Manager's liability for football club's debts

Jayk69

Strange scenario,

I was managing a football team back in 2017/18. Basically I bank rolled everything due to lack of funds in the club. When player subscriptions came in, I took back monies due.

All receipts etc completely legit.

That season was my final season as due to personal life, I couldn't sustain the money side of it and lads were very slow at paying up their subs. I actually left the role early too.

I therefore took a hit in the pocket but the team finished out the season.

I got a letter in post from where the lads use to train, stating that a Bill was outstanding and they were sending debt collectors after me to collect the outstanding balance.

I did sign up the team to the training facility, but under the name of the club. I however signed the terms being the days of training etc.

Question I'm asking, am I liable for this too?

davindub

Jayk69 wrote: »

Strange scenario,

I was managing a football team back in 2017/18. Basically I bank rolled everything due to lack of funds in the club. When player subscriptions came in, I took back monies due.

All receipts etc completely legit.

That season was my final season as due to personal life, I couldn't sustain the money side of it and lads were very slow at paying up their subs. I actually left the role early too.

I therefore took a hit in the pocket but the team finished out the season.

I got a letter in post from where the lads use to train, stating that a Bill was outstanding and they were sending debt collectors after me to collect the outstanding balance.

I did sign up the team to the training facility, but under the name of the club. I however signed the terms being the days of training etc.

Question I'm asking, am I liable for this too?

Probably need a solicitor to look at the contract signed and the legal status of the club, often with "clubs" there is no separate legal entity so in that case, the contract is with you.

Peregrinus

Yup. Unless the football club is set up as a limited company, which is unusual, the managers/directors/committee/whatever who actually run the club are personally liable for the debts they incur on the clubs behalf. They are entitled to indemnity (i.e. to be refunded) by the clubs members, but that's between them and the club members; it doesn't affect the rights of creditors to be paid. And in practice the right of indemnity can be difficult to enforce, particularly if the club has ceased to function.

BattleCorp

Is the club still in existence? If so, ask them to pay the debt.

NUTLEY BOY

I understand the unincorporated association argument with "clubs".
For argument, I am assuming the club is unincorporated in the sense of having no legal identity distinct from the individual members.

What I wonder about is the actual relationship of the OP to the "club".

If OP was also a club member the arguments posted above seem to be correct.

What if the OP was not a club member ?
Although the OP may have had an apparent title and a formal position in the club structure that does not of itself make him a member with it's attendant consequences.

If OP was not a member could it be argued that he was acting as an agent for the membership in what he did ?
If so, can he argue that his actions bind the club membership as distinct from him personally?

Also, in the alternative, it does not seem as if the OP has signed himself up as a guarantor.

I would be very slow to cough up anything until OP has explored all of this with his solicitor.

Peregrinus

The courts have tended to analyse unincorporated clubs as trusts. The people who actually run the affairs of the club, and manage its property, regardless of their formal title or position, are seen as trustees. The OP tells us "when player subscriptions came in, I took back monies due", which seems to suggest that he was handling the club's money and operating it's bank account. He must have been, if he was in a position to pay out club funds (to himself).

The position might be different if that wasn't the case. Suppose there was a committee that he was not a member of, and the committee or a particular member of the committee operated the bank account, and he had to apply to them for reimbursement of what he had already spent on the club's behalf. He might then argue that the committee were the trustees, and he was merely an agent of the club. And, in that case, if he disclosed to whoever he rented the training facilities from, that he was contracting on behalf of the XYZ football club, he might then argue that he has no liablity to them for the amount owing, and that they need to pursue the club or its trustees directly.

NUTLEY BOY

Peregrinus wrote: »

The courts have tended to analyse unincorporated clubs as trusts. The people who actually run the affairs of the club, and manage its property, regardless of their formal title or position, are seen as trustees. The OP tells us "when player subscriptions came in, I took back monies due", which seems to suggest that he was handling the club's money and operating it's bank account. He must have been, if he was in a position to pay out club funds (to himself).

The position might be different if that wasn't the case. Suppose there was a committee that he was not a member of, and the committee or a particular member of the committee operated the bank account, and he had to apply to them for reimbursement of what he had already spent on the club's behalf. He might then argue that the committee were the trustees, and he was merely an agent of the club. And, in that case, if he disclosed to whoever he rented the training facilities from, that he was contracting on behalf of the XYZ football club, he might then argue that he has no liablity to them for the amount owing, and that they need to pursue the club or its trustees directly.

Would you consider such trustees to be "constructive" trustees in their nature as distinct from specifically appointed trustees ?

In relation to sports clubs that are unincorporated associations virtually every one of them that I experienced actually had people specifically nominated as trustees of the club. They were the ones who usually made applications for licences and the like in their names or even appeared on civil proceedings as defendants but always in the capacities of trustees for the club membership.

NUTLEY BOY

For interest, see this decision from Morris J on how convoluted the issue of club membership can be.

Link https://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/1997/9.html