The Women’s Championship club Coventry United have avoided liquidation after an agreement in principle to sell the club’s shares was struck at the 11th hour.
The businessman Lewis Taylor, the founder and managing director of the energy company Energy Angels, is poised to take over Coventry, who said on 23 December that they were going into voluntary liquidation.
That process, overseen by the accountancy firm BK Plus, was due to be completed on 4 January. But BK Plus said on Wednesday that those instructions were terminated at 4.52pm that day.
Thirty players and staff were due to have their contracts of employment terminated at Coventry, who are halfway through their first season as a fully professional club.
Richard Tonks, insolvency practitioner at BK Plus said: “Notice of the liquidation caused understandable disappointment to everyone connected with the club, not least the players and staff. Notice of the proceedings also gathered a lot of external interest and concern, and resulted in offers to try and save the club from parties in the UK and abroad.”
Tonks added: “We were pleased to be part of the process resulting in the agreement of heads of terms to sell the company’s shares … Clearly, a sale still needs to be finalised and we remain on hand to support all of the relevant parties with a view to completing a sale as soon as possible.”
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The Women’s Championship season has been on a winter break but is due to resume this weekend.
Taylor, whose company sponsors Wolves Women in the third tier, told Sky Sports News that he had held virtual meetings on New Year’s Day with the manager, Jay Bradford, and the players.
“We’ve had a really positive response from the squad,” he said. “We will shore the situation up very quickly and get the players paid for a start.”
