Winding up order for Chester City over unpaid tax bills
Winding up order for Chester City over tax bills
Wednesday, 10, Mar 2010 12:20
By Lewis Bazley.
Chester City Football Club have been wound up following a hearing at London's high court.
The north-west club were expelled from the Football Conference last month over five breaches of league rules.
And having failed to settle its debts with HM Revenue & Customs, the club has now been handed a winding up order.
"I am genuinely saddened to see such a long established football club like Chester City with a long history in the Football League go to the wall," club secretary Tony Allen was quoted by the Chester Standard newspaper as saying.
"Having been at the club for two periods of time I am genuinely very sorry to see where the club is today."
Chester City FC 2004 Ltd, the company behind the Cheshire club, owed HM Revenue & Customs £26,125 in unpaid taxes and the club's record in this season's Conference has been expunged after they failed to appeal against their expulsion from the league.
Supporters' group City Fans United are intending to set up a new club in a lower division.
David Evans of Chester City Fans United told Sky Sports News: "One hundred and twenty-five years of history have been extinguished today but that's just the body of the club - its soul lives on.
"Today is the day to say to everybody that our club will be run in a professional way and be a credit to our city and to football," he continued.
"Our model is AFC Wimbledon or AFC Telford, where a new club has been run on a very prudent basis.
"We want to atone for the way the club has been run - we see this as our responsibility even though it wasn't our fault."
More follows