Yes, I think it would be a winding up exercise.. In that senario tho' the creditors would be looking to salvage something so the liquidator could sell the club as a going concern. Not sure if the Fotball League would allow this, but for sure the Wills would lose big tim. The only person I can see who has everything to gain by all of this & nothing to lose is Mikey D
This is a bit more complicated than it looks. Creditors can take the club into administration in two ways:
1. Any creditors who have a secured debt, bank loans etc can probably apply to put the club into
Administrative Receivership where THEY get to appoint the administrator with the express intention of recovering THEIR debt.
However, I'm not sure we have any creditors which fall into this category that aren't on the board (apart from possibly St Modwens and their debt isn't due until next year).
2. They can make a court application to take the club into
Administration. In this case the Administrators duty is not only to get the best deal for the creditors but to
try to get the company trading again. I'm also not sure in this case who gets to appoint the administrators. What I've read suggests it's the courts which means that the creditors risk the appointment of the previous Administrators who they might not have too much confidence in. With that being the case I'm not sure whether there will be much appetite amongst the creditors for this option.
In addition a creditor can apply for a winding up order to liquidate the company. In this case the official receiver will call a creditors meeting to appoint a insolvency practitioner as
Liquidator. The liquidator's role is "to realise the company's assets, pay the fees and charges arising from the liquidation and share out any remaining funds to the creditors."
There doesn't seem to be any room for sale as a going concern under this option once the liqidators are appointed.
Looking at that it's a bit scarey.
Admistrative Receivership and court directed administration look like the only optioins that would allow the club to be taken out of the hands of the board and their tame administrators and sold off to the best benefit of the creditors and the club, rather than to line their own pockets. But:
Administrative Receivership seems out because I don't think there's a creditor out there with a secured loan to pull in
Court directed Administration might not look too attractive to the creditors IF they don't get much control over the appointment of the administrator. The likes of the Revenue and the council have been through administration with this lot a couple of times and been screwed each time, I can't see they'll fancy it again.
The only thing that gives me a vague hope is that the creditors will realise there are no substantial assets to be divided up if they go for liquidation.
But the prospects still look a bit shit to me.