A statement has been released by two of Hereford United's directors.
A message from the directors regarding the clubs future.
At the last game our note in the programme dealt with a little
piece of our club’s history – this time we look to the future, however
short it may be.
When we became directors of Hereford United Football Club (1939) Ltd we thought we were just helping a friend, Mark Ellis, who knew someone that had bought shares in a football club and needed people to help turn it around financially.
He was about to pay off a lot of the debts, and that would show everyone how serious he was.
Tommy Agombar described himself as ‘a football man’ (and he really is) who wanted to own a team.
He is not a man into detail, but surrounds himself with people to deal with detail and the day to day matters and this was seen at the football club.
He made promises that were ultimately not kept, but a lot of those were outside of his control.
He took on a far worse financial position than he had been told, and at a time when he thought he would have to pay approximately £300,000, he found the debts were significantly more; he would now have to deal with the previous regime’s financial errors and he was being hounded and called every name under the sun.
After he had introduced almost £250,000 (yes, quarter of a million pounds, not £2!) of his own and his companies’ money into the club, and taken on responsibility for a similar amount he was told by the FA that he must have nothing more to do with Hereford United.
He must not carry on supporting it financially, as was the plan with the Company Voluntary Arrangement, he is only allowed to own a few shares, and he is trying to get some money back by selling the debts, but they are pretty much worthless, perhaps you fans will help Tommy.
He was determined that the Bulls would start the season with him as the ‘owner’ (well, 55% owner), and for that he has possibly paid £2750 per minute of the game on Saturday.
As well as his official introduction it was also his official goodbye.
Elke and I will buy him a season ticket next week so he can scream and shout advice from the stands at Jon and Neil; just like the rest of us!
So what about the football creditors?
The majority of undisputed ones have been paid.
We were told that the scholars were not part of the company’s payroll, being paid from grants for that specific purpose.
It now turns out that the money received was instead paid to the first team players (amongst other payments) – we doubt that those players would have accepted the money if they knew it was really for the young lads, but that’s what happened.
The same first team players were sworn to secrecy about a bonus if the team stayed up, this is against the FA rules and therefore they have not been paid (this is not treated as a football creditor because it is not part of their contract), some of those players are threatening to take legal action against the club.
When local traders and other staff were not being paid, is it really right that the players should have been promised an extra £500 each, especially when the then directors were unable to pay players wages and they had already decided to sell up?
And what about the general staff?
Most were paid in full by Tommy Agombar from his own pocket as he wanted them to stay as they knew the club and supporters well.
Most left almost immediately after being paid, leaving the club in the lurch.
One was due maternity pay, and a lot has been said about the club receiving money from HM Revenue and Customs to pay her but keeping it.
Unlike the grants to pay the scholars, this money was never received – it just reduced the amount of tax that should have been paid but wasn’t, despite the fans having raised all that money to pay previous tax bills to help the club.
She received money from petty cash, and by now she should have received the remaining amount.
So why are we saying all this when up to now we have been careful in what we say (being accused of not being communicative)?
Especially when the Nominee of the CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement) told us we mustn’t say anything about the CVA at the fans forum?
On Thursday and Friday creditors and shareholders of Hereford United Football Club (1939) Ltd will consider our proposal for a CVA.
This is an attempt to agree a way for the club to survive and move forward.
We have prepared cash flow projections, which by their very definition will be wrong when we look back at them.
They include amounts for sponsorship and Season Tickets which we are confident will be achieved, but until we know the company can deliver we cannot and will not sell them and we will not ask sponsors to support us when we are not certain of the way forward.
They do not include anything for development of the ground since we do not expect it to take place immediately – it would need money, this money would be better spent in providing a team that competes on the pitch in the Southern Premier League, for you, the fans, to support.
All the money we are able to get will be used to pay the day to day costs of the club and paying back the debts incurred before we came on board.
As late as Friday afternoon we were wondering whether we should pull the CVA.
What would it mean?
The former manager and assistant manager are trying to wind up the company, and if the CVA is not accepted, on 1 September 2014 the company will cease to be and a 90 year old club will disappear.
Some local people want the club to fold; but any club ‘rising like a phoenix’ will have to start building its history all over again, from scratch.
It will never have been giant killers, it will never have had that ‘magical Motson moment’, it will never have been responsible for starting so many players on their way to higher things, and it will itself be starting its long journey to the higher leagues from a far lower place.
It will start in a far better financial position since it will not need to pay the remaining debts of the old company, the local traders will not be paid, HM Revenue and Customs will not be paid and the local council will not be paid.
The leases will revert to the council to do with, what they want. Would they really go to the phoenix company??
A liquidator will be appointed to get as much as he or she can for the assets.
One of these assets may be the amounts paid to directors which never should have been paid under the rules of the company which was reported in Bulls News – about £1.1 million between the first payment in 1998/9 and 2011/2012, over £1 million of which was paid whilst Graham Turner was a director – it seems wrong to us that the directors who did so much for the club should be told to repay all they were paid by the club.
The obvious question is therefore what changed?
We personally have nothing to lose if the company dies, up until now we have done nothing wrong as directors – if the CVA is accepted but fails, we can be held responsible and may have to cease being directors of the companies we own that pay us our wages.
But then on Friday we met some of the fans, and our world changed.
They are the spiritual owners of the football club, the company just sort of leases it from them (we do want that lease!) and is the custodian, as someone said.
They were passionate about their team and anyone who is willing to help save it.
We were humbled by the warmth shown to us Friday evening and then even more so on Saturday.
The fans outside who were protesting on Saturday also genuinely care about the club and its history.
It seems to us that with your passion for the club and its history, and our intentions to get the club back on its feet financially we should have the winning combination.
To give that combination a chance, though, we need anyone who is allowed to vote for the CVA to do so.
You do not need to attend the meetings, just send back the yellow proxy to the Nominee by fax or email (there isn’t enough time for post).
We know that there have been a lot of votes, but because there have been threats apparently made against people the Nominee will not tell us who has voted so far in case those people receive the treatment given to some on unofficial web forums.
He has, however, said that there are a few positive votes which were total surprises to him!
Hopefully this is just a farewell till we write in the next programme, but if the CVA is rejected then this is a goodbye from us.
We are also saying goodbye on behalf of all those wonderful people in the club’s 90 year history who received such great support from you.
Together we offer a very large thank you.
Elke & John
When we became directors of Hereford United Football Club (1939) Ltd we thought we were just helping a friend, Mark Ellis, who knew someone that had bought shares in a football club and needed people to help turn it around financially.
He was about to pay off a lot of the debts, and that would show everyone how serious he was.
Tommy Agombar described himself as ‘a football man’ (and he really is) who wanted to own a team.
He is not a man into detail, but surrounds himself with people to deal with detail and the day to day matters and this was seen at the football club.
He made promises that were ultimately not kept, but a lot of those were outside of his control.
He took on a far worse financial position than he had been told, and at a time when he thought he would have to pay approximately £300,000, he found the debts were significantly more; he would now have to deal with the previous regime’s financial errors and he was being hounded and called every name under the sun.
After he had introduced almost £250,000 (yes, quarter of a million pounds, not £2!) of his own and his companies’ money into the club, and taken on responsibility for a similar amount he was told by the FA that he must have nothing more to do with Hereford United.
He must not carry on supporting it financially, as was the plan with the Company Voluntary Arrangement, he is only allowed to own a few shares, and he is trying to get some money back by selling the debts, but they are pretty much worthless, perhaps you fans will help Tommy.
He was determined that the Bulls would start the season with him as the ‘owner’ (well, 55% owner), and for that he has possibly paid £2750 per minute of the game on Saturday.
As well as his official introduction it was also his official goodbye.
Elke and I will buy him a season ticket next week so he can scream and shout advice from the stands at Jon and Neil; just like the rest of us!
So what about the football creditors?
The majority of undisputed ones have been paid.
We were told that the scholars were not part of the company’s payroll, being paid from grants for that specific purpose.
It now turns out that the money received was instead paid to the first team players (amongst other payments) – we doubt that those players would have accepted the money if they knew it was really for the young lads, but that’s what happened.
The same first team players were sworn to secrecy about a bonus if the team stayed up, this is against the FA rules and therefore they have not been paid (this is not treated as a football creditor because it is not part of their contract), some of those players are threatening to take legal action against the club.
When local traders and other staff were not being paid, is it really right that the players should have been promised an extra £500 each, especially when the then directors were unable to pay players wages and they had already decided to sell up?
And what about the general staff?
Most were paid in full by Tommy Agombar from his own pocket as he wanted them to stay as they knew the club and supporters well.
Most left almost immediately after being paid, leaving the club in the lurch.
One was due maternity pay, and a lot has been said about the club receiving money from HM Revenue and Customs to pay her but keeping it.
Unlike the grants to pay the scholars, this money was never received – it just reduced the amount of tax that should have been paid but wasn’t, despite the fans having raised all that money to pay previous tax bills to help the club.
She received money from petty cash, and by now she should have received the remaining amount.
So why are we saying all this when up to now we have been careful in what we say (being accused of not being communicative)?
Especially when the Nominee of the CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement) told us we mustn’t say anything about the CVA at the fans forum?
On Thursday and Friday creditors and shareholders of Hereford United Football Club (1939) Ltd will consider our proposal for a CVA.
This is an attempt to agree a way for the club to survive and move forward.
We have prepared cash flow projections, which by their very definition will be wrong when we look back at them.
They include amounts for sponsorship and Season Tickets which we are confident will be achieved, but until we know the company can deliver we cannot and will not sell them and we will not ask sponsors to support us when we are not certain of the way forward.
They do not include anything for development of the ground since we do not expect it to take place immediately – it would need money, this money would be better spent in providing a team that competes on the pitch in the Southern Premier League, for you, the fans, to support.
All the money we are able to get will be used to pay the day to day costs of the club and paying back the debts incurred before we came on board.
As late as Friday afternoon we were wondering whether we should pull the CVA.
What would it mean?
The former manager and assistant manager are trying to wind up the company, and if the CVA is not accepted, on 1 September 2014 the company will cease to be and a 90 year old club will disappear.
Some local people want the club to fold; but any club ‘rising like a phoenix’ will have to start building its history all over again, from scratch.
It will never have been giant killers, it will never have had that ‘magical Motson moment’, it will never have been responsible for starting so many players on their way to higher things, and it will itself be starting its long journey to the higher leagues from a far lower place.
It will start in a far better financial position since it will not need to pay the remaining debts of the old company, the local traders will not be paid, HM Revenue and Customs will not be paid and the local council will not be paid.
The leases will revert to the council to do with, what they want. Would they really go to the phoenix company??
A liquidator will be appointed to get as much as he or she can for the assets.
One of these assets may be the amounts paid to directors which never should have been paid under the rules of the company which was reported in Bulls News – about £1.1 million between the first payment in 1998/9 and 2011/2012, over £1 million of which was paid whilst Graham Turner was a director – it seems wrong to us that the directors who did so much for the club should be told to repay all they were paid by the club.
The obvious question is therefore what changed?
We personally have nothing to lose if the company dies, up until now we have done nothing wrong as directors – if the CVA is accepted but fails, we can be held responsible and may have to cease being directors of the companies we own that pay us our wages.
But then on Friday we met some of the fans, and our world changed.
They are the spiritual owners of the football club, the company just sort of leases it from them (we do want that lease!) and is the custodian, as someone said.
They were passionate about their team and anyone who is willing to help save it.
We were humbled by the warmth shown to us Friday evening and then even more so on Saturday.
The fans outside who were protesting on Saturday also genuinely care about the club and its history.
It seems to us that with your passion for the club and its history, and our intentions to get the club back on its feet financially we should have the winning combination.
To give that combination a chance, though, we need anyone who is allowed to vote for the CVA to do so.
You do not need to attend the meetings, just send back the yellow proxy to the Nominee by fax or email (there isn’t enough time for post).
We know that there have been a lot of votes, but because there have been threats apparently made against people the Nominee will not tell us who has voted so far in case those people receive the treatment given to some on unofficial web forums.
He has, however, said that there are a few positive votes which were total surprises to him!
Hopefully this is just a farewell till we write in the next programme, but if the CVA is rejected then this is a goodbye from us.
We are also saying goodbye on behalf of all those wonderful people in the club’s 90 year history who received such great support from you.
Together we offer a very large thank you.
Elke & John