Today Is CVA Day

Nearly 5 years ago Neil Mcclure walked in to The Vetch Field and unveiled a grand 5 year plan that would in his own words " See Premiership football in Swansea " That was in July 1997 just two months after a Wembley play off final game against Northampton Town. Then Swansea City had Jan Molby at the helm backed up by one of the countries most respected coaches, Billy Ayre. Today after 5 years of false promise, hope andtotal ineptitude, the CVA will be put to the clubs creditors which in time should freeSwansea once and for all from the ghosts ofthat awful past. The story at this time is that the creditors will agree to the offers that have beenmade to them, and by 5 pm tonight we will be embarking on the next chapter in the Swansea story, and another burden lifted from the club.

Sources from inside the club want to set the record straight that all of the debts suffered by the Swansea City Management Committee are not of their making. These come from such individuals as Mike Lewis who ran up a six hundred pound bill attempting to advertise the ill fated Jamaica friendly aftersetting exorbitant prices for the game. A game that saw no more than 3,000 people in the ground. This bill for Real Radio advertising is expected to be settled for around about forty pounds. And of course Tony Petty whosebills still haunt the club today. What we need to see today is the good faith of at least 75 % of the clubs creditors who, if they accept, can force the likes of Lewis and John Hollins to agree to the pay off to secure the future of the club.

Hollins, who believes he is owed over two hundred thousand pounds, a figure hotly contested by Swansea City AFC is one of the creditors believed to be voting against any offer from the CVA. Fortunately it’s 75 % of the creditors as a whole, and not the total owed that matters. Hollins, still very bitter about his failure and departure as Swansea City crumbled under a negative season in the second division has made it clear he wants his money. And Lewis, a backer of USA based Chris Connelly also wants approximately eighty thousand pounds. From radio interviews Lewis touted the viability of Connolly as a Swansea owner, many believe just to get his payment in full as the Management Committee have madehim more than aware that he will get as little as possible from the CVA. And of course that he is no longer welcome at Swansea City AFC.

Looking over the whole venture is Gary Stone, a liquidation specialist brought in to oversee all angles of the CVA, and someone who will continue to be involved whilst Swansea City AFC are a part of the order. Once free of the CVA the club will be allowed to trade as a new business, with fresh hope for the future. Thisway of assisting smaller businesses is not uncommon, and The Management Committee have taken very sound advice to take the club this far. They hope that by the end of today we can turn our backs on the high wage bills of the past, the grand plans that saw companies paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to draw up plans for dream stadiums that never happened and indeed to fund outrageous and extravagant ideas over the past 5 years. The list of which would take all day to write about and document. Butdocumented they are.