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.
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.
Quote from: oldhill_avfc on June 07, 2018, 08:37:33 AMOr 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.
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.