Tony’s Statement.

[ChicagoLion]

Looks like a pretty reasonable précis of our situation.

[wozwebs]

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2018/06/06/tom-watson-calls-on-government-to-suspend-moves-that-could-push-aston-villa-into-the-abyss/

[PeterWithesShin]

Not sure why a retired golfer is getting involved.

[adrenachrome]

Not sure in which of  5 threads to post this, but anyway this is from The Times.

Aston Villa owe more than £11 million in transfer fees to fellow Sky Bet Championship clubs who, under the football creditors’ rule, are entitled to be paid before HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) or other businesses, The Times has learnt.

It is understood that Villa are due to pay the final instalments in the transfer fees of Ross McCormack and James Chester this summer, with Fulham and West Bromwich Albion owed payments of £6 million and £2 million respectively, while Brentford are owed £3 million for the transfer of Scott Hogan, with the final instalment due next January.

The full scale of the financial crisis at Villa after their play-off final defeat by Fulham has emerged over the past few days, culminating in the dramatic events on Tuesday when the chief executive Keith Wyness was placed on gardening leave, with the owner Tony Xia taking full control of the club.

Ironically, having plunged Villa into turmoil by beating them 1-0 at Wembley, Fulham are one of their biggest creditors, with the £6 million balance outstanding from the £12 million McCormack transfer a larger liability than the £4.2 million tax bill for May owed to HMRC, which the club are confident of settling later this week.

Under the football creditors’ rule, clubs and players are paid in full before other creditors if a League club enters insolvency. Wyness was suspended as he was one of three directors able to put Villa into administration, along with Xia and his aide Tracy Gu, and had clashed with the owner over the best way to keep the club afloat.

The former Everton chief executive was forced to go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that Villa paid their staff’s wages last month and succeeded in bringing forward a payment owed by Burnley after the transfer of Ashley Westwood, although Villa had to accept a significant reduction to get the money early.

Villa are paying the price for lavish spending in the 2016-17 season under Xia after their relegation from the Premier League, with McCormack, Chester and Hogan the most expensive of 14 players signed during that campaign for a total of £37 million.

Xia has attracted several potential buyers for Villa, including the New York Yankees minority shareholder Peter B Freund, as The Times revealed yesterday, and have secured a £6 million loan to pay off the club’s tax debt and stave off the threat of a winding-up order from HMRC.

The crisis has led to Steve Bruce seeking urgent talks with Xia to clarify his position as manager and the plans for the squad. Xia is expected to order a fire sale of players, although Chester and Jack Grealish are the only ones likely to command significant transfer fees. Others, including Mile Jedinak, Glenn Whelan and Ahmed Elmohamady, could be sold for smaller fees.

[TonyD]

Have heard the tax owing is way more than £14m,  hence the panic.

[Monty]

It had to be fees for the absolute shittest players didn't it (apart from Chester).

[Matt Collins]

We obviously don't want to be wound up

But the HMRC threat must be one of the ways Xia will be forced out. I don't want an interminable stay of execution while we flog off all the best players, BMH and scraps of land here and there

[Villafirst]

Tony Xia: "I'm a businessman" really??

[sickbeggar]

From here it just looks like the whole management covered their eyes when faced with the financial realities,whilst babbling "we're going up, it will be alright". Anyone with access to the figures like Wyness would have known the wages bill would catch up with us this summer as well as the transfer payments due to other clubs. And yet they were still giving out contracts to companies to dig up our pitch. It's like they all decided to suspend reality because they didn't like the look of it.

[oldhill_avfc]

Or maybe they were acting on the wishes of the owner?

Lest face it xia was the one saying he was a billionaire and wanted to get into europes elite in a few years and presumable behind the scenes was initially offering and delivering monthly cash flow payments.

[sickbeggar]

Or maybe they were acting on the wishes of the owner?

Lest face it xia was the one saying he was a billionaire and wanted to get into europes elite in a few years and presumable behind the scenes was initially offering and delivering monthly cash flow payments.

Well yeah, that will have to be their defence. We knew we were in deep shit with debts mounting up, but hey Tony's a billionaire. Not sure how many billionaires run their businesses hand to mouth though, because y'know billionaires don't need to.

[pauliewalnuts]

Or maybe they were acting on the wishes of the owner?

Lest face it xia was the one saying he was a billionaire and wanted to get into europes elite in a few years and presumable behind the scenes was initially offering and delivering monthly cash flow payments.

Well yeah, that will have to be their defence. We knew we were in deep shit with debts mounting up, but hey Tony's a billionaire. Not sure how many billionaires run their businesses hand to mouth though, because y'know billionaires don't need to.

Also not sure how many self made billionaires fail to understand the importance of cash flow.

[oldhill_avfc]

I'm also not sure what else they were supposed to do.  It's a private company, the owner tells you your objectives and agrees the financial plan (which we assume he promised to fund).

All seemed to be going well until Xia stopped the payments.  Then Wyness had to manage the situation hand-to-mouth presumably while trying to have a conversation with Xia who either wasn't listening or couldn't act.

Wyness then gets effectively sacked when the situation becomes untenable and he needs to act according to his legal responsibilities.

All supposition of course, but Wyness's position seems credible - unless you actually believe Xia is what he claims to be.

[Walmley_Villa]

I'm wondering if the Wyness suspension is down to Xia worrying about losing face. Wyness used as the scapegoat.

[Drummond]

Wyness was suspended as he was one of three directors able to put Villa into administration, along with Xia and his aide Tracy Gu, and had clashed with the owner over the best way to keep the club afloat.

Seems like the most plausible reason to me and makes the most sense.

The articles saying Wyness had done nothing wrong would bear this out. In effect, by suspending him Xia has safeguarded Wyness from any blame and responsibility, and safeguarded his own position of not wanting to go into administration.

Whether it's the right thing to do, however, we won't know for a while.

On a separate note, I notice the Recon website hasn't posted any News for 15 months.....