It is likely HM Revenue and Customs will not support Dundee FC administrator Bryan Jackson’s bid to achieve a creditors’ voluntary arrangement.
Jackson will meet creditors of the Dark Blues on Friday night and hopes to be able to begin the process of setting up a CVA, which would see the first division club pay a nominal fee in the pound to those to whom they owed money when they entered administration in October.
He needs creditors holding a 50% share of the outstanding debt to agree to kick-start the process.
It was expected that would go ahead unopposed, but HMRC’s position now means other creditors believed to include former benefactor Calum Melville and ex-chairman Bob Brannan must be drafted in to make it happen.
Dundee had hoped that HMRC, whose claim against the club amounts to just under 25% of the approximate £2m debt, would support the procedure, but it is understood the government department has asked for more information.
The details they have requested are so complex the club are unable to provide them ahead of Friday’s creditors’ meeting.
The next step, on January 28, is a meeting of creditors where a 75% majority will be needed to pass the CVA in order for Dundee to emerge from administration.
Unless HMRC have a change of mind, the arithmetic will be tight and small creditors could hold the balance of power.
Jackson, who will be contacting the creditors in a bid to shore up support ahead of the next scheduled meeting at the end of the month, said, “We have a scheduled meeting on Friday where we need 50% of creditors’ proxies to begin the process of entering into a CVA.”