Leigh Adams selected for Bobby Charlton academy liquidation
A football school set up by Manchester United and England legend Bobby Charlton has collapsed into administration. Professionals from advisory firm Leigh Adams are overseeing the company’s liquidation.
Established in 1978, the Bobby Charlton Soccer & Sports Academy was set up by Bobby Charlton – a 1966 World Cup winner – in 1978. Some sources maintain it was the first of its kind, staging football skills sessions around the country, in a bid to uncover the next generation of footballing talent. To that end, the Academy is most famously credited for helping to discover former England captain David Beckham.
Charlton himself is no longer involved in the company, while long-term Managing Director John Shiels also exited in 1999, after two decades at the helm. He left to join Nike, and is currently the CEO of the Manchester United Foundation.
In recent years, the Academy struggled to make ends meet – in part thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. As noted by The Manchester Evening News, lockdown hit the company hard, as most of its students were made up of young people who would travel to the UK from abroad, to participate in residential courses.
As a result, its finances deteriorated quickly. Reports in the UK press cite a document filed with Companies House, which states that the business owes almost £40,000 to its creditors. Among them are Lloyds Bank – owed over £30,000, having provided a Covid-19 Bounce Bank Loan to the Academy – and the firm’s sole Director, Geraldine Shiels, who loaned it almost £9,000. Shiels’ LinkedIn states she has been its Managing Director since 2008.
The deepening crisis eventually saw the company enter voluntary liquidation just before Christmas 2022. Paul Weber, a Partner at advisory firm Leigh Adams, is currently overseeing the process.
Liquidation of a company sees its assets and property redistributed to claimants and creditors. Leigh Adams is a firm of chartered accountants, specialising in providing restructuring, recovery and insolvency advice for businesses and individuals.
