Keith Wyness

[David_Nab]

From Sky:


Aston Villa suspends CEO as club races to meet HMRC tax bill

The multimillion pound tax bill was due to be paid just days after Villa's Championship play-off final defeat, Sky News learns.


By Mark Kleinman, City editor

Aston Villa Football Club has suspended its chief executive just days after losing the match badged as the most lucrative in world football, as it faces the potential threat of a winding-up order over a multimillion pound tax bill.

Sky News has learnt that Villa, which last month lost the Championship play-off final against Fulham, has been given a brief extension by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to make the payment.

One source said the bill was due to be paid last week, and that the grace period to make the payment could be as short as a week.

If HMRC did serve a winding-up order against Villa, it could threaten the existence of one of the founder members of the English Football League in 1888.

However, a source close to the club insisted on Tuesday that its board was "confident of making a substantial tax payment within days".

On Tuesday, Villa suspended Keith Wyness, its chief executive since 2016, amid what sources described as efforts by him to find new funding to see the club through its current funding crisis.

Villa's financial travails since missing out on promotion to the Premier League are well-documented, with John Terry, the former Chelsea and England central defender, leaving the club shortly after the defeat.

Tony Xia, a Chinese businessman, bought Villa from Randy Lerner in 2016 but is reported to have held talks with potential buyers in recent days.

In a statement issued in response to an enquiry from Sky News, a spokesman said:

"Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that Chief Executive, Keith Wyness, has been suspended by the club with immediate effect.

"Owner and Chairman, Dr Tony Xia will assume the role until further notice.

"There will be no further comment from the club at this time."

There is no suggestion that Mr Wyness has been accused of any wrongdoing.

One source suggested that he had been suspended after informing Mr Xia that the club would have to file for administration if it could not meet its tax obligations.

Makes our owner sound like a Bond villain.....

So was he trying to find new funding as we spent too much and Xia is only now finding out ?

Either way if true so much for plan B ...

Fuck sake how does this club continue to waste money and time employing the wrong people in every department

[Jon Crofts]

Of course Xia being a proud man may have had a bearing on this. He'll no doubt be mortified at this turn of events.

That Sky report saying there is no suggestion Wyness has done anything wrong is bollocks, you don't suspend someone for doing everything right!

I don’t see how you can give Xia a free pass at this stage.

He's owner and chairman and employs a big team to do this sort of routine stuff.

Which clearly he hasn't done a very good job of.

[ChicagoLion]

Of course Xia being a proud man may have had a bearing on this. He'll no doubt be mortified at this turn of events.

That Sky report saying there is no suggestion Wyness has done anything wrong is bollocks, you don't suspend someone for doing everything right!

I don’t see how you can give Xia a free pass at this stage.

He's owner and chairman and employs a big team to do this sort of routine stuff.

We don’t know what instructions Wyness was working to, what he was telling Xia or why he was suspended.
This is not routine.

[Matt Collins]

Occam's razor

The most likely explanation is probably the simplest. In a world of automated payments and multilayered corpororate structures I think it's far easier to believe we've got huge cashflow problems than we forgot to pay a tax bill.

[PaulWinch again]

Of course Xia being a proud man may have had a bearing on this. He'll no doubt be mortified at this turn of events.

That Sky report saying there is no suggestion Wyness has done anything wrong is bollocks, you don't suspend someone for doing everything right!

I think by wrong they probably mean illegal in that sense!

Fucking amateurs, the finances were a shambles under Lerner, and they now look even worse under Xia.

Yes it’s pretty bad when Randy’s reign is starting to look competent.

[Pat McMahon]

I don’t think it’s just a technicality. The club hasn’t made a profit in ages, so we’re not talking about corporation tax. That means it’s almost certainly PAYE, which means we’ve not been paying it on a monthly basis. You don’t get threatened with a winding up order for being a few days late with a payment or a clerical error that you put right when you spot it a few days later.

Everything is automated these days, payroll software makes the calculations, submits the online RTI submission to HMRC and then the payment gets sent.  Unless the cash isn’t there, which considering the story this morning about selling the transfer debt is very worrying indeed.

Working in a small business but sometimes dealing with the above chores I agree with Risso.

The only other thing I could think of was some outstanding tax for God knows what, but as Risso says, if we haven't made a profit in ages I cannot fathom what that could be.

Worrying times.

[Jon Crofts]

VISA Payments system was down globally on Friday, I doubt it's that simple however.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Starting to feel that we've been sold yet another false dawn by a bloke that i've no doubt meant well but 'may' actually be completely out of his depth in reality.

And it'll only be us poor mugs and the staff that get the chop because of cutbacks that end up suffering as usual.

You do hope we'll actually have some luck again one day.

[PeterWithesShin]

Xia could be totally blameless, a scenario could be we haven't been paying PAYE for months, Wyness has been covering it up as it would show he's fucked up if we can't afford those payments, and maybe Wyness was relying on us going up to cover his house of cards? So Xia now finds out we're in the shit and he's been deceived so suspends Wyness pending further investigation.

Of course the above could be totally incorrect and Xia knew. Point is that just because this is happening doesn't mean Xia is at fault.

[Smirker]

I don't know what to make of all this.

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't know what to make of all this.

In reality none of us do as we only have part of the story. It could be something that's ultimately minor and beyond being embarrassing is nothing to worry about, or we could be in massive massive shit.

So everything currently is going to be speculation.

[ChicagoLion]

Xia could be totally blameless, a scenario could be we haven't been paying PAYE for months, Wyness has been covering it up as it would show he's fucked up if we can't afford those payments, and maybe Wyness was relying on us going up to cover his house of cards? So Xia now finds out we're in the shit and he's been deceived so suspends Wyness pending further investigation.

Of course the above could be totally incorrect and Xia knew. Point is that just because this is happening doesn't mean Xia is at fault.

I agree, it’s just that some people are automatically blaming Wyness and we have no idea what has been going on in the back ground.
The Buffet quote “ when the tide goes out you find out who has been swimming naked” comes to mind.

[Chris Harte]

So we've missed a tax payment. For those who have bluenose work colleagues who want to give you shit about it tomorrow just remind them that they have missing chromosomes.

[Ads]

Seems like poor governance and internal structures.

I imagine that if it was a large PAYE payment then the size means Wyness must sign it off and if he's not there, it's fallen to shambles.

I wouldn't read anything into HMRC issuing an effective unless order myself as being indicative of anything.

Can the sun be met? Yes it appears so. The issue is incredibly embarrassing however and has, as we can see, created panic and much merriment elsewhere and given us further bad publicity.

If you're eeking out compliance as a tactic and it happens, I do it and have done it today in my work, then you don't get suspended as it's not a surprise. This smacks to me as gross stupidity.

Given Wyness is heading into a 2nd suspension, his HR file must be grim.

[brian green]

Occam's razor indeed.  Tony Xia has suspended Keith Wyness for incompetence.  Tax non payment is the sub plot.