Bangor City FC summoned to hearing over unpaid wages

Bangor City FC has been summoned to a disciplinary hearing over players' and team officials' wages not being paid.

It follows a Newyddion S4C investigation which revealed concerns over the future of Bangor City, after unpaid debts were found.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) hearing is to take place on 25 October.

The club's director Domenico Serafino said the side had been "open and in close contact with the FAW".

When told about players and staff being unhappy at having not received wages recently, Mr Serafino said: "With some payments outstanding, players and coaching staff have instead chosen to take legal action to recover every single penny from a season when they didn't play football."

At last weekend's game against Ruthin Town, which Bangor lost 2-1, manager Hugo Colace was not present, with Methurin Ovambe in his place.

Over past weeks, an image has circulated on social media sites showing the club's players and Hugo Colace together, holding a banner which says: "Even without wages our integrity is not broken."

Newyddion S4C's investigation also revealed that a club in Italy, also owned by Mr Serafino at the time, had folded at the end of last season after players and staff were not paid their wages.

The club also had five county court judgements outstanding against them, totalling £26,127, although three of these relate to matters before Mr Serafino took over.

Mr Serafino said previously he had "paid 90% of the old debts" and was "renegotiating the residual debts".

He has blamed the pandemic and previous owners for inheriting "a very complicated situation".

When questioned why the club's accounts had not been filed, he responded: "The current financial accounts are in the hands of my accountants and everything is in order."

Two weeks on, Companies House has shown the accounts are overdue.

Responding to the disciplinary hearing and financial situation, Mr Serafino stressed the impact of the pandemic, saying the club had continued to pay players throughout, although many clubs did not choose to do so.

"Without breaching confidentiality, we are talking figures of £2,500 - £3000 a month for some professionals."

He said these sums had been paid as planned for "most months", adding that the club was now in the process of reducing its player and coaching budget.

"While many clubs around the world have had players agreeing to reduce their salaries due to the crisis, that has not been the case at Bangor, unfortunately."

He also said the club was "confident" it would reach a financial settlement with staff to "rescind contracts as and where possible".