Insolvency expert warns of football club failures

A NUMBER of failing football clubs could be set to go out of business in 2012, leading football insolvency expert Brendan Guilfoyle has warned.

Mr Guilfoyle, of Sheffield-based The P&A Group, has handled high profile football insolvencies at clubs including Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Luton Town and recently Plymouth Argyle.

He believes it may no longer be financially viable to save some clubs.

And he said there should be more transparency in the process to allow fans to keep abreast of what for many is an extremely worrying time for their clubs.

Mr Guilfoyle said: “The market has changed and is getting worse; we can no longer assume we can find buyers for football clubs. We also need everyone to understand what could scupper a potential purchaser. At Plymouth Argyle, two potential buyers withdrew because of campaigns run by fans.

“In any future administrations we won’t sign any confidentiality or exclusivity clauses – that way we can keep fans, staff and other stakeholders involved and have open discussions.”

He said P&A would be remodelling the way it handles football administrations in the future to make the process more transparent.

“It is not financially viable to have protracted negotiations so we will have a short deadline for bids from potential purchasers – probably a month,” he said.

“We either get the money in full for the deal – as with other business administrations – or the club will be shut down.”