Farnborough FC: Six Years To Administration Again

Just six years after it was founded, Farnborough Football Club is in administration. It is a startlingly short time in which to accumulate a debt reported to be £2 million, a figure which includes more than £1 million in directors’ loans and £300,000 of unsecured debt owed to outside creditors.

A club statement this week attempted to frame the decision as a “positive move” that will “ensure a far greater result for all parties as opposed to any other action”. This is the sterile language of modern football insolvency, a process that allows new investors, who are apparently waiting in the wings, to take on a club without its historical baggage. For the small businesses that will be among those unsecured creditors, the result is unlikely to feel very positive at all.

A Familiar History

The manager at the centre of this is Spencer Day, who arrived at Cherrywood Road in November 2011. Football has known Day before, but under a different name. As Spencer Trethewy, he took control of Aldershot Football Club in 1990 at the age of just nineteen, armed with a £200,000 signed affidavit. His tenure on the board lasted three months before it became clear the funds did not exist. Two years later, Aldershot became the first Football League club since Accrington Stanley to fold during a season. Trethewy was later imprisoned for fraud and changed his name in 1998.

Now, history has a grim sense of rhythm. The original Farnborough Town folded in 2007, only to be replaced by the current Farnborough FC. The new club climbed the pyramid to the Blue Square Bet South, but the cost has been severe. The irony is that the man who presided over the death of the old Aldershot is now in charge at another local club on the brink.

In a further strange twist, the modern Aldershot Town, the club formed to replace the one Trethewy left in ruins, is itself facing a critical financial period. The Shots Trust supporters’ group issued a statement this week speaking of “extreme concern” for the club’s future, as it faces almost certain relegation from the Football League tomorrow at Rotherham United.

The Blame Game

Day has been vocal in defending the club’s position. “In short, we can’t keep dealing with these historic debts coming out of the woodwork,” he stated. “It’s relentless and we need to draw a line under it now if we are to take this club forward.”

To speak of “historic debts” for a club that is less than six years old is a questionable turn of phrase. The idea that there is anything to be “proud of” in racking up such a significant debt, regardless of how much is secured, rings hollow. This is not a new problem. Last season, Farnborough were docked five points for financial irregularities that included bouncing a cheque to HMRC. At the start of this season, another four points were deducted for failing to get the correct international clearance for midfielder Medi Abalimba.

This is a pattern of serial maladministration.

Rules and Relegation

Entering administration is not a simple reset button. The Football Conference has stringent rules for clubs that suffer an insolvency event. A ten-point deduction is the least of Farnborough’s worries. According to rule 14.B.1, the club will be automatically relegated by one Step unless it pays all its creditors in full before the league’s Annual General Meeting in June.

The only alternative is to pay all Football Creditors and enter into a CVA to pay everyone else in full over a maximum of three years. Failure to meet these conditions means expulsion and demotion to the Southern or Isthmian Leagues, although the Conference has been known to be flexible with its own regulations when it suits.

The club has until June to save itself from a demotion that would undo years of on-field progress. For the creditors, suppliers and local businesses left with unpaid bills, the question is simpler: will they ever see their money?