Vaughan and his 'cunning plan'

Dr John Beech has been looking into the affairs at Chester where 'owner' Stephen Vaughan put the club into administration recently .

Readers of this website might recall that Beech was the Oxford Academic who took Hereford United chairman Graham Turner to task over his views on the Stockport situation.

Beech says he is surprised that recent deveopments at the Deva (or whatever it is now called) stadium haven't attracted much comment.

On 29 May Stephen Vaughan revealed his cunning plan – he would buy the club back from the Administrator. He argued “… if I take the club through a CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement) the debt will be £290,000. But if the club goes to another bidder the debt will be £4,290,000″. In a nutshell, he was prepared to write off the debt the club owed to him if he was allowed to buy it back, but not if anyone else bought the club.

To no-one’s surprise there were no new bidders.

At a meeting with creditors on 11 June, a CVA was agreed. The club was to bought by the slightly perversely named Chester City 2004 Ltd (owned by the Vaughan family) – surely that should be Chester City (2009) Ltd – and creditors to be paid 15p in the pound over a four year period. The shuffling around of share ownership is not unknown to Vaughan. In 2001 Chester were drawn against Barrow in the FA Cup and Vaughan happened to own both clubs. To allow the match to go ahead, Vaughan sold his Barrow shares to a local painter and decorator three days before the match and promptly bought them back two days after the match.

The only criticism of Vaughan's action has come from Woking chairman, Shahid Azeem.

"For a club to have £7m worth of debts and then go into administration, only for the same chairman to buy back the club at 15p in the pound, including all the assets, is wrong," said Azeem.

Beech then has a pop at the Chester Evening Leader whom described Vaughan as the 'Chester City Saviour'.

The Chester Evening Leader, apparently suffering from short-term memory loss as to how the club came to be in its present situation, has billed Vaughan as ‘CHESTER CITY SAVIOUR’. Vaughan himself is quoted as saying “I would expect a big influx of new players in the next seven to 10 days.” and “We’re coming into the division in a healthier situation financially”.

It’s as if the last month had never happened.

Chester are expected to play in the Conference this coming season.

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