{"id":413877,"date":"2019-04-17T11:28:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T15:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=413877"},"modified":"2020-12-28T11:34:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T16:34:06","slug":"bolton-wanderers-confirm-club-takeover-by-former-watford-chairman-laurence-bassini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/04\/17\/bolton-wanderers-confirm-club-takeover-by-former-watford-chairman-laurence-bassini\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolton Wanderers Confirm Club Takeover by Former Watford Chairman Laurence Bassini"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bolton Wanderers have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwfc.co.uk\/news\/2019\/april\/club-statement2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">released a statement confirming<\/a> the sale of the club to former <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/watford\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Watford<\/a> chairman Laurence Bassini, subject to approval by the English Football League (EFL).<\/p>\n<h1>Bolton Wanderers Confirm Laurence Bassini Takeover<\/h1>\n<h2>The Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Bassini was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordobserver.co.uk\/sport\/17580475.former-watford-owner-laurence-bassini-claims-bolton-wanderers-deal-is-done\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">found guilty of misconduct and dishonesty over financial dealings<\/a> during his time at Watford. As such, he was banned from holding any position of authority within a football club for three years in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement of this deal sees him buy out current chairman Ken Anderson&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordobserver.co.uk\/sport\/17580475.former-watford-owner-laurence-bassini-claims-bolton-wanderers-deal-is-done\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">94.5% stake<\/a> in the club&#8217;s parent company, Burnden Leisure Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwfc.co.uk\/news\/2019\/april\/club-statement2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement on Bolton&#8217;s website said<\/a>: &#8220;We are sure supporters will be very pleased to understand that as part of the transaction, all of the existing loans to the club will be settled in full and the associated charges removed, meaning the business will be debt free for the first time in many years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Prior to the ratification by the EFL, significant funds will be immediately be made available to the club enabling the payment of the outstanding wages to the players and coaching staff along with a number of the long term creditors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Outgoing chairman Anderson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwfc.co.uk\/news\/2019\/april\/club-statement2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said he wished Bassini and<\/a> &#8220;all of our supporters the very best for the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>On the Pitch<\/h2>\n<p>It looks as though any injection of money from the new owner is going to support Wanderers in League One, as they could be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/47963769\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">relegated from the Championship this Friday<\/a>\u00a0when they host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avfc.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aston Villa<\/a> at the University of Bolton Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>A win for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themillers.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rotherham United<\/a> away at <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/swansea-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Swansea City<\/a>\u00a0and a loss for Wanderers against the Villains would see them return to the third tier having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/league-1-table\/2016\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">won promotion from League One as runners up<\/a> in the 2016\/17 season.<\/p>\n<h2>Off the Pitch<\/h2>\n<p>Full-time playing and non-playing staff at the club have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/47963769\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">still not been paid their March wages<\/a>\u00a0and it is the second month in a row that wages have been paid late, with playing staff having applied to the Professional Footballers&#8217; Association for help.<\/p>\n<p>Bolton say that prior to ratification from the EFL, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bwfc.co.uk\/news\/2019\/april\/club-statement2\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;significant funds&#8221;<\/a> will be immediately mad to enable the club to pay the outstanding wages of those staff along with a number of long-term creditors.<\/p>\n<p>The club have twice appeared at the High Court this season over an unpaid tax bill, and in their last appearance, they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/47963769\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">handed an adjournment until May 8th.<\/a> They also said that &#8220;once completion has occurred, all the long-term debts to HMRC and suppliers will be settled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Reebokstadium_inside.jpg#\/media\/File:Reebokstadium_inside.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Reebokstadium_inside.jpg\/1200px-Reebokstadium_inside.jpg\" alt=\"Reebokstadium inside.jpg\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nBy <a class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/44174858@N00\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Hammond<\/a> from London, England &#8211; <a class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/44174858@N00\/384984082\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reebok Stadium<\/a>, <a title=\"Creative Commons Attribution 2.0\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CC BY 2.0<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=2430922\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bolton Wanderers have released a statement confirming the sale of the club to former Watford chairman Laurence Bassini, subject to approval by the English Football League (EFL). Bolton Wanderers Confirm Laurence Bassini Takeover The Deal Bassini was found guilty of misconduct and dishonesty over financial dealings during his time at Watford. As such, he was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":413881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,30],"tags":[113,197,168,3609,296],"class_list":["post-413877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-news","tag-bolton-wanderers","tag-championship","tag-efl","tag-laurence-bassini","tag-watford"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}