AFC Sainsbury's anyone?
After reading to-night's edition of the Southend Evening Echo it's obvious the club are in an even bigger mess than we thought they were, and that was a pretty big one! (A link for our exiled readers below.)
According to the Echo report it appears that Sainsbury's now own Prospects and have committed £7m of the £20m they have already agreed to pay for Roots Hall.
Whether they want Ron out or at least be the major player in the whole Fossetts Farm project is open to conjecture.
The Boots and Laces training ground, where the successful under-18 side play their home games, is owned by Southend Council and only leased to Mr. Martin at the moment, though they do seem to be willing to sell it to the Southend chairman.
Then again, as his companies are alleged to owe £22m he may not want to!
Then again, with 29 companies in Mr. Martin's name, it must be difficult for anyone to know what's going on!
Ron Martin charges his own club a £60k management fee per year, while Martin Dawn PLC gets in on the act with one bill being an MP-sized £96k in 2007, hope they didn't build a moat!
Oh, and HMRC is chasing the Dawn company over bills that haven't been paid as well, so the Shrimpers supremo should know his way around the High Court if this turns into a third winding-up order in a year!
So what about any count court judgements that are still outstanding?
The Echo says there are four 4 totalling around £123k, including 72k to Deloittte LLP, and nearly £15,000 to HQ hospitality who look after the clubs catering.
There's even money owed to the Cliffs Pavilion, where SUFC have had the odd 'do' over the years.
There is also dosh owed to Directors, the players pension funds, and a £123,000 debt to the PFA which will keep the transfer embargo in place, not that we can afford to pay anyone anyway, I mean read Damien today, if you can legally get away from Roots Hall at the moment, you're going to do it.
Players will not want to come anywhere near the place.
Oh yes, there's also the £60,000 to the Shrimpers Trust, nearly the end of June guys when Ron promised to pay it back!
S24 have been informed that chairman Ron Martin was asked by the Echo to make a statement on the article but refused, however he will be issuing a statement soon through the club website.
Jay_Shrimper has typed up the article in nice easy segments for those out of the Echo circulation area, and is available in the relevant Shrimperzone thread here, (thanks Jay):
www.shrimperzone.com/vb/showthread.php?61485-Today-s-Echo/page8
(The Trust have also had their say regarding seeing Mr. Martin and the board about the financial state of the club, and you can read that here:
www.shrimperstrust.co.uk/home.asp)