Will the drama never end for A-League basement dwellers Perth Glory? Not only has the club failed to register a win in two months, but now the tax office is trying to appoint liquidators to the struggling club.
Except that Glory’s management aren’t aware of any dispute with the ATO – and the first time they heard about the affair was when they were contacted by an insolvency firm and asked if they needed any help. Which they didn’t think they did.
The ATO filed legal action last week against Perth Glory’s new owners, Perth Glory Football Pty Ltd – owned by Melbourne-based property developer Ross Pelligra – seeking wind-up orders and the appointment of liquidators.
That’s not how it was supposed to go for Glory. Pelligra took control of the club in February for $1, in theory ending years of turmoil under former owner Tony Sage – and after the A-League had pumped in an estimated $11m to keep the WA club afloat after Sage handed back his licence to run the club.
Given the legal action has been taken against Pelligra’s company, founded in January to take control of the club, it seems unlikely the ATO’s action relates to any of the club’s long-running financial troubles.
So what gives? It’s not entirely clear. The ATO declined to comment, and the Federal Court is yet to release the tax office’s legal filings to Margin Call. Glory hasn’t been served with the claim yet, so they don’t know either.
But long-term Glory director Jason Bontempo told us he’s sure it’s all a mistake. The first time Glory’s management heard about the legal action was through a phone call from an insolvency firm trying to drum up a bit of business after spotting the court filings.
Bontempo said the club was confident it was an administrative error – perhaps the ATO was sending correspondence to Perth Glory Football’s registered corporate address in suburban Melbourne, rather than to the accounts department in Perth.
Glory, like the rest of the league, is facing difficult times after the A-League slashed $17m from its distribution to clubs this year after breezing through the $140m raised from global private equity giant Silver Lake three years ago.
But Bontempo assured Margin Call that Glory was not in any financial trouble
The news made for a difficult day for Pelligra, who flew back in from an overseas trip this morning to a flurry of phone calls about the issue.
Pelligra told Margin Call he was as mystified as everybody else, saying he’d sort out the trouble with the ATO just as soon as he worked out what it was.
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