The List Lengthens

The list of clubs with financial issues seems to grow longer by the day.

League One side Bolton, the subject of a Dean Holdsworth fronted takeover just seven months ago, have seen a Boardroom rift threaten the club once again. The Trotters fell into League One in the summer, prompting Holdsworth to leave the Director of Football role  he assume at the takeover.

Holdsworth and Ken Anderson, a former football agent who partnered with the Sports Shield vehicle that made the takeover move, are the only Directors of Burden Leisure Ltd, which is the trading company of the club, but the pair appear to have fallen out over the finances of the club and what each of them has put in to right the ship after their takeover was valued at £7.5million.

Anderson is reported to be the majority shareholder with 60% to Holdsworth's 40%, with Anderson now understood to have agreed a deal with the former striker to take on his shareholding as well. Anderson told the local press the club had no money to pay December's bills, and that without further investment from either one of them the club would drop into Administration.

Bolton have remained under a transfer embargo despite the takeover, and are claimed to also owe kit manufacturer Macron £150,000. Documents are overdue at Companies House including the 2015 accounts which were due in March, with club bills reported to be £800,000 a month on average gates of just under 14,000.

Meanwhile, National South side Margate are reported to have 'less than no money' left in the bank according to their 'Chairman designate'. Alistair Bayliss, formerly a Director at Dover with a brief spell in the Gate's Boardroom two years ago, says he could not become the actual chairman until 'certain legal issues are resolved' when he returned to the club in September.

Bayliss' company is providing coaches for the team to travel to away matches as part of a sponsorship deal struck when he returned, but five straight defeats have left the club just outside the relegation zone with a series of players walking out due to severe budget cuts.

"There is less than no money left. Before I came in, it was the most amateur environment I have seen. Everything is a double negative at the moment, it's a near impossible task to turn it around.' Bayliss told the local press, with a former club CEO having obtained a County Court Judgement against the club.

Bayliss had previously warned the club was run so badly it was just six weeks away from bankruptcy, a claim he later said was 'generous'. Those six weeks are up and, with apparently no improvement following a 30% drop in attendances from last season, it could be just a matter of time before implosion occurs.