David Hilton, the chairman and owner of Scunthorpe. has released a very long statement with lots of detain about the financial situation at his club.
He's been very open, paticularily with figures, and admits he would sell the club is the opportunity arose.
But until then he says he will try and forge better relationships with everyone involved.
'Firstly I would like to start by thanking so many of you for the support I have received over the last week. It has helped me considerably and contributed to me making some very difficult decisions.I came into the club in January this year, the club was
carrying in excess of £2m debt, was bottom of the National League and
had a playing squad that either due to ability, attitude or a
combination of both thoroughly deserved to be there.
Contrary to speculation and belief, there were no other
parties at the table towards the end of January with the club due in
court within a few weeks to be formally wound up by the HMRC.
People have been quite right to point out that I only
paid £3 for the shares in the club, yet despite such a low amount nobody
was prepared to take on the club and save it from extinction, this
tells its own story.
I also inherited around £40,000 in the club bank account
on the 26th January - the day of completion. I was advised by Mr Swann,
and it was evidenced, that this amount in the account was considerably
more prior to completion, almost enough to cover January's wage bill.
But on the day of completion, Peter Swann paid his lawyers and agent
Begbies Traynor out of the funds, which came as a considerable shock to
me.
What this meant was within five days, and by the end of January, I had to finance the club by nearly £400,000 personally.
This was £192,000 to pay the winding-up petition,
£58,000 to pay month 9 PAYE (December), not included in the petition,
and in excess of £120,000 to top up January's wages. Other items were
also paid to bring the club out of a transfer embargo, and give us any
slight chance of survival.
It was known publicly that the club required a further
£600,000 to see it through until the end of the season based on the
squad I had inherited. This was not to eradicate any further debt and
forecasts had been calculated using, and including the remainder of the
season's anticipated income. This figure was actually significantly more
than that plus, rightly or wrongly, I also sanctioned the signing of an
additional 11 players. This figure was closer to a million pounds just
to survive until May, and on top of the £400,000 I paid out in January.
May through to August the club had no income. Despite this, all
non-matchday payments had to be met including but not limited to a large
payroll. The several friendlies played barely covered matchday and
season restocking costs. This period cost the club in excess of
£700,000.
We did however sell season tickets bringing in close to £200,000,
along with sponsorship of £170,000 and membership sales bought in a
further £80,000. Current Directors have also contributed but these
figures did not even come close to covering the close season amounts to
be paid out alone.
I have also continued to pay creditors, paid to rebuild a playing
squad and also a substantial amount of redundancies. I have funded
maintenance work to the stadium and to both pitches along with paying
six figures so far in legal fees to secure land and to fight to keep us
in the stadium. Further legal fees are being paid out to defend the club
against legal action issued against us by Ian Sharp, Ian has instructed
his solicitors to recover monies he donated to Peter Swann with no
agreements in place with the club itself, this is costing thousands to
defend. I am also having to defend the club against Macron, who have
issued proceedings against the club for a considerable amount. This is
also ongoing. There are at least six other five-year contracts which
range from vehicles, photocopiers and bathroom hand dryers that we are
fighting too, at a significant cost.
The payroll when I came into the club contained over 160 staff each
month, the monthly amount was in excess of £180,000. The most
frightening part of these numbers is that not even 50% of the payroll
amount was for the playing staff. Our payroll now contains less than 50
people with a top line of £130,000, reduced by nearly a third. Better
still over 80% is paid to the footballing side of the club and I am sure
everybody can see the impact that has made.
There are without doubt creditors slipping through the net.
Redundancy payments outstanding, albeit far more have been paid,
severence payments to ex-players and managers, and there are pension
contributions that need catching up. The outstanding creditor amount is
in excess of £600,000 but is coming down.
I have noticed that people also talk about matchday ticket sales
from August solely keeping the club afloat. Again it does not even come
close. We received between £22,000- £24,000 for each home game this
season apart from Scarborough, which was £44,000. People do not take
into account 1,300 season ticket holders, concession tickets and
children. We will have 2-3 home games each month which brings in between
£44,000-£75,000 per month. The hospitality side and food and drink
sales now cover our match day costs such as stewards etc along with the
players food throughout the week. No extra income from this is received.
We have a level six football club with numerous ongoing legal
battles that are required to tidy this club up costing thousands each
month. We have no home, as the previous owner refuses to now negotiate
and demands vacant possession, and prior to that refused to accomodate a
standard conveyancing process. The club still carries a significant
amount of debt and the club loses significant amounts of money each and
every month. I came in to make a difference, as I have always said, and
it was not with my eyes closed. But I say this with a certain amount of
confidence, without me at this time, your club will almost certainly
die.
All of the above has been itemised in order to show you exactly
what is on offer to any potential buyer, and I will confirm that the
club is now being made available to purchase to the right people.
My offer to sell the club will remain in place indefinitely, and we
will see what the future holds. In the meantime, myself and my team
will continue to work tirelessly to bring you success and eradicate all
of the ongoing issues as quickly as we can. Your club will be unaffected
on the field, and I will always look for us to be strong at whatever
level we play at.
I have previously mentioned that I have made past
mistakes. After spending many days reflecting on the situation, I
realised that making a spelling error in this statement would be a
mistake. What I did in 2013 was not a mistake, it was a crime, I broke
the law. I have to own that situation and be strong enough to deal with
the consequences. The shame and embarrassment I felt before it was made
public was always there. What I feel now is real pain. I do not agree
that me opening up at the Fans Forum in February would have created me a
more supportive response, I actually think it would have been
catastrophic. But, I should have been honest in January before taking
control of your club. I should have given you the supporters the
opportunity to decide if the honesty would have outweighed the crime I
committed in the past.
I have a stain on my personal character that I am now
certain I can never wipe clean. Unfortunately, whilst I am your owner
the club will carry that same stain and for that I am truly sorry.
What The Athletic set out to do is not how it is being
portrayed. It was a character assassination, carried out either as a
personal vendetta, or on behalf of someone else. It cannot be considered
an article created in the public interest. For this article to be in
the public interest it would have had to discuss everything about me in a
fair and balanced way. It did not do that. It would also have to
consider the ramifications for the public.
I have already discussed the club's current financial
position and the fact that it is a completely unattractive proposition
for anyone. Therefore any article going against the Rehabilitation Act
would need to demonstrate that destroying my life and potentially
killing a football club, which is what it was trying to do, is in the
public interest.
The article failed to mention anything since my
rehabilitation period ended. Assisting and donating to charities, taking
another club from the brink of liquidation to a seven-day-a-week
thriving non-league football club. I helped with the integration and
growth of a town's junior section, which currently has over 600 children
playing grassroots football in unity. It fails to mention the large
sponsorships or the million pound 4G surface I installed with my
business partner for the benefit of the community and children.
No, the article only wanted to publicise things that I
was found NOT guilty of in order to muddy the waters before releasing
information about a spent conviction they had no legal right to
publicise. This was not great investigative journalism either, this was
pre-packaged for The Athletic, and also contained no mention that prior
to the convicted offence and since I was convicted there has been no
other convictions.
The Athletic also reported me to the
Football Association. Despite this, they did not feel it appropriate to
wait for the outcome of that investigation before releasing their
article. The reason for this is that they have full knowledge that my
conviction was spent and that I did not break any rules in not declaring
it. If the Football Association themselves do not require notification
of a spent conviction at the time of my application, or indeed now at
this level and even on the new EFL applications my conviction would not
cause my application to fail, then how can The Athletic deem this to be
in the public interest. This matter is now in the hands of my lawyers.
I have known about the Athletic article for many weeks, I
have spent thousands on yet another fight to try blocking it obviously
without success.
Due to the pending article and unknowing of what
response I’d receive, I decided to fund the top-up for wages ONLY for
the last six weeks. This has obviously been noticeable with several CCJs
issued along with outstanding redundancy payments and today a winding
up petition being issued. The article was expected to have been released
before it was and I didn’t want to keep ploughing money into a club
that I was potentially going to be run out of when the article appeared.
It would have been money I could never have retrieved. The support I
have been shown however has been moving. On that basis as I have
previously said ,,I will now release further funds from personal assets
and continue to fund the club moving forward. Unfortunately, there will
be a further winding-up petition issued imminently by the HMRC however
please do not be concerned. I know that is hard but I will pay the
petitions in full and continue to work through the clubs remaining
debt.
At my request last Friday, Keith Waters has offered his
resignation and will be removed from our Board of Directors immediately.
The remainder of the board are committed to the club.
I will not be monitoring media channels, I will not be
issuing anymore statements personally or discussing anything regarding
my past, anything further will be club related and it will come directly
from the club.
I would like to apologise if I have upset individuals or
supporters at any point by comments that I have made. At times I have
been defensive and naive, and I really hope our supporters can be
unified, regardless of opinion. We all have to be one. To assist this, I
would like to invite representatives from Iron-Bru, the Iron Trust, the
Official Supporters Club, the Iron Hour Podcast and the Scunny United
Facebook Group to attend a meeting with myself and my Board of Directors
in the hope that better relationships can be forged between each other
and the clubs board.
I will apologise to you all again, and request that we no longer
make this about me. You share a love for a football club that
desperately needs your full attention. Jimmy and the lads, my hard
working staff, and everybody in the town deserve some success and in
being united I am certain it can be delivered.
David Hilton
Chairman