Sports Direct is continuing to put pressure on struggling Goals Soccer Centres. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Sports Direct said that its request for the appointment of Kroll to do an independent and cradle to grave report was not a request for the Board to appoint Kroll, it was a request for the Board to allow the investigation to take place, with all of the costs incurred in connection with the Kroll report being borne by Sports Direct.
Sports Direct is also proposing to make any such Kroll report available to all shareholders who would also have access to Kroll to ask them any questions.
The statement added that: “Sports Direct would note that one of the significant shareholders of Goals is also a member of the company's board and will therefore have access to information relating to the activities of the company that other shareholders currently do not have access to, including but not restricted to the company's ongoing investigations. It is the Company's position that they are 100% sure that the matters under investigation were carried out by one individual. The board of Goals taking this position leads Sports Direct to believe it is essential that Kroll's appointment is made immediately. Sports Direct now calls upon the board of the Company to agree to Kroll's appointment. A substantial amount of the information that will be required by Kroll will already be available, and this investigation should start without any further delays.”
Sports Direct confirmed it will be voting against the reappointment of the whole of the company's board at its AGM on 28 June 2019.
Goals Soccer Centres has responded by saying that while the auditor of the company is BDO (appointed on 267 June 2018), it has also engaged a separate independent forensic division of BDO to analyse historical accounting errors and policies. In addition, the company has engaged RSM Tenon and a specialist VAT consultant to assist it in its ongoing discussions with HMRC. The company have now engaged Deloitte LLP to work alongside its advisors and its lenders in assessing its future corporate options. Goals board said it did not believe the appointment of Kroll to be appropriate or in shareholders’ best interests.
