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After the financial pain comes the footballing pain, Crystal Palace have been formally docked 10 points and plunged into a relegation dog fight. Last week the Championship club was near the Play Offs with a promising squad and one of the leagues top scorers in Darren Ambrose. A single creditor, Agilo, a hedge fund owed around £4.5m, called for the administrators despite days remaining in the transfer window and several big money sales about to be sealed.
Player, who had twice had wages delayed, had been paid, a £2m tax bill and winding up order from HMRC was also postponed for a year.
Consequences were quick and unrelenting - straight away administrator Brendan Guilfoyle ordered Palace's manager, Neil Warnock, to leave their prize asset, the 19-year-old winger Victor Moses, out of the squad for last night's 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United to prevent him picking up an injury.
The fear from Eagle fans was that administration would result in a fire sale with players going for peanuts.
In the meantime, Palace drop from ninth in the Championship to 21st - only three points off the relegation zone.
Why did one creditor call in admin squad?
Fans and the manager have been furious with the timing and that one creditor has wreaked the season and could potentially destroy the south London club. But why did they act when they were days away from transfer money paying there debt?
It appears that Agilo acted after its relationship with Jordan apparently broke down and it began to fear that money earmarked for loan repayments, secured on the players and the club's name, would be diverted to pay wages and settle outstanding bills with HMRC.
Agilo may now have to lend the club money to pay wages to staff and players due at the end of this month.
Manager vows to stay - Jordan may have to remain
Usually administrators dismiss the manager and Chairman as soon as their Bentley's turn up at a trouble club's car park - but Warnock has vowed to stay after a meeting with Guilfoyle who said: "Neil has no intention of leaving, he wants to see the outcome of the administration and see what the future holds."
Earlier Warnock told The Independent:
"The timing just astonishes me.
There's a week to go in the transfer window and we are about to sell Victor Moses for millions," he told the Independent.
I'm devastated, shocked and hugely disappointed."
Chairman Simon Jordan, who saved Palace from administration in 2000, but last year announced his intention to sell the club, may also be sticking around.
He remains the club's biggest creditor at £20m, it has emerged, but may have to remain involved as part of any rescue plan.
Can still win promotion
Guilfoyle however, remained confident a buyer would be found but said he had received no concrete approaches:
"There is a swirl going on that we are aware of. There is a suggestion there are parties who want to pay off the debts and bring about an early end to this administration. If that's the case, I need them to come forward and engage with me. Hopefully we won't be here for very long, the club will go into new ownership, the cycle of bust will cease and the club – despite the sanctions of the Football League – can mount a campaign to get into the Premier League."
Debt breakdown
Palace owe £32m. On top of the £20m owed to Jordan and the £4.5m owed to Agilo, secured on the players' contracts and intellectual property, HMRC is owed £2m, £4m is owed to trade creditors and £1.5m to football creditors, who must be paid first and in full under Football League rules. The club has twice since been subject to a transfer embargo, with the Palace players first informed that Jordan had "cashflow" problems at the end of November. Ground up for sale
The cash-strapped side also has their ground up-for sale after Paul Kemsley’s £500m property empire went into meltdown.
In April 2008 a 25 year lease was granted to Crystal Palace an annual rent of £1.2m, the club's owner Simon Jordan already had the option of buying the freehold under the terms of the 25-year lease agreement he secured for his club in 2008.
Jordan has yet to comment on whether he will exercise that right.
Under Croydon Council rules the site would have to remain a football stadium.
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