ADMINISTRATORS have published their report which they hope will pave the way for Halifax Town Football Club to be taken over.
The proposal is to pay creditors 2.5p in the £ if they agree a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) deal which will rid the club of all its historical debts.
Click here to see the full list of creditors and how much each is owed.The club owes in excess of £2 million - some of the debts date from a previous CVA imposed in 2003 - and it is losing up to £30,000 a month.
Providing creditors agree, and the deal is also backed by the football authorities, a consortium led by businessmen David Bosomworth and Bobby Ham, will then take over the club.
The consortium believes, despite the club's repeated financial problems, it could eventually break even, and the businessmen have spent £400,000 trying to takeover the club before it went into administration.
"This proposal represents an opportunity for the club to be put on a proper stable financial footing and for the creditors' to finally receive a dividend from the company towards the sums that they are owed," said administrator Rod Sadler.
He warned failing to accept the proposal was likely to lead to the club being forced into liqudiation - and no payout.
Mr Sadler said the club had been a loss making entity with little prospect of increasing its income to put it in profit.
Its only assets are equipment of minimal value.
In September matters came to ahead when creditor and former chairman Ray Moreland took court action to recover nearly £8,000.
"It was clear to the consortium's advisers that individual creditors were appearing in turn to demand payment of their debts and that a momentum was being gained towards liquidation of the company," said Mr Sadler.
The club was later put into administration and the administrators had the added problem of coping with the previous CVA.
That had been breached on a number of occasions and the administrators decided that creditors bound by that agreement were also entitled to receive the 2.5p dividend under the terms of the new proposal.
Mr Sadler said the club receives too little income from gate receipts and was reliant on benefactors and its fans' generosity.
The last accounts filed in June 2006 showed a deficit in excess of £2 million and that is believed to have grown in the last two years.
Without the support of the consortium agreeing to fund costs in administration the administrators believe the club would have been wound-up at a court hearing scheduled last month.
Despite advertising the club for sale only the consortium was prepared to offer any money for the club.
"The consotium is prepared to support the club in the future whilst exploring alternative sources of income to reduce the trading deficiency which they will be required to fund for the forseeable future," said Mr Sadler.
The club will then be known as Halifax Town Football Club (2008) Ltd but if the Football Association or Football Conference fail to back the deal - once it has the approval of creditors - the contract will fail.
Creditors will vote on May 7 and any decision by the football authorities is not expected until June.
The taxman is owed nearly £500,000 and former directors are also owed significant sums.
The Shay Stadium Trust is owed £14,100. It has been driving forward attempts to develop the half-finished east stand which would allow the club to benefit from corporate sponsorship from next year.
Click here to see the full list of creditors and how much each is owed.
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