The Supporters’ Trust have today met a substantial £50,000 payroll shortfall to ensure that York City staff and players get paid in full this month.
We were disappointed to hear that Glen Henderson was unwilling to provide any funds to pay staff and had openly told club colleagues this was the case yesterday. This understandably caused significant upset and worry for the football club’s valued employees. Like all of us, the club’s hard-working staff and players have mortgages, rent, bills to pay and families to feed. They deserve to be paid in full and on time.
Aware that the club had no funds available yesterday morning, Trust-appointed club directors Alastair Smith and Mike Brown made arrangements to expedite several payments due to the club. The Trust then topped up the balance to meet the shortfall. In the past two months, the Trust have now made a total contribution to the club’s payroll of £145,000.
The Trust are keen to replenish our cash reserves to ensure that we are in a position to provide further emergency funding to the football club in the future. If you are able to make a one-off or regular donation, please visit https://shorturl.at/pY579
Update on the takeover process
Whilst the Trust will continue to seek solutions for the acquisition of Glen Henderson’s shares before the 4th April deadline, sadly this is now looking increasingly unlikely. We are extremely disappointed that after working around the clock for the past three months, the Trust have twice agreed legal contracts with parties only for them to subsequently withdraw at the 11th hour for various reasons.
For example, the Trust were astonished to find that Glen Henderson had offered inappropriate side deals to prospective buyers, only to withdraw them because he did not have sufficient shareholding with which to honour them. Along with other factors, this cast a seed of doubt for one of the parties that resulted in their withdrawal from the process. The Trust are taking legal advice with respect to this unwelcome intervention in a constituted process and associated breaches of confidence.
This has been extremely frustrating for all those who have given a huge amount of their time and expertise throughout the process.
Call for deadline extension
In the best interests of the football club, the Trust has called on Glen Henderson to extend the deadline for a 3-4 weeks in order that investors can continue to complete their due diligence. Glen Henderson has put forward alternative proposals, but they are so preposterous that no investor or the Trust could ever accept the terms.
We repeat our call to Glen Henderson to give a little more time for a takeover deal to be completed. Not only do we believe that this would be in the best interests of the football club, but also Glen himself.
The Trust remain committed to securing new ownership to take the club forward under a stable, secure and sustainable model.