"This is HUGE" said Tracee this morning, peering at her screen over large orange glasses she doesn't need to wear, but thinks look great on her (she clearly needs glasses).
"What?" three of us returned in unison.
"Macclesfield Town have been wound up in the High Court."
Well, of course that is quite big news and rubbish for the club and its supporters, blah, blah, blah. But it hardly warranted the explosion at Tracee's desk. We enquired further, and she said:
"You know, that Bobby bloke with the hair," (Charlton, it turns out) "the Best geezer with two livers," (George) "and Golden Balls." (That's Golden Balls.)
"Tracee, that's Manchester United, not Macclesfield Town."
"Aren't they the same?" It appears that although Sue Barker has been unceremoniously fired by the BBC Tracee won't be after her spot on the perennial Question of Sport.
It was (and is) rubbish for Macclesfield Town when Judge Sebastian Prentis made a winding-up Order against them at a virtual hearing in the specialist Insolvency and Companies Court yesterday (Wednesday 16 September), after being told that the club owes more than £500,000 (including £190,000 in tax and more than £170,000 to two other creditors) and HMRC stuck the boot in last year, with adjournments of the petition on a number of occasions.
Macclesfield were relegated from the fourth tier of league football last month into non-League football. This happened after they were docked points for breaches of regulations relating to non-payment of wages and dropping to the bottom of League Two. It's been a rubbish year for the supporters, who were some of the few to bless the coming of Covid and not being able to watch their team live. Judge Prentis (not the 'A Pprentice', as Tracee thought at first, asking if Lord Sugar had fired the club) said: "I can see nothing that gives me any comfort that this club can pay its debts within a reasonable period." Macclesfield Town had, he said, been given ample opportunity to pay creditors, but what with having no money they just couldn't do that.
To have saved the dying embers of her dignity, Tracee could have claimed that she got the two 'M' clubs mixed up with the ironic story that Manchester United defender Max Taylor saw his loan move to Macclesfield Town collapse due to the winding-up, but she missed that one because her orange glasses don't work.
Meanwhile, 207 miles away and a mere four hours five minutes by car, the same Judge Prentis, who had a busy day off-the-field, adjourned a bid to wind up Southend United Football Club in the hope that bosses can clear tax debts. This is equivalent to them being 3 - 0 down from the home leg and missing ten of their best players for the return (we wonder if defender Max Taylor will be signing for them before the next hearing).
