Goals goes up for sale as firm tackles fraud allegations

● Deloitte invites offers for East Kilbride firm reeling from £12m accounts blunder

Soccer Centres, the embattled Scottish five-aside football pitch operator at the centre of a £12 million tax fraud investigation, has put itself up for sale.

In a stock market update the company said it had “commenced a process to invite offers for the business and assets of the company”.

It added that “there is no certainty as to the timetable or outcome of this process” and that it will update shareholders as and when appropriate.

This includes Mike Ashley’s retail group Sports Direct, which owns 19 per cent of the East Kilbride firm.

Goals has enlisted the help of auditor Deloitte to run the sales process which comes after the company was forced to admit earlier this month that it would not be able to sign off its accounts by the end of September.

The professional services firm is now set to send out sales documents to interested parties and is expected to use revenues data and booking information to show it remains a viable business.

Goals is one of the biggest players of its kind, running about 50 sites in the UK and the US and employing around 700 staff.

Shares in the group, which is listed on London’s junior Alternative Investment Market, have been suspended since March following the discovery of accounting and VAT irregularities stretching back years, leaving it with an estimated £12m bill to HM Revenue & Customs.

The business has previously confirmed that the behaviour of ex-chief executive Keith Rogers and former chief financial officer Bill Gow while at Goals is part of an internal probe into alleged fraud.

In an earlier statement Goals said: “The company can confirm that actions undertaken by Mr Gow and Mr Rogers while employees and directors of the company form part of the current investigations of the company into the misgoals statement of historic financial statements.

“The company can confirm no finalised conclusions have yet been reached, although as stated in the 2 August 2019 announcement by the company it is clear inappropriate actions have taken place.”

According to reports, the Financial Conduct Authority is investigating the issue after forensic accountants at BDO alleged that Gow emailed Rogers asking him to “work your usual magic” to create fake invoices.

Allegations have also been made that Gow deleted old emails to “purge” records and the pair were manipulating numbers to avoid VAT payments and breaching banking rules with its lender Bank of Scotland. The pair are said to have strenuously denied the allegations.

In a further blow to shareholders, Goal directors said earlier this month that they did not believe the firm can present its 2018 financial accounts by the required 30 September deadline, which means it will be delisted from the stock market and investors will be wiped out.