Bolton’s glorious history hanging by a thread but their fight with the taxman is a warning to all EFL clubs
The 1958 FA Cup winners who fielded Nicolas Anelka and Jay-Jay Okocha at their Premier League peak are battling mounting bills and the cost of trying to compete beyond their means
BOLTON have been ‘up the steps’ a few times in their long and sometimes glorious history.
Legend Nat Lofthouse did it at Wembley for the FA Cup in 1958, Sam Allardyce strode them at Cardiff when Wanderers joined the Premier League back in 2001.
But yesterday the steps led to the High Court and the opponent was HMRC. The tax man and judge were in no mood for football fairytales.
The club have now been given a fortnight to complete a takeover and pay a £1.2million tax bill, or they will face a winding-up order.
That is the doomsday scenario that would mean administration and a 12-point penalty next season.
So how did it come to this at a club formed way back in 1874 where the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Jay-Jay Okocha and Kevin Davies more than punched their weight in the Prem.
The ground where greats often fell now echoes to the sound of empty coffers and hate-filled chants about owner Ken Anderson.
It is a popular misconception that Bolton’s demise was down to running up wild debts in their heyday, a nonsense based on the fact that it was owed to one man — benefactor Eddie Davies.
BILLS KEPT MOUNTING
Living in tax exile in the Isle of Man, Davies managed to finance the club while also juggling his own business empire.
The man who made his millions from the elements in kettles was happy to back his boyhood club after spending his early days in nearby Westhoughton.
It was there he grew up from a hard background to eventually move among the country’s elite.
But Wanderers got into hot water of their own when Davies tired of the club — after Trotters’ relegation from the Premier League took away the TV money that went with it.
Suddenly the onus was on him, and Davies wanted to step back and let someone else take over.
Nobody fancied Bolton, even with their parachute money.
When Wanderers failed to bounce back to football’s top table, the bills soon became a problem.
Davies faced a £5m charge from HMRC three seasons ago and did not want to pay it. He had done enough he felt, someone else should pick up the tab.
Enter ex-Bolton star Dean Holdsworth and former agent Anderson, a pair who would have been more at home in the Winchester Club from the TV show Minder.
The duo thought they could run the club smoothly — but it quickly emerged they needed a loan from Essex-based BluMarble just to pay the tax bill they had inherited.
Since then there have been late payments to creditors, players and staff, transfer embargos, plus winding-up petitions.
Holdsworth and Anderson split and players such as Rob Holding, Gary Madine and Zach Clough were then sold to help balance the books.
Under Anderson’s guidance, Bolton could not avoid the inevitable drop.
But they came back from League One and survived in an amazing final-day escape against Nottingham Forest last season.
All of the time there was the loan to BluMarble to repay — which was gathering interest by the week and casting a huge shadow over the club.
Eventually Davies, who had already been leaned on several times to help in cash-flow crises, gave the club a loan to pay off the bill that was historically his.
In one final bizarre twist in the Davies and Bolton relationship, he died as the money was put to use.
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Who knows the strain that it put on him before he finally passed away in September last year, aged 72.
However the club was failing on the park because the better players had gone in Anderson’s three-year reign — and those brought in were mainly frees and loans.
It was all built on shifting sands, confirmed when it was revealed Bolton refused to pay League Two Forest Green for Christian Doidge — even though they were contractually obliged to buy him after a loan spell.
Something was not right and for all of Anderson’s bluster in his often comical ‘Chairman’s Notes’ section of the matchday programme, Bolton’s affairs were not adding up.
Anderson is also a master of brinkmanship, as BluMarble found out to their cost in the end. They ended up settling for less cash than they were due on their loan.
But there is one rival you cannot bluff or stare down — the tax man.
HUGE WARNING FOR RIVALS
A £1.2m bill could not be paid, jammed in between delayed wages to the players for February and another imminent due date this month.
Anderson wants to sell and his leaving will be celebrated by many.
But it is also a cautionary tale for all owners in the Championship.
This is a rich-man’s playground now and there may not be a place for the likes of Bolton.
Fans of other clubs who are tempted to sneer should instead wonder when their time will come.
It is also a massive headache for the EFL. Their flagship division is already dreading the prospect of a pock-marked league table, with clubs facing being docked points for Financial Fair Play.
Other clubs have folded in the past — but mainly in the lower divisions where they could more easily be swept away and forgotten.
But for a club with the history of Bolton Wanderers to be on the edge of the abyss — and the fallout that could bring — would be a huge stain on our national sport.
