Ken Anderson’s BBC Radio Manchester Interview - The Chairman Speaks

Hectic Deadline Day

Prior to the Southend game on 03 September 2016, our club Chairman, Ken Anderson, gave an interview to BBC Radio Manchester. Jimmy Wagg and Jack Dearden talked to Mr Anderson and the full interview can be heard here.

Quite understandably, a fair amount of the interview revolved around last week’s hectic player recruitment on deadline day. The business done, both on deadline day and in the preceding recent weeks, involved bringing a total of 12 new faces to the Macron. Very impressive, bearing in mind the club is still operating under Football League embargoes. As Mr Anderson explained, one aspect of those embargoes has now been addressed, with the club now deemed to be in compliance with League 1 salary cap requirements.

The new recruits from deadline day dealings certainly appear to have added more experience to the squad now available to Phil Parkinson and we all hope that the impressive start to the season can now be maintained. Indeed, Mr Anderson did say that further players could well have been added on deadline day, but certain snags were encountered, beyond the club’s control, which prevented this additional recruitment. Congratulations must go to all involved in the on-field performances and we certainly all hope that this will continue until May ’17.

Embargoes, Accounts & Filing

The next stage in moving towards further removal of transfer restrictions will revolve around the filing of the year-end June 2015 accounts. This has been an ongoing and seemingly onerous task as evidenced by the delay in filing. However, Mr Anderson did state that the accounts are now ready to be filed and that this would take place once a new accountant had been officially appointed.

The accompanying external auditor’s report will be viewed with interest, with particular regard to the going concern opinion. It would be inappropriate for us to speculate or comment on the club’s current financial position until further information is made available. We have not had any further engagement with the club on this topic, but Mr Anderson did state in his interview that the accounts “are not going to be pleasant reading”.

Further Investment

We listened to Mr Anderson's statement with respect to potential further investment and funding of the club. We take due note of the fact that Mr Anderson stated that the club is not for sale and that the club will continue to look to attract further investment. As Mr Anderson states, this additional investment will undoubtedly be required to allow the club to compete effectively should the short term goal of immediate promotion back to the Championship be achieved.

Six months ago, when the Sports Shield Consortium was in the process of completing the acquisition of the club, the BWFCST Steering Group raised several points on which further information and clarification were sought. Nothing has changed and the same important points regarding how future investment is introduced into the club (ie in the form of equity or debt) are still relevant. This aspect of any current or future investment will be critical to the long term stability and sustainability of our club. The basis and structuring of any such investment will also have a major bearing on the how quickly the current embargoes are lifted.

We are not aware of the detail of any potential future investors, but we would confirm our stance that the same information be requested from any parties looking to become involved in the governance of BWFC. Having made that point, we will continue to seek engagement on how the club is moving on from the perilous position of March 2016 and would welcome any potential investor who can commit to working towards the best interests of the club, the supporters and the wider Bolton community.