BOLTON – AND THE EFL – CAN ESCAPE A TANGLED WEB

BOLTON Wanderers fans are understandably wary of a points deduction after Sports Shield, the company that owned 37.5 per cent of the club, was liquidated on Monday.

The EFL board have announced they will ‘review’ the situation, with an announcement expected in September. It will, however, be very difficult for them to justify such a sanction.

In February 2015, the company that owned Birmingham City, BIH, went into voluntary receivership. Under league rules, that counted as an ‘insolvency event’ which, at the board’s discretion, can incur a ten-point deduction.

The key word, however, is discretion. If the club itself appoints receivers, that tenpoint penalty is automatic. If the parent company appoints receivers, the board has wiggle room.

Birmingham director Panos Pavlakis argued that Ernst & Young, the receivers, would be more likely to find a buyer for the cash-strapped club than a board riven by factions and infighting.

The EFL agreed, waived any penalty and were vindicated 12 months later when City’s current owners Trillion Trophy Asia assumed control of BIH.

The situation in Lancashire is not identical, but is broadly similar. Bolton Wanderers FC are owned 100 per cent by a parent company called Burnden Leisure PLC.

Until Monday, Burnden Leisure was owned 57.5 per cent by Ken Anderson’s Inner Circle Investments and 37.5 per cent by Sports Shield, the company set up by Dean Holdsworth to buy Bolton in March 2016.

In order to fund his part of the takeover, Holdsworth took a £5m loan with a finance company called BluMarble, secured against the club. The interest was an eye-watering 24 per cent.

When Sports Shield defaulted on repayments, BluMarble attempted to negotiate a settlement with Anderson, who has long insisted that the loan was Sport Shield’s responsibility and nothing to do with Inner Circle or the club.

Those negotiations failed, Blumarble called in the repo men and now we are here. Sports Shield is dead and buried. Its stake is held by insolvency firm Quantuma, whose aim is to recoup BluMarble’s money by any means possible. In reality, that means a 37.5 per cent stake in Bolton is on offer to the highest bidder.

In this case, there was nothing voluntary about Quantuma’s arrival. Nevertheless, Anderson and Bolton can justifiably argue that its presence will hasten a sale and ultimately improve the financial position of a previously deadlocked club.

For the EFL – who will always seek to protect the integrity of their competition – the similarity with Birmingham offers an easy way out.