Crystal Palace have been threatened with being dissolved and struck off the companies register for being more than two months late filing their annual accounts for last year.
The accounts detailing the financial position of the Premier League club in 2016-17 were due by law to be sent to Companies House by 31 March but the official register is highlighting that they have still not been filed.
On Tuesday the Registrar of Companies issued a notice to the company which owns and runs Crystal Palace, CPFC 2010 Ltd, that it will be “struck off the register and the company will be dissolved” in two months “unless cause is shown to the contrary”.
That is understood to mean the company will be struck off and legally cease to exist unless it files by then.
All limited companies must by law file accounts to Companies House within nine months of the end of their designated financial year. CPFC 2010 Ltd has a year end of 30 June, so the accounts for last year, the club’s fourth season since winning promotion in 2013, were due by 31 March.
Failure to file accounts can often be a sign that a company is in financial difficulties, having problems in its own administration, or that the accountants auditing the books have raised concerns which the company’s directors have not resolved to the auditors’ satisfaction.
Palace representatives have told the Guardian since early April that there are no such issues and that the accounts were due to be filed imminently with Companies House.
The penalties for failing to file accounts are not severe unless the delay becomes extensive. A fine of £150 is levied for a month’s delay, then £375 for between one and three months. The Palace representatives have not said whether the club has been fined.
Palace are alone among Premier League clubs in being late filing. All other 19 clubs who were in the top flight in 2016-17 have had theirs published by Companies House, within good time. Most show healthy financial positions, 2016-17 having been the first year of the 2016‑19 record £8.4bn Premier League TV deals.
The 2015-16 accounts for CPFC 2010 showed that Palace, who are owned by the chairman, Steve Parish, and two US financial investors, Joshua Harris and David Blitzer, made a £7m loss on turnover of £102m.
Last year’s accounts are expected to show a pay-off for the manager who was sacked, Alan Pardew, but no indication or explanation has been given as to why the accounts have not been filed.