Goals Soccer Centres shares price plummets after issuing second profit warning of the year

Goals Soccer Centres has issued a profit warning after uncovering "accounting errors" in a review of the financial year ending 31 December 2018. 

The five-a-side football centre says that the full year results will be "materially below expectations" and will now delay the publishing of results beyond the planned date of 12 March 2019.

The Scottish-based firm operates 50 outdoor football centres in the UK and California but has broken the terms of its banking agreement in an accounting error. 

In the wake of the news on Friday morning, the company's shares plummeted by 40 per cent but have since recovered slightly. 

In a trading update, it said the firm and its auditors would be reviewing its accounting practices and policies. 

"It is likely that the Board will take a more prudent approach both for 2018 full year results and going forward," it read.

"Whilst the majority of these accounting adjustments are of a non-cash nature, this does nevertheless mean that the Company will have exceeded one of its banking covenants at 31 December 2018," it continued. "We are in discussions with the bank with a view to agreeing re-negotiated facilities."

Goals Soccer Centre also added that it had seen an increase in like-for-like sales for the first two months of the year compared with 2018. 

The profit warning is the second of the year after the company said in January that it had to reduce profit expectations to between £4.3m and £4.5m due to an increase in staff; those figures are now in question.

The firm also has about £29m worth of debt, which it is allowed to have by the bank on the basis that it can borrow three times its earnings, endangering that agreement.