Servette given month to form rescue package
Reuters - Tuesday 20 March 2012, 13:21
Servette Geneva's new owners
were given one month on Tuesday to come up with a rescue package
for the bankrupt club.
A civil court in the canton of Geneva said in a statement
that it had accepted the club's request to adjourn a bankruptcy
hearing until April 19.
"During the agreed period, the club's administration must
produce a concrete and detailed stabilisation plan," said the
statement.
"It must also demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed
measures and their effect on the club's financial situation."
Seventeen-times Swiss champions Servette, fifth in the Swiss
Super League, filed for bankruptcy on March 1 under their
previous owner, Iranian businessman Majid Pishyar, who has since
sold the club to Canadian businessman Hugh Quennec.
Quennec said in an interview with Swiss television that the
club needed to raise between five million and 10
million Swiss francs to be able to complete the current season.
He said Servette, who only returned to the top flight of
Swiss football this season after previously being declared
bankrupt in 2005 and demoted to the third tier, had already
raised 650,000 francs.
"The situation is not going to get worse, it's only going to
get better," he said. "I am very optimistic about this
initiative to save the club."
Servette's problems have completed a chaotic season for
Swiss football.
Neuchatel Xamax were expelled in January over what the Swiss
Football League said were a number of irregularities including
the suspicion that Russian-born owner Bulat Chagaev had forged a
letter from a bank which he used as proof of his financial
situation.
Chagaev, subsequently arrested and in custody on charges of
financial mismanagement, had only taken over the club eight
months earlier.
Meanwhile, Sion were deducted 36 points for fielding players
the club had signed while subject to a transfer ban.
The club then took their case to a civil court, defying FIFA
and UEFA statutes, leading Switzerland to be threatened with an
international ban.
The one bright spot had been FC Basel's progress in the
Champions League. But that came to an abrupt end last week with
a 7-0 defeat away to Bayern Munich.