Southend chairman Ron Martin has accused Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs of dishing out winding-up petitions "like confetti", joining Portsmouth, Notts County, Cardiff City and Plymouth Argyle in having to pay off their tax debt or face being placed in administration.
The club settled their £2.1m bill when Sainsbury's, who should be building a supermarket on the Roots Hall pitch once, and hopefully after, Southend have moved to Fossetts Farm, gave a loan to one of Uncle Ron's companies.
However, after going back over the figures, the Shrimpers are now claiming they have overpaid by more than £200,000.
The board have sent out the lawyers and in an official statement Martin said: "HMRC appear to be sending out winding-up petitions against football clubs like confetti; altough clearly the Revenue's relationship with the industry is not, in some quarters, a marriage made in heaven. The club may, bizarrely, now need to apply to the Court for an injection against HMRC."
Queenies' tax collectors refused to discuss individual cases, but a spokeswoman said: "We do not take these steps lightly."
I hope not!
Anyway, for Uncle Ron's words of wisdom in full, go here:
www.southendunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~1932006,00.html