A decision by League One Dumbarton to enter administration has triggered a boardroom power struggle.
Directors of the 152-year-old club appointed joint administrators after agreeing that they could no longer pay the wages of players and staff.
Landed with a 15-point penalty by the SPFL, the Sons have now slumped to the foot of League One, four points adrift of Inverness Caledonian Thistle – who are also in administration.
Mail Sport have now learned that Cognitive Capital, an English-based investment company which own 80 per cent of the club, tried to halt the administration process.
Initially an investment vehicle for Norwegian Henning Kristoffersen, wife Kamila Kristoffersen and Manchester-based architect Matthew Atkinson, businessman Ian Wells is now the only director.
Arguing that insolvency was unnecessary because they had an investor waiting in the wings to buy shares, Cognitive launched a last-minute attempt to appoint a group of hand-picked directors to the Sons board in order to block the move.
Dumbarton’s plunge into administration has triggered a boardroom power struggle
Dumbarton in action against Caley Thistle, who have also entered administration
The 152-year-old club have been unable to pay their players and staff
Local directors stuck to their guns after lawyers advised them that the largest shareholders had failed to follow the required process and that the move was invalid.
Now weighing up a legal challenge to the appointment of joint administrators Ian Wright and Craig Morrison on Tuesday, Cognitive have yet to comment publicly.
Mail Sport understands, however, that the owners believe the club directors breached a shareholders’ agreement granting them the right to appoint board directors of their own choosing.
They also believe that an agreement was in place obliging Dumbarton to inform them of an insolvency event in advance.
Speaking after the Cognitive takeover in May 2021, former director Henning Kristoffersen promised to deliver a ‘sustainable full-time team’.
Just last month, however, the club were forced to reach out to private individuals to raise £10,000 for staff and player wages.
Insisting that they could no longer continue to live a hand-to-mouth existence, the club have now backed a Go Fund Me fighting fund in a quest to raise money for player and staff wages.
‘Due to the club not receiving financial support from the majority shareholder or monies owed to it,’ reads a statement from the appeal, ‘the directors took the hard decision to put the club into administration in order to find a solution to overcome its financial challenges. We would greatly appreciate any support you can give.’
The joint administrators addressed club employees on Tuesday night to assure them that no job losses are anticipated. Players also met with PFA Scotland’s Fraser Wishart.
Business advisers Quantuma are aware of interest in the club from potential buyers, with the focus on finding investors willing to save the football club rather than use the land they play on to build homes.
Dumbarton’s most recent accounts showed they were owed more than £1.8million from sale of land, payment of which would be dependent on the completion of a planned residential development of nine homes and 40 flats.
The concern for Dumbarton directors remains that a property speculator will pay a knockdown price for the club assets in a quest to profit from a future housing development and render the club homeless.
A club source told Mail Sport: ‘The club were firefighting to pay the wages and directors were reaching a point where they would have been personally liable if they had continued to trade insolvently.
‘The club were promised money, it wasn’t received, so it was a case of: “What’s for the best”?
‘The income coming in just wasn’t a sustainable flow. Had we received the money we were due, then fine.
‘Receiving nothing was the straw that broke the camel’s back and eventually the board had to make a call. The club was placed in administration to pursue a course of sustainability.’