Town release statement

10:39pm Wednesday 30th January 2013 in Local

THE Board of Swindon Town FC are pleased to announce its majority shareholder Andrew Black has today exchanged contracts with a consortium to acquire the Club. Completion of the sale is dependent upon approval from the Football League, which we hope to obtain in the next few days.

Upon completion, most of the Club’s existing debt will be written off, the threat of administration will be avoided and Paolo Di Canio and the squad will be able to concentrate on football and the challenge of making Swindon a Championship club next season.

Chairman Sir William Patey commented: “This is an important day for the club, with the current owners writing off most of their debts and the new consortium’s funding, the club has a strong financial base to continue the battle for Championship football. I look forward to updating you with more details as soon the deal receives Football League approval.”

Comments(24)

STFC MARLOW says...
10:47pm Wed 30 Jan 13

So the current owners are writing off their debts?

Who exactly are the new owners? Do they have money? I guess not if we sell Ritchie for £500k!!

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Is that you Lovesey says...
10:49pm Wed 30 Jan 13

might be a wages trimming exercise

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your having a laugh111 says...
10:50pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Congratulations to the new owners on starting a great job, Ritchie for 500000 bargain have you got any more players you would like to give us, maybe your now a feeder club for Bournemouth. Again I congratulate you.

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eastern red says...
10:57pm Wed 30 Jan 13

First of many sales and di Canio must surely walk....on the bright side conference football can be quite entertaining sometimes.

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Is that you Lovesey says...
10:59pm Wed 30 Jan 13

your having a laugh111 wrote:
Congratulations to the new owners on starting a great job, Ritchie for 500000 bargain have you got any more players you would like to give us, maybe your now a feeder club for Bournemouth. Again I congratulate you.
D1CK

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your having a laugh111 says...
11:00pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Is that you Lovesey wrote:
your having a laugh111 wrote:
Congratulations to the new owners on starting a great job, Ritchie for 500000 bargain have you got any more players you would like to give us, maybe your now a feeder club for Bournemouth. Again I congratulate you.
D1CK
Ha ha ha your the laughing stock now even worse than poopy

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Stfc_BristolRed says...
11:02pm Wed 30 Jan 13

You can't make a statement like that and then sell the key players in the squad and push PDC out....... Tomorrow will be very interesting. Lets hope MR leaving is part of a constructive plan. Otherwise I think the bew owners could be in for a hell of a backlash.

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donaldslovechild says...
11:07pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Well whatever the outcome, life has never been boring over the last 18 months. An awful lot of angst has been poured out in the last few hours and the distress of all true town fans is palpable.
Half an hour ago Paolo was gone for certain and the prospect of that was almost unthinkable. And now? A ray of light, a crumb of comfort. Lets just hope that Matt and the fans are the only, hopefully, temporary casualties in this affair. It looks like we might still be a club tomorrow and we can at least go to bed with the promise that tomorrow might be a better day!!!!
Good night and good luck to us all.

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donaldslovechild says...
11:10pm Wed 30 Jan 13

We're up, we're down but we're ALWAYS Swindon Town!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COYR

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red_welder says...
11:12pm Wed 30 Jan 13

bad news regarding ritchie, hopefully its money available for paolo before the window shuts and fl approval

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Lambourn Red says...
11:14pm Wed 30 Jan 13

STFC MARLOW wrote:
So the current owners are writing off their debts?

Who exactly are the new owners? Do they have money? I guess not if we sell Ritchie for £500k!!
It was the old board that sold Ritchie to keep the cashflow going

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Cookie43 says...
11:19pm Wed 30 Jan 13

your having a laugh111 wrote:
Congratulations to the new owners on starting a great job, Ritchie for 500000 bargain have you got any more players you would like to give us, maybe your now a feeder club for Bournemouth. Again I congratulate you.
Tw.t

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luckyluke699 says...
11:19pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Has anybody not thought that it could simply be Mr Black recouping some value from his assets before he wrote most of the remaining debt off?
.
I'm sure it's no coincidence that this occurred in a very short amount of time before the club sold, and Ritchie mentioned it was even part of the deal in his video on youtube/cherries player.

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Pewsham Red says...
11:24pm Wed 30 Jan 13

your having a laugh111 wrote:
Congratulations to the new owners on starting a great job, Ritchie for 500000 bargain have you got any more players you would like to give us, maybe your now a feeder club for Bournemouth. Again I congratulate you.
Well done mate. You are a conference team in league one but will soon be back where you belong. Make the most of it, tosser.

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sunnyd22 says...
11:25pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Come on this is the current owners pulling cash in before the deal is done... Lets welcome a new lot who have the sense to clear the debt first... Come on the Swindon people get behind the club ....

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super reds says...
11:41pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Does this mean that 'Guv' posting on another thread is 'bullsh1tting', I am hoping he is but somehow I have a feeling he's quite near the mark

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eminencegris says...
11:57pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Really struggling to see any positives from this. Perhaps Andrew Black has written off all but the (only) 500k he might recoup from the Ritchie sale, but I find it hard to believe this consortium has anything like the financial muscle Fitton, Black, Arbib et al brought to the table. Clearly Patey has been a short-term selling agent. I genuinely hope I'm wrong, but this all has a distinctly piscine aroma to me. Today has brought just uncertainty.

I'm perhaps even more surprised at how cheaply Ritchie has moved on, and to Bournemouth, of all clubs? Perhaps he's as drawn to the South Coast as Joey Beauchamp was to Oxfordshire. I would have expected a step up, rather than sideways.

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swinloz1968 says...
12:24am Thu 31 Jan 13

super reds wrote:
Does this mean that 'Guv' posting on another thread is 'bullsh1tting', I am hoping he is but somehow I have a feeling he's quite near the mark
Its not looking good is it? Fods, Collins and Williams rumoured to be going tomorrow. So where would that leave PDC? But... hey... lets see what tomorrow brings, not a lot we can do about any of this.

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red_welder says...
12:31am Thu 31 Jan 13

Only rumoured by the gov!

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madterrier says...
12:40am Thu 31 Jan 13

A nervous Thursday ahead of us. If we end up selling £4 million of talent for £700k on the last two days of the window, this whole sorry episode will go down as gross financial mismanagement.

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Swindon_till_I_die says...
1:02am Thu 31 Jan 13

Andrew Fitton saved our club. Paulo Di'canio and his agent were always going to bankrupt it.Thank you Mr Black for your time and money especially if you have had to write off any of it.It's now time for a reality check and for us to
learn to live within our means as Andrew Fitton intended.Do us a favour Paulo walk and take your agent with you!

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kevjoycreed says...
5:12am Thu 31 Jan 13

Seems fairly simple to me;
- Black said he wouldn't put anymore money into the club.
- Takeover will take a few days to be ratified by the Football League.
- New owners reluctant to put cash in until takeover completed.
- Bills/wages need to be paid at the end of January.
- Club needs to raise funds to pay bills/wages etc...
Every STFC fan wants to keep the best players but the long term survival of the club has to be more important. Ritchie was clearly the easiest deal to get done to pay the bills in the interim period while the takeover goes through.
It's not like Ritchie has been half the player this season that he was last...

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vikingred says...
5:17am Thu 31 Jan 13

Swindon_till_I_die wrote:
Andrew Fitton saved our club. Paulo Di'canio and his agent were always going to bankrupt it.Thank you Mr Black for your time and money especially if you have had to write off any of it.It's now time for a reality check and for us to
learn to live within our means as Andrew Fitton intended.Do us a favour Paulo walk and take your agent with you!
...and that is so the truth. Unfortunately!

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RRobin69 says...
6:18am Thu 31 Jan 13

vikingred wrote:
Swindon_till_I_die wrote:
Andrew Fitton saved our club. Paulo Di'canio and his agent were always going to bankrupt it.Thank you Mr Black for your time and money especially if you have had to write off any of it.It's now time for a reality check and for us to
learn to live within our means as Andrew Fitton intended.Do us a favour Paulo walk and take your agent with you!
...and that is so the truth. Unfortunately!
....and I've not seen it commented elsewhere, but Ritchie had a contract. He did not HAVE to leave. If he was happy, thought we had a chance of promotion and was under contract he didnt have to agree to the move.

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