Not many people shed a tear for the players when a football club goes into administration. Instead the press always quote how much money the St John’s Ambulance Service loses. The realities are in any football insolvency the creditors (including the players) lose out and the players involved are usually at the lower level clubs. 

Where an Administrator makes employees redundant ahead of a sale of the business, will it always be a dismissal connected with a transfer (and therefore automatically unfair), or can it ever be for "economic, technical or organisational" (ETO) reasons (and therefore potentially fair)? In Crystal Palace FC Ltd –v- Kavanagh & ors [2013] EWCA Civ 1410, the Court of Appeal found for the latter, a more pragmatic, approach. Motivation, it appears, is everything in such cases. 

Not many people shed a tear for the players when a club goes into administration. But the realities are that the creditors lose out and that the players involved in the majority of cases are at the lower level clubs. Out of the 60+ club insolvencies we have been involved in, only one was in the Premier League.

Footballers’ salaries differ wildly. The PFA published a league table in The Mail on Sunday recently stating average weekly earnings for players were as follows:

It is a fact of life that whatever goes up will normally come back down (but not necessarily vice versa). Nowhere is this more keenly felt than in the world of British football, where those clubs that just about stay in the Premier League reap riches that would be the envy of Plutus, Ancient Greek god of wealth, and those that drop out face a desperate chase for money simply to stay afloat.  

It was a painful outcome for the administrator of ARY Digital UK Limited (“ARY”) when he was found in breach of duty and liable to pay £743,750.

The case of Brewer and another (as joint liquidators of ARY Digital UK Ltd) vIqbal [2019] EWHC 182 (Ch) reminds office holders of the importance of understanding what assets they are selling, ensuring that correct marketing processes are employed and obtaining proper valuations.

Aston Villa face a winding up petition issued by HMRC for unpaid tax. If you’re a business owner the one thing you don’t want to receive is a winding up petition because as soon as your bank finds out about the petition the company bank account will usually be frozen.

This means that even if you have money to pay the petition debt you might not be able to get access to it leaving you in grave danger of going into compulsory liquidation.

The Football League has announced the toughening up of its insolvency rules.  Football League clubs will face stricter sanctions and be forced to repay the majority of their debts to unsecured creditors under new rules agreed at the competition’s annual conference.

Last week, the world of Rugby League was rocked by the news that Bradford Bulls, one of the giants of the game in the UK, had been placed into liquidation with reported debts of £1m and funding shortfall of a further £1m.

Richard Obank comments on recent experience in handling the collapse of UK arthouse and indie film distributor Metrodome Group and the challenges facing film distributors generally.

We acted on the pre-pack administration sale of Metrodome Group to 101 Films, which completed in August following a lengthy unsuccessful attempt by management to find a buyer.

Re Codere demonstrates the willingness of the court to sanction a scheme of arrangement where English law jurisdiction was purposefully sought. Unusually, the company was acquired by a foreign group and voluntarily assumed the group’s financial liabilities, solely for the purpose of invoking the jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to the scheme. In the light of this decision and the changing Brexit landscape this article considers the effect on the ability of foreign companies to forum-shop.