court next week."
BN - Do you believe the Council have the leases for the ground tightly drawn?
"I haven't read the leases but my
impression is the Council has done an initial legal review of the
leases and therefore has at least a preliminary understanding of its
powers under the leases.
"What the leases say is very important and also what could be plausibly asserted in a court of law to defend them."
BN - If the club goes into administration and/or liquidation do the leases return to the Council or is that only in liquidation?
"I don't know and that's a very
important question. If the club goes into liquidation then one would
expect the leases to revert to the Council.
"Administration is a work in
progress in which a company tries to reach an accommodation with its
creditors. I would be surprised if the leases change at that point. It
all depends what is written in the contract.
"Administration is important for
other reasons as it does potentially allow a more formal process by
which other bidders, parties of interest, can seek to look at the basis
of changing ownership"
BN - Could that involve a CVA?
"I think it could involve a CVA."
BN then asked about the current
directors of Hereford United. For a spell this week it was thought there
were no directors then a couple appeared out of the woodwork.
"My team noticed the club had two
new directors having not had any - it's not absolutely clear that there
was a point when they didn't have any. We need to clarify that with
Companies House.
"What is clear is that Mr Agombar
took himself off the directors register for the process of acceptance
into the Southern League and has now put himself back on.
"That itself is not a great cause for hope."
BN - Is it legal that maternity pay wasn't passed on to Leigh Renton, an employee of the club? (http://bullsnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/ex-employee-still-owed-money-by.html)
"It's absolutely terrible and the
idea that she would now become, or be treated as, one of the unsecured
creditors of the club and therefore potentially may not receive that
amount, or not the full amount, is a cause of enomous embarrassment to
the club and to the owners.
"The whole situation is a desperate one and she seems to have been one of the biggest victims."
BN - With the threat of
administration or liquidation what is worrying supporters is whether
Tommy Agombar and Co could 'buy' the club from the administrators and
buy it without so much debt in it.
"It's a fair concern.
"If anyone has got the best
interests of the club and football in Herefordshire at heart there is a
phenomenon called a 'pre-pack' whereby a club goes into administration
and use that process to pay their creditors at very low levels or not at
all.
"And then the assets of the club
are bought out of adminstation by a bidder and if that's in a 'pre-pack'
that may be bidder who was responsible in the first place and the
effect of that is they end up with pretty much what they had before but
without the having to pay the debt on it.
"That's a huge worry and I share that worry and I'm sure every other fan of Hereford United does as well.
"I'm not a legal expert but
administration is a semi-formal process, there are rules associated with
it and presumably it would be possible for other interested parties to
come to the administrators and say look you could get a better deal for
your creditors if you accepted our offer rather than let the club run as
it presently is funded by the owners in the way they are funding it.
"I think the Supporters Trust
backed by Jon Hale's business group could come in, may be other
interested parties as well at that point.
"The key thing at this point is
to make sure there is no 'pre-pack', that there is enough time for
everyone to put alternative bids together if they can, those bids are as
strong as they possibly can be, as long term, as well funded, as well
supported as they possibly can be and the group (HUST and Hale) would be
a very serious potential bidder."