Takeover deal agreed for ailing club
THE future of struggling Championship club Bolton Wanderers looks to have been secured after a deal was agreed for a sale to the Sports Shield Consortium.
Fronted by former player Dean Holdsworth, Sports Shield will pay around £7.5m for the club according to reports.
Officials were at the High Court in London today to face a HMRC Winding-Up hearing over an unpaid tax bill of around £3m, and were given 14 days to complete a deal.
In a statement on its website the club said: “Bolton Wanderers can announce that the club has today been given an adjournment of 14 days by the High Court in order to conclude a deal with the Sports Shield Consortium in taking ownership of the club.”
The club were represented by football turnaround specialist Trevor Birch and board member Richard Gee at the hearing.
Birch, who is advising the board and owner Eddie Davies, said: “While this continues to be a challenging time for everyone associated with the club, we are confident that this adjournment will give us the necessary time to conclude a transfer of ownership of the club, subject to approval from The Football League.”
Last week the debt-laden club sold its training ground at Euxton, Lancashire, to Wigan Athletic to raise some short-term finance.
If the deal is rubber stamped it be the end of a long drawn out saga for the club which was £172.9m in debt to its Isle of Man-based millionaire owner Davies when early in the current season he decided he could bankroll Wanderers no more.
As the crisis deepened longstanding chairman Phil Gartside stepped down after it was announced he was suffering from a serious illness. He subsequently died as a result of cancer.
Bolton, managed by Neil Lennon, have been languishing at the foot of the Championship for most of the season and has managed just four wins this season.
