Mike Ashley has been dealt a fresh blow as Goals Soccer Centres, the struggling five-a-side football pitch operator in which he has a significant stake, is to delist from the London Stock Exchange after revealing an accounting scandal stretching back at least a decade.
Goals, which is 19% owned by Ashley’s Sports Direct, has uncovered “improper behaviour” by a number of individuals in the company in the preparation of its financial accounts dating back to at least 2010.
The company has been in crisis since March when trading in its shares on London’s junior Aim market were suspended after it uncovered a potential £12m unpaid tax bill. On Friday, Goals said the new accounting scandal meant it would be unable to file its financial results by the end of September. Failure to meet the deadline means trading in the shares cannot resume and the company will be delisted.
“The directors do not now believe this timeframe for the audit is achievable and no longer expect the ordinary shares in the company to resume trading,” Goals said in a statement.
The news will infuriate Ashley, who has been at loggerheads with the company’s board for months over the accounting errors, as his multimillion-pound stake in the business remains in limbo. Goals had a market value of £20.5m when trading of its shares was suspended in March.
Sports Direct, which first invested in Goals in 2015, is facing financial difficulties of its own with the Belgian authorities slapping a €674m (£605m) tax bill on the business.
Goals, which employs 700 people across 45 UK sites and four in the US, said the business continued to perform strongly with revenues up 11.5% in the UK and 14.5% in the US so far this year.
This has given the company’s lenders the confidence to confirm they will continue to back the business, keeping existing debt facilities in place to allow it to trade. Goals had net debt of £29m at the end of 2018.
In June, Goals appointed Deloitte to look at the prospect of selling the business. The company is also struggling with the turnover of senior management. In May, its chief executive, Andy Anson, was appointed head of the British Olympic Association after just over a year in the job. The Goals founder, Keith Rogers, who floated the company in 2004, stepped down as chief executive in 2016 and left the business a year later.
