Hyde United wound up - What can fans do?

In a statement on their website the Club said: “The board of directors was devastated to learn this afternoon that at a High Court hearing in London the football club was officially wound up.

“The club had applied for a final adjournment and had produced evidence that funds to satisfy the petition debt due to HMRC in full would be in place in the very near future.

“The board is taking legal advice on whether this decision can be overturned, and will make a further statement once this advice is received.”

Although I can't comment specifically on this case, it's been a fact of football life since Cambridge United were saved from liquidation in 2005 following direct intervention by then Sports Minister Richard Caborn that clubs can no longer rely on the taxman to give much slack. Football does need to get its house in order and although both the Football Conference and Football League have taken steps to address the problem, it seems clear to me that clubs struggling to pay tax debt is no isolated problem: the current problems being suffered by Accrington Stanley and the 11th hour decision by the FA to allow the Conference to permit Chester City to remain in the competition, amongst many cases, provide one example of that.

The question is what can we as supporters (and more specifically supporters' trusts) do about it? One of the things we can do is to be prepared; don't get caught on the hop. Do what the fans of Merthyr Tydfil, Scarborough, Telford United and others have done; have a plan b. If you're interested in doing a bit more reading on this, trythe Crisis Planning section on the SD Wiki. If that's whetted your appetite and you want to know more, don't forget the session at this year's SD Annual Conference. More on that soon...

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