The financial viability of Slough Town FC

[Shredding Green]

There have been quite a lot of posts on this forum and comments at matches during this season about the finances of the club.

I felt that the topic "Braintree at home - Saturday 26th March" had had many more than enough posts about the finances of the club and so I have opened a new topic.

1. I hope that now I have clarified that Orchard Community Sports Limited T/A Slough Town FC is 'a company limited by the guarantee of the directors' and does not have a share capital that there will not be further posts regarding the need for the company to have a rich chairman.

2. 3spirit asked the question, "What happens if the club did get into debt due to either incompetency by the board, or by an unforeseen event. Would the club's directors be liable individually then?"

The only mention of the guarantees in the notes to the company accounts for y/e 30.7.21 is, "Orchard Community Sports Limited is a private company limited by guarantee with no share capital and incorporated in England." The Articles of Association would clarify the maximum liability under the guarantees, which is typically £1 for each director. The directors would have no further personal liabilty unless they were found to have been guilty of some wrongdoing, such as wrongful or fraudulent trading.

3. The directors are obliged to provide very little financial information other than to themselves. There are no shareholders to provide information to and the small company exemptions for filing annual accounts with Companies House are covered by "The special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime". 

These do not require the company to provide any details of income and expenditure other than government grants received and the net profit or loss for the year.

4. Slough Town Football Club held a 'fans forum' in the Arbour Park bar on Thursday evening 30th January 2020. I attended and it was a very well conducted meeting although not much was given away in terms of financial information.

I would certainly welcome the announcement of the next 'fans forum' at Arbour Park.