UK Edition
Bolton crisis deepens with two new winding-up petitions
Bolton Wanderers’s financial woes deepened on Wednesday night after it emerged that the embattled Championship club are due to be served with two new winding-up petitions.
HMRC are understood to have filed a petition on Monday, which was followed 24 hours later by a separate petition from the leading football agency, Stellar Group.
The news came as Ken Anderson, the controversial Bolton owner, continued his bitter war of words with Forest Green Rovers chairman Dale Vince over the collapsed transfer of striker Christian Doidge.
Bolton are expected to receive written notice of the petitions in the coming days. In the case of HMRC, this is the fifth winding up petition the revenue has issued against Bolton in just 15 months as they pursued the club for unpaid PAYE tax and VAT.
It is thought Stellar believe they are owed at least £250,000 in assorted unpaid agent and advisory fees from Bolton and have finally run out of patience with the club. Former Bolton players Gary Madine, Tim Ream and Derik Osede are among Stellar’s clients.
Bolton had already been served with a winding up petition against the Whites Hotel, which the club own, earlier this week.
A spokesman for Bolton said: “If and when it is served, the club will vigorously defend the petition by Stellar Football Ltd. The HMRC petition will be dealt with if and when served.”
Bolton’s financial battles do not end there. The Football League (EFL) are due to reimburse Forest Green in excess of £30,000 that the League Two club paid in wages to Doidge while he was loan at Bolton this season.
The EFL confirmed on Monday that would come from monies Bolton are due this month, with the club expecting to receive a seven figure sum in distribution income.
Vince has also said he will be suing Bolton for alleged breach of contract over the collapse of Doidge’s proposed £1 million permanent move to the Lancashire club this month following his loan spell.
Norwich City are also owed around £195,000 in fees from Bolton from the loans of goalkeeper Remi Matthews and forward Yanic Wildschut. Bolton have confirmed that will be repaid from the distribution money.
Bolton’s players and coaching staff received their November wages a fortnight late, with the club requiring a loan from the Professional Footballers’ Association which also helped to meet December’s salary run.
Anderson, meanwhile, has branded Vince as “one of the strangest people I have ever come across in football” during another rambling statement posted on Bolton’s official website on Wednesday.
Now Anderson has responded by proposing to launch his own T-shirt range as the row took another twist.
“I have to say that I found the T-shirts FGR are selling quite humorous,” he said. “I’m sure the Supporters’ Trust will greatly receive the funds they generate. We are thinking about printing our own which will say ‘Yes We Ken’ and we will donate all proceeds to those employees of Ecotricity [the green energy company owned by Vince] who were made redundant”.