Terras' debt to break £900,000 as Rolls seeks CVA
By Ky Capel

Thursday 4th March 2010

CHAIRMAN George Rolls hopes a Company Voluntary Agreement will save the Terras from the threat of liquidation.

With the debt at Weymouth Football Club set to break the £900,000 mark at the end of this month, Rolls has sought professional advice on how best to keep the club afloat.

And the Trade Recruitment supremo, who gained control of the Terras little more than three months ago, is now adamant that a CVA is the best way forward.

A CVA is an insolvency procedure that allows a financially troubled company to reach a binding agreement with its creditors over payment of all, or part of, its debts over an agreed period of time.

A meeting has been scheduled for Friday, March 26 where creditors, of which ex-chairman Malcolm Curtis is one, will decide whether to accept the terms on offer.

If 75 per cent agree to the proposal – which involves paying back nine per cent over five years – then all creditors are bound by the terms of the arrangement.

However, Rolls warned that should the club fail in its bid to secure a CVA, then 120 years of history will be lost and the Terras will cease to exist.

Explaining the situation, he told Echosport: “When we came to the club at the end of November we were given the creditors’ list, the debts of the club, we went through it all and felt that it was serviceable.

“Over the last two and a half months more debts have come to fruition than what we were told about. The previous board of directors didn’t give us the full details of creditors, that may well be because they didn’t have them from previous people, I don’t know – I don’t want to cast any aspersions on them.

“But the facts of the matter are that there is a lot more debt coming out of the woodwork, we obviously had a six-figure sum come out a month ago from a previous employee (Andy Cooke’s claim for £104,000) which has made the business unserviceable.

"We’ve been taking advice from an insolvency practitioner and it’s in the best interests of the Football club to try and arrange a CVA.

“That meeting will take place on Friday, March 26 and what happens is creditors will be voting to see if they are going to accept the agreement from the practitioner – all shareholders need to approve it as well and everyone should get the details by the end of the week.

“If the creditors agree, the club will continue in its guise but will be in a lot healthier position. It’s not a pre-cursor to going into administration, it’s a case of doing a deal with the creditors and paying X amount in the pound over a period of five years.

“The club then starts with a clean sheet of paper and we can all move forward and get the club back to where it needs to be.

“If the vote doesn’t go the way we want it to then the club will go into instant liquidation.

Rolls added: “We’ve been paying off creditors to when their debts have been due and we’ve had arrangements in place with a lot of creditors, who have been fantastic.

“However, with the other creditors that have come to light, which we didn’t know about, and the other claims that have come in, the club just hasn’t got the money to be able to pay those debts. So we’ve had to bring an insolvency practitioner in and we need to look at going down the CVA route.

“At the end of the day there’s going to be either a yes or a no. If it’s a no then unfortunately it will mean the club will go into liquidation and that’s 120 years of history gone because it has been badly run over the last how ever many years.

“Since we’ve been here we’ve managed to bring down the debt in terms of the monthly loss. But we can’t put out the fires when all of a sudden there are new fires starting every week.”

The current level of debt stands at £822,312.45 but Rolls revealed that figure is expected to rise in excess of £900,000 over the next three weeks.

He said: “When the creditors get their information in the next couple of days the debt will show more than £820,000 but by the time the meeting takes place on March 26 it will probably be just over £900,000.

“We were told that the club was half a million in debt when we took it on. But we haven’t racked up £400,000 worth of debt, this is debt or claims that have come in since we’ve been here.

“There’s no magic wand to make money fall off trees so a CVA is the only course of action. I’ve spoken with the Supporters Club and the Terras Trust and told them what’s going on in terms of the way forward.

“I made it quite clear I’m here for the long-haul. I know people think that if we get relegated I won’t be here, but I want the CVA to work, I want it to be approved and I want to get Weymouth FC back to being a solvent business.

“Creditors will get zero if we go into liquidation. I’ve been owed money with my firm and we’ve had people proposing CVAs, but we’ve always ended up voting yes because you get something as opposed to nothing.

“It’s not right, but all I’d say to the creditors is that I’m sorry for the situation but I wasn’t part of imposing the debt upon them. I do apologise for it happening but this is the only way the club can survive.”

It remains unclear whether the Terras will be hit with a 10-point deduction should the CVA gain approval – thus all-but confirming their relegation to the Zamaretto Southern League.

Rolls added: “Potentially there’s a 10-point deduction but I need to talk to the Conference about that. We aren’t going into administration so I can’t see why there would be a deduction but every league has its own rules and the Conference could potentially deduct us 10 points, which would kill any hope of staying up.

“We’ve got to be realistic and sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take steps forward. If that means we’re in the Southern League next year then so be it.

“But if we do so with a business that’s going to be solvent, with players, staff and creditors getting paid on time then I think everyone will live with that.

“Football tends to go in cycles. You get four or five good years sometimes followed by four or five bad years, hopefully this is the end of the bad times and we can look forward to good years.”

A spokesman for the Football Conference stated: “A 10-point penalty is a possibility, but it all depends on the club’s proposals.”

Administration could have been an alternative route but Rolls regards that course of action as a dead end.

He added: “Administration would have been another option but the advice we got was that a CVA was better. Administration is very costly as someone has got to fund it until a buyer is found.

“I want to still be in charge of Weymouth FC and want to work with the local community, the Terras Trust and the Supporters Club and make sure the club is run properly.

“I’ve been transparent with the Terras Trust and the Supporters Club, shown them figures and shown them what’s happened since we’ve been here, and I think they’ve been happy with that.

“No one’s happy that the club is going into a CVA but they’re pleased that I sat down and talked to them and looked at a way forward.”

The Weymouth board consists of vice-chairman Pranas Preidzius, Lijana Preidziuviene, Eugenius Tiskus, Inga Preidziuviene, Audrius Preidzius and Bronius Preidzius.

Chairman Rolls declared that he and the club’s directors have so far pumped as much as £200,000 into the Wessex Stadium outfit.

He said: “By the time the meeting comes around we will have invested around £260,000 in the club.

“When we first came to the club we looked at a £150,000 maximum but we were up to around £190,000 to £200,000 as of two weeks ago. We’ve been paying it through our companies, through ourselves, paying off debts and it’s a lot of money.

“We can’t turn around and write out a cheque for £900,000 because anyone would be mad to do so. The decision has been made to go down this route but I believe the club will come back stronger for it.

“As long as the CVA gets approved we will only be paying into the supervisor X amount a month and all of a sudden we’ve got a budget, which will be in the pack that all the creditors see, that’s been forecast for next year and the directors will only have to put loose change in.”

Rolls experienced life in the dugout on Tuesday night as manager Jerry Gill and reserve-team boss Dave Kiteley fell ill prior to the 2-1 home defeat against Staines Town.

Reflecting on the game, Rolls added: “With the football background I’ve got it made sense for me to go and help out on the bench.

“I don’t think anyone who saw the game could fault the players’ effort.

“I thought we were very unlucky, especially with the two deflected goals, and Matt Groves and Josh Llewellyn both had chances that could have got us a point or even three, which I felt we deserved.

“The Staines’ board of directors said afterwards that we were one of the toughest sides they’ve played in a while, so it was very encouraging.”

WEYMOUTH FC CREDITORS (amount in £)

Able Recruitment 1,010.11

Agora Business Publications LLP 197.84

AKI Ltd 9,000.00

Alan Lewer 25,000.00

All Saints School 280.00

Andy Cooke 104,000.00

Apex Financial 4,400.00

ART (GB) Limited 665.64

Audrius Preidzius 14,055.00

Automotive Leasing Ltd 16,090.00

Barclaycard Merchant Services 92.11

Barclays Bank 31,900.00

Beds Direct 165.00

Bluebird Coaches Ltd 2,549.00

Bookers Ltd 7.73

Bright Sparks Ltd 57.50

British Telecom 298.59

Brodie Publishing 230.00

Bronius Preidzius 31,234.00

BUPA 3,467.16

BWBSL 2,405.64

C&O Tractors 1,556.83

Clarke Willmott 6,204.00

Clean Up Solutions 1,175.50

CVS 1,553.52

Dorset Cake Company 379.65

Dorset Embroidery & Printwear Ltd 69.00

Dorset Media 162.00

Dorset Police Authority 1,658.10

Dr D S Tarver 160.00

EMS Physio Ltd 204.95

Firecheck 218.50

G E Capital 3,366.00

George Rolls 66,090.00

Graingers Wholesale 28.19

Graphics & Print Telford Ltd 2,903.95

Helen Cullen 2,640.00

Infotec UK Ltd 539.27

Isis Mineral Water Ltd 67.53

Link Mailing Services 356.20

Mann Brothers Ltd 468.83

Marcus Browning 7,500.00

Mr A U H Gankande 525.00

PC World 2,319.40

Physique Management Co Ltd 339.18

PPL Limited 649.43

Pranas Preidzius 33,091.00

Project 20 Limited 359.55

Prostar Sportswear Ltd 15,896.00

Proton (Southern) Ltd 630.20

Q & A Limited 1,319.96

Queensway Publishing Ltd 3,528.00

R & B Trophies 958.14

Radipole Primary School 127.50

Real World Services 967.73

Redlands Community Sports Hub 381.45

Rob Bailey Ceramics 297.28

Rochesters 179.83

Roffey Limited 643.25

Sky Business 391.22

South Coast Catering 58.57

Southern Contract(s) Ltd 224.25

Southern Electric 2,966.00

Sprint Signs & Graphics Ltd 2,246.39

St John Ambulance 1,046.30

Stag Office Products Ltd 137.79

Stuart Barnes Ltd 89.76

Sunburn Styles Ltd 499.68

Swiftpay 27,500.00

Terras Saviours 37,500.00

Tesco Personal Finance 99.00

The Football Reference Ltd 50.00

The Performing Right Society 947.67

Threadworks Embroidery, Print & Design 47.00

Thring Townsend 418.23

Trade Recruitment 28,333.00

TV Licensing 139.50

Umbro International Ltd 937.65

Vending Matters Ltd 30.28

Voluntary Arrangements Service 78,000.00

Wessex Broadcasting Ltd 1,297.60

Wessex Delivery LLP 4,600.00

Wessex Park 219,500.00

Wey Print 500.56

Wey Valley School 228.00

Weymouth Mower Centre 382.86

Weymouth Rugby Club 495.00

William Ronald 7,025.90