RICHARD CABORN & NICK POMERY
The reasons for Richard and Nick’s inductions into the Cambridge United Hall of Fame are unique. With the greatest respect to Richard and Nick, most of us here tonight will hope that there will never be another induction like theirs. United fans owe both a huge debt of gratitude. Put simply, it’s likely that the club would not exist today, certainly not in the form we know it, if it were not for Richard Caborn and Nick Pomery.
To remind ourselves as to why, we need to cast our minds back to the late spring, early summer of 2005 …
Cambridge United FC was in big trouble. The club had lost the freehold of the Abbey Stadium and been relegated back to non-league football after 35 years as a member of the Football League. The club had run out of money and entered administration. It was now run not by a board of directors but by an Administrator appointed to act on behalf of the clubs many creditors.
One of those creditors was HM Revenue & Customs, to whom the U’s owed around £500,000. HMRC decided it was time to challenge the long-established FA rule that, when a club entered administration, football creditors should be given priority over others. HMRC wanted all creditors – including themselves, of course – to be treated equally. The FA maintained that unless all football debts were settled, the defaulting club could not play in its competitions. United, in the wrong place at the wrong time, became a test case.
Fighting United’s corner in all this was Nick Pomery. Nick was a founding member of CFU and had only been appointed to the United board a matter of weeks before all this blew up. Nick had been handed responsibility for the club’s finances – a poisoned chalice if ever there was one! Nick held discussions with the FA, trying to find a compromise solution, and, crucially, managed to secure the support of the Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn. Richard had been bombarded by emails from worried U’s fans (the Cambridge News had published his email address). Thankfully Richard fully understood the important role of small football clubs in their local communities.
While Nick worked desperately to find a solution the Administrator set a deadline of Wednesday 29th June for an agreement, without which the club could be wound up. The battle for United’s survival ended up in Whitehall, in a meeting at the Department for Media, Culture and Sport. On Monday 27th June Richard brought together officials from the Treasury (who govern HMRC), HMRC, the FA, the Administrator and Nick in a final attempt to broker a deal. Barnwell held its breath, the tension every bit as unbearable as when U’s fans had waited for the result of the Football league election vote at the Café Royale in May 1970.
After three hours of discussions came the news that a way out had been found. Thanks to the pressure applied by Richard’s intervention both the FA and HMRC had shifted their positions sufficiently to allow a deal to be struck. The Administrator admitted it had been a close-run thing, and that United had come ‘very close, perilously close’ to disaster (his words).
There was still a huge amount of work for Nick and the Administrator to do, to get a Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA) prepared and accepted - if agreement on a CVA couldn’t be reached United would still have gone out of business. Thankfully the CVA was agreed on 18th July 2005 and the club was able to exit administration. Finally, our next battle – to get Cambridge United back into the Football League – could begin.
The reasons for Richard and Nick’s inductions into the Cambridge United Hall of Fame are unique. With the greatest respect to Richard and Nick, most of us here tonight will hope that there will never be another induction like theirs. United fans owe both a huge debt of gratitude. Put simply, it’s likely that the club would not exist today, certainly not in the form we know it, if it were not for Richard Caborn and Nick Pomery.
To remind ourselves as to why, we need to cast our minds back to the late spring, early summer of 2005 …
Cambridge United FC was in big trouble. The club had lost the freehold of the Abbey Stadium and been relegated back to non-league football after 35 years as a member of the Football League. The club had run out of money and entered administration. It was now run not by a board of directors but by an Administrator appointed to act on behalf of the clubs many creditors.
One of those creditors was HM Revenue & Customs, to whom the U’s owed around £500,000. HMRC decided it was time to challenge the long-established FA rule that, when a club entered administration, football creditors should be given priority over others. HMRC wanted all creditors – including themselves, of course – to be treated equally. The FA maintained that unless all football debts were settled, the defaulting club could not play in its competitions. United, in the wrong place at the wrong time, became a test case.
Fighting United’s corner in all this was Nick Pomery. Nick was a founding member of CFU and had only been appointed to the United board a matter of weeks before all this blew up. Nick had been handed responsibility for the club’s finances – a poisoned chalice if ever there was one! Nick held discussions with the FA, trying to find a compromise solution, and, crucially, managed to secure the support of the Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn. Richard had been bombarded by emails from worried U’s fans (the Cambridge News had published his email address). Thankfully Richard fully understood the important role of small football clubs in their local communities.
While Nick worked desperately to find a solution the Administrator set a deadline of Wednesday 29th June for an agreement, without which the club could be wound up. The battle for United’s survival ended up in Whitehall, in a meeting at the Department for Media, Culture and Sport. On Monday 27th June Richard brought together officials from the Treasury (who govern HMRC), HMRC, the FA, the Administrator and Nick in a final attempt to broker a deal. Barnwell held its breath, the tension every bit as unbearable as when U’s fans had waited for the result of the Football league election vote at the Café Royale in May 1970.
After three hours of discussions came the news that a way out had been found. Thanks to the pressure applied by Richard’s intervention both the FA and HMRC had shifted their positions sufficiently to allow a deal to be struck. The Administrator admitted it had been a close-run thing, and that United had come ‘very close, perilously close’ to disaster (his words).
There was still a huge amount of work for Nick and the Administrator to do, to get a Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA) prepared and accepted - if agreement on a CVA couldn’t be reached United would still have gone out of business. Thankfully the CVA was agreed on 18th July 2005 and the club was able to exit administration. Finally, our next battle – to get Cambridge United back into the Football League – could begin.
