Swindon Town Football Club has been late paying 'almost all' of its payments towards the County Ground. 

As part of the joint venture agreement between TrustSTFC and Swindon Town Football Club, the club as leaseholders is supposed to pay rent to the joint venture company each month. 

But since the County Ground was purchased from Swindon Borough Council in March 2023, only one of these payments has been made on time and at one point, the club was two months behind on payments.

TrustSTFC says these late payments have not had an impact on the running the joint venture, and that all payments are now up-to-date.

But they say it has shown a 'lack of respect' towards the agreement made between the two parties, adding the rent is 'considerably' lower than market value.

Chairman of TrustSTFC, Neil Hutchings, said: "Our frustration has been that from the moment the joint venture agreement was made, and we agreed on commercial terms, this has been happening.

"If they were a few days late here and there we would understand, every company has cash flow issues, every landlord has times when their tenants are a few days late. But that is not the scenario here."

This issue has spanned across both the current trust board and the former one, with Mr Hutchings saying that the former trust had initially attempted to manage the situation quietly behind the scenes. 

But the problem persisted which has led to the new board bringing in a new rule that if payments were made over 30 days late, it would inform its members.

The trust claims the club then started waiting until the last possible day before this threshold would be met before paying.

"When the pattern of late payment becomes normal, and when we set a line in the sand and say that anything later than 30 days we would tell people and it comes in on the last possible day, we need to put a marker down because it is getting a bit silly now," Neil explained. 

“This is about respecting the agreement, we would like to see regular rent payments made on time, no differently than would have been made to the council.”

The money that the club pays to the joint venture is earmarked for redevelopment projects at the stadium, like the recently announced refurbishment of the Legends Lounge confirmed by the club's latest advisory board minutes.

TrustSTFC recently issued an open letter saying it had 'lost all confidence' in the current Swindon Town club leadership and called on owner Clem Morfuni to sell up. 

A Swindon Town spokesperson said: "Any concerns or discussions will be addressed at the upcoming joint venture board and supporter group meetings.”