Southampton Unable To Pay Wages

The financial problems at beleaguered Football League club Southampton continue to mount after it was revealed that the club has been unable to pay its players or staff in May.

Office staff were told that their monthly salaries had not been paid at a meeting this week. The troubled club remains in talks with four groups of investors, with hopes for a resolution in the next seven days.

Southampton’s parent company went into administration in April but the team have since been relegated from the Championship and will start next campaign in League One on minus 10 points as a punishment for their financial affairs.

Administrators have asked the club’s staff to carry on working for another week as a ‘goodwill gesture’ while they continue to look for a buyer.

Southampton hope to complete the sale of winger Nathan Dyer to Swansea for a fee in the region of £400,000 which will keep the club going in the short-term.

Administrator Mark Fry said: ‘We are still negotiating with four seriously interested parties, but the process of disposing of the shares in a football club, particularly a distressed one in this economic climate, is an extremely complex one, and it has not yet been possible to conclude a sale.

‘However, I am confident that we are very close to entering into an exclusivity arrangement with one of the interested parties.’