Scunthorpe

These things happen all the time - they'll be fine.

 

I remember the times Scunthorpe United and their owner Peter Swann were held up as an example of what a good owner could bring to the club, there was an offer in for the club as Swann wanted out and the new potential owners were doing due diligence, if it is tax would that have to be paid by Peter Swann or the new owners ?.

 

Football finances are screwed across the board and we need to start requiring owners to pay a bond up front which guarantees to cover future losses if they don't want to run their clubs sustainably. If they can't keep up with the bond requirements then an independent administrator is brought in to run the club until it can be sold and the bond is used to cover any ongoing losses during this period.

In relation to Scunny, the papers from the court case that Swann is facing regarding gambling debts do not make good reading:

 

Bury, Macclesfield, Bradford Bulls, yeah you have me convinced.

 

The list of winding up orders against clubs served by HMRC which was quickly resolved is about 20x longer than the list you've just named. It's common practice when an unpaid Tax bill is missed.

 

And it used to be common place for clubs to go into admin and start over as if nothing happened. However those days are gone.

They will be kicked out of the national league like other clubs should they not be financially viable and end up right at the bottom, which could kill the club.