31 May 2013

Truro City Football Club's make or break meeting with creditors

By Miles Davis, West Briton LINK

TRURO City Football Club faces a make-or-break meeting on Tuesday at which it will try to resolve its debt problem.

When the club went into administration in September, creditors' claims totalled just under £4 million but the figure on the table on Tuesday has come down to approximately £145,000, the West Briton can reveal.

The club went into administration in September last year after the club's colourful chairman Kevin Heaney was declared bankrupt.

Truro nightclub-owner Peter Masters and A2B taxi firm boss Philip Perryman stepped in to buy the club in October.
 
They say they are now looking to build solid foundations for the future by agreeing a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) whereby creditors would be paid back agreed sums over a three-year period.

The club could be under threat if an agreement is not reached on Tuesday.

The report by administrators Walsh Taylor states: "Failure to approve this CVA proposal is likely to result in a dissolution of the club, expulsion of the buyer from the Football Conference and no return to creditors."

Truro City were relegated this season from the Football Conference South to the Southern Football League Premier Division.

If a CVA is not agreed the club will remain in administration and face expulsion from the Football Conference. It would, according to the administrators' report, be most likely to re-enter in tier 9, the
Western Premier League, three leagues below the position it occupied last year.

The Walsh Taylor report states: "Such a drop would seriously jeopardise the ability of the buyer to continue to trade."

The suggestion that the drop would threaten the future of football at Treyew Road was given short shrift by current owner Mr Masters.

"TCFC would continue to play football at Treyew Road in any event," he insisted.

A previous creditors' meeting due in April was cancelled at the last minute due to continuing negotiations.

Mr Heaney's partner Julia Sincock, a company director of Dilby Limited, previously threatened to present a winding-up petition against the club if an alleged debt of £125,000 was not settled, but the claim was denied by Mr Masters. The latest list of creditors shows a claim for Dilby of £1.


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