No Financial Armageddon On The Horizon

It is never good to wake up to sensational headlines relating to our fine football club, but that is what has happened this morning.

According to Sky Sports, the Hatters have been subjected to a transfer embargo with the insinuation that a financial Armageddon is on the cards at Kenilworth Road being wrongly bandied about by another separate source – The Daily Mail

With so many memories of the clubs’ previous financial struggles, it is not the kind of headline I wanted to wake up to.

However, thankfully, the club have reacted quickly to dispel any fears the support may have, a full version of which can be read here: Luton Town Club Statement

It seems the sensational reports have come about due to a current anomaly in the rules.

With football operating under the harsh conditions resulting from the ongoing pandemic, the club are operating to the revised schedule imposed by those at Companies House.

However, the EFL have not had time to modify their own rules meaning there is something of a conflict when it comes to the dates for filing financial reports.

But perhaps the two most important parts of the statement issued by the club are:

“Our first embargo for a decade is simply an anomaly brought about by an unsynchronised timing of financial reports due to the pandemic.

The Club’s 2019/20 accounts, whilst finalised, have yet to be signed off by our auditors which will be done well before the statutory deadline.

Given the exceptionally difficult operating environment caused by the pandemic the requirement to continue to play “behind closed doors”, financial forecasts have rightly been scrutinised much more thoroughly and Companies House provided an extension of the statutory filing deadline to June to create sufficient time to complete this additional work accurately. Indeed, the club will publish unqualified accounts before the end of April.”

And

“However, EFL rules couldn’t be adjusted to meet the Companies House extension and require that signed accounts still needed to be submitted in March, which the club was unable to achieve. The matter will be resolved as our auditors conclude the report in the next couple of weeks.

We would like to reassure all of our supporters that this situation will not affect any of the Club’s plans for the summer transfer window, which does not open until the end of the current season and makes no difference to the day-to-day running of the Club currently.

There is certainly no ‘financial Armageddon’, as the article’s headline sensationally claims, at Kenilworth Road.”

Glad to hear, we have had enough of that woe in the past.

COYH’s