This is now serious....very serious for the club ownership.
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If the company holding the A League licence is liquidated then the licence reverts to FFA (or it may be NZF in the Phoenix's case - I'm not certain). The IRD could not "put the club up for sale" as you say.
So the IRD in fact has very little to gain from liquidating Century City Football Limited.
We're in for a month of uncertainty, but there is no danger of the club disappearing this season. The FFA could not let that happen as it would damage the credibility of the competition.
Either Terry will keep running the Phoenix, or someone else will. That someone else may well be the FFA - and there is plenty of precedent for this in the league already.
It's not in the FFA's interests for Terry to be gone however - unless he is financially mismanaging the club (which hasn't been suggested).
So my pick is that one way or another Century City Football Limited will stave off liquidation and carry on. It's in more peoples' interests for that to happen (including the IRD's, the FFA's, the other clubs', the players', and Terry's).
It is a somewhat grey area whether the IRD could "put the club up for sale". Their problem is with Century City Football Ltd. The IRD can liquidate CCF and try and recover whatever assets that might be saleable. I would assume that this could include the brand "Phoenix". It depends how you define "the club". But anything owned by CCF Ltd would be put up for sale by the IRD, including the brand name.
The only way CCF can stave off liquidation is to pay the money owed....either from Terry's assets or introducing a new investor who pays offf the IRD in exchange for part ownership.
As for the IRD having "little to gain" from liquidating CCF, that is irrelevant. The IRD is not a charity...they will vigourously persue the recovery of any money owed....in fact there is probably already heavy late payment penalties due. They will liquidate!!!!!
You are right the licence is not a saleable item. I would revert back to NZF or the FFA who would then decide on the next course of action....most probably finding another operator. This has occured quite often in the A-League.....too often for the FFA.
If CCF is liquidated and the licence goes back to FFA/NZF then "Phoenix" as we know it ceases to exist. The brand is owned by CCF, the player/staff contracts are held with CCF. Everything is up for grabs. This does not mean the label "phoenix " is finished.....it just means that the future is very complicated.
Very little of that is accurate.
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Which bits are accurate and which bits are not?
Okay, in very short form - the FFA are very clever at ringfencing their ownership of the league.
For example, go to
www.iponz.govt.nz and search for "Wellington Phoenix". See who owns that trade mark?
The Phoenix effectively belongs to the FFA. They let CCF run it, and keep any profit (or suck up any loss).
CCF's only "asset" is the right it has to run an A League franchise. That right evaporates as soon as it is liquidated. While it retains that right, and remains in existence, it has the chance to trade its way out of its debt.
Liquidate it, and the IRD get nothing.
All the assets of value revert to the FFA, any remaining money goes to pay staff first, and then the IRD would get anything that is left after that, which aint going to be $1.6million that's for sure. More likely they'll be faced with a lengthy legal battle with the FFA to get any yet-to-be-paid broadcasting or other payments.
There are, in fact, three ways that CCF can stave off liquidation proceedings. One is to pay the debt outright, two is to come to an arrangement with IRD to pay the debt over time, and three is to go into voluntary liquidation (although the deadline for this has passed I think).
My bet is that they will enter into a payment arrangement for CCF, combined with a partial lump-sum paid either out of Terry's coffers, or stumped up on the quiet by the FFA.
And that is that.
Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.
well done.
"Phoenix till they lose"