Trust payments staved off Wanderers' admin threat (From Bucks Free Press)
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Trust payments staved off Wanderers' admin threat
10:32am Thursday 1st November 2012 in Sport By Andy Carswell
Trust payments staved off Wanderers' admin threat
WYCOMBE Wanderers would have gone into administration without £600,000 being put into the club by its Trust, it was revealed last night.
The club's Trust had to stump up the cash during its drawn-out takeover from previous owner Steve Hayes to pay a number of important bills.
So precarious was the club's financial position, an appointment with administrators had even been booked for the day the takeover was finally signed and completed.
Had the deal not been completed in time Wanderers were very likely to have gone into administration - which would have left the club with the prospect of starting this season on minus ten points.
Details of the Wycombe Wanderers Trust's summer takeover were made public for the first time at the inaugural members' meeting at Adams Park on Wednesday.
The club's joint chairman Don Woodward told supporters that between April and June the Trust had to put £600,000 into the club to stop it from falling into administration.
A total of £5.9million in loans were acquired from Hayes by the Trust, with the majority of this being written off.
But the deal was only able to go ahead after the Trust managed to find £1.2million to pay an outstanding overdraft within three days, with further funds being needed to satisfy HMRC.
Supporters were also told Hayes is owed £2million - but this will not be paid back until January 2014, in yearly interest free installments of £110,000.
However if the club receives extra transfer income - for example from sell-on clauses if former player Matt Phillips leaves Blackpool - this will be used to pay off the debt to Hayes earlier than planned.
Another debt - from a grant of £937,000 from the Football League - will not need to be paid back for as long as Wanderers are playing at Adams Park.
Woodward added there were discrepencies in a number of contracts, with there being a difference of "tens and tens and tens of thousands" between what the Trust thought they were worth and what Hayes had valued them at.
Wanderers' deficit is currently £300,000, compared to the £4.5million it had been under Hayes.
Woodward said the Trust is looking for the club to wipe out this deficit and break even from next season, but this will result in budget cuts - including to the amount made available to the manager.
He added a further £400,000 is still owed to Wanderers by tenants Wasps.
Meanwhile, Frank Adams' granddaughter has helped pay off a large chunk of an outstanding legal bill of £125,000.
The Wycombe Wanderers Trust asked fans for help stumping up the cash needed to pay off a bill accrued during the takeover process in the summer.
Around half of that sum was found within three days by supporters and all but £5,000 of the bill has now been paid.
That's thanks largely to a donation from Karen Adams, the granddaughter of Frank Adams - the benefactor who bequeathed Wanderers' previous Loakes Park ground to the club.
Comments are closed on this article.

Comments (22)
12:25pm Thu 1 Nov 12
geoffW says...
It also brings into doubt the intelligence of those at the Bucks New University who have honoured the wonderful business skills of Hayes.
Did anything come of his arrest for computer hacking?
12:48pm Thu 1 Nov 12
evenflo says...
1:01pm Thu 1 Nov 12
townraider says...
1:04pm Thu 1 Nov 12
readerabc says...
1:05pm Thu 1 Nov 12
readerabc says...
1:45pm Thu 1 Nov 12
J B Blackett says...
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We are ruled over by idiots , lickspittles and chancers it would seem. At least the greedy grasping 'Mr Big' is disappearing up his own prime mortgage scam.
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How do these types get into these influential positions ? Because decent folk spot them and tend to steer clear of them , that's why imo.
2:12pm Thu 1 Nov 12
realist_highwycombe says...
Is it any wonder the club is int he state it is in when it only gets a few thousand through the gates every matchday?
Btw, I am not criticising the current supporters (you are all a credit to the club) but it's about time others followed suit and followed their club - it might actually enable WWFC to stop just existing and actually start being a proper football club!
2:59pm Thu 1 Nov 12
readerabc says...
3:24pm Thu 1 Nov 12
J B Blackett says...
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It is he and his little friends who ran the club into ground financially , structure-wise and administratively. And even now continue to do so but at a distance.
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Good luck to the people who picked up the reins of this struggling club (it won't be the last) but they are starting from a very low bad place and it will be an uphill task. Which I think they realistically know.
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But you can not make folk attend football matches - particularly these days when they see and hear players and fans (and now allegedly officials) behaving so crudely and badly.
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I would not take my children to such matches. Role models ? I don't think so.
3:25pm Thu 1 Nov 12
mowgli1960 says...
4:04pm Thu 1 Nov 12
mooneysmagic says...
4:33pm Thu 1 Nov 12
geoffW says...
6:28pm Thu 1 Nov 12
J B Blackett says...
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It's the 'wads' stuffed under their shirts and in their boots that gives that impression - from a distance ie.
7:43pm Thu 1 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence says...
Well done Ms Adams - your grandfather would be proud.
7:52pm Thu 1 Nov 12
BOOKERite says...
9:01pm Thu 1 Nov 12
BOOKERite says...
6:38am Fri 2 Nov 12
demoness the second says...
8:55am Fri 2 Nov 12
Gerry47 says...
2:16pm Fri 2 Nov 12
J B Blackett says...
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Particularly after he tried to asset strip it and all the other schemes he had.
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So until that debt is paid off it cannot feel like our club. He has still got his claws around its neck as he could call in the debt any time he feels like it.
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The chances are he may do that if he gets into a tight fiscal corner.
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He has shown no regard or respect for the club . supporters or the Town. A bit like his friends on the council and at Bucks 'New University' - allegedly.
11:29pm Tue 6 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence says...
11:31pm Tue 6 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence says...
I always regret the abolition of corporal punishment in schools - that was GOOD FUN!
11:41pm Tue 6 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence says...