Wednesday facing High Court D-Day
RESTRUCTURING group Zolfo Cooper is standing by to act as administrator to Sheffield Wednesday today if a High Court case verdict goes against the club.
Wednesday face a £600,000 demand from the tax authorities and arrive in court after the board turned down an offer from Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric.
According to sources close to the talks, former England and Leeds manager and current club chairman Howard Wilkinson was one of the toughest critics of an offer for the club from Mandaric that would have seen Wednesday’s creditors repaid a proportion of their debts.
Another vocal critic of the proposed deal was Wednesday’s ex- chairman Dave Allen who described Mandaric’s offer as “derisory”.
Today the club faces the possibility of falling into administration – and having an automatic 10 point deduction – unless it pays its tax bill.
The Co-Op Bank, the largest creditor with around £23m outstanding, was said to support the Mandaric offer. Mandaric is still chairman of Leicester City but he has sold that club and would have left his position there to join Wednesday if his bid had been successful.
Mandaric said last night he hoped Wednesday “have a plan B” to fall back on in order to stave off administration. Zolfo Cooper was founded in 2008 after a buyout of Kroll.