Torquay United owner expected to lose £5m when club goes into administration
The owner of Torquay United looks set to lose around £5m when the club is placed into administration.
Late last week Clarke Osborne announced he could no longer afford to back the club and was intending to call in the administrators.
Company accounts have revealed Osborne lent the firm more than £4m with the final figure expected to be even higher.
University of Liverpool’s Kieran Maguire said: “He’s going to have to take a significant haircut.
“There’s no way that somebody’s going to want to inherit those debts.
“So it then comes down to what do we sell the club for? That gets allocated to the creditors, of which one will be Clarke Osborne and his companies.”
The club, which was relegated to National League South last season, are expected to be fined 10 points for going into administration.
Manager Gary Johnson left the club a few hours after the announcement and assistant manager Aaron Downes has been placed in temporary charge.
Torquay United Supporters’ Trust chairman Nick Brodrick has met with the club’s administrators.
He said the trust does not want to take over the club, but will help to raise money and facilitate anything needed by any potential new owners.
He said the trust’s main objective was to help raise funds to keep the club running in the short term while administrators search for a new owner.
“We are the independent supporters’ trust of the club, and we are the ones that will hopefully find a solution and point the way forward to saving our football club that we all support so much,” he added.
“We’re looking at various options as to how we can raise money. We’ve already had quite a number of people who have been offering funds to Tust to help, which is very kind and very generous of them.
“We are aware that one or two fans have been trying to set up their own pages, that’s obviously well intentioned.
“But it’s important that there is only one way in which money is going to be raised, and that’s through Tust, and that’s what we’re now planning to set up as quickly as possible.”
