Woking facing administration, owner warns

Woking were saved from administration by a £600,000 loan from owner Drew Volpe's parents

Woking's owner has said the National League club will go into administration if a buyer cannot be found in the next few weeks - and he is willing to sell for £1.

A £600,000 loan from owner Drew Volpe's parents has given the Cards a lifeline to begin the new season next month.

Speaking to BBC Radio Surrey, Volpe revealed he had invested "over £3.425m" in the club since taking over in 2021.

When asked if the club would now be in administration without the loan from his parents, Volpe said: "Yep, 100%".

"The bottom line is I'm not made of money, so I couldn't keep on doing this for a fourth year straight," he added.

"Between tax stuff, insurance, some other liabilities, the numbers add up real fast – to a scary, scary degree.

"Once it's in your veins it's hard to stop, you want to keep chasing that promotion - but I realise now I can't keep doing it. I don't want to be eating out of a dumpster outside of my apartment."

The Cards are due to begin the new season away at Altrincham on Saturday, 10 August.

Volpe said the loan from his parents would ensure the team could start the league season, when money would begin coming in from gate sales on matchdays.

But Volpe said he was now more confident a deal could be reached for new owners to rescue the club after making "great progress" with takeover talks.

"Obviously we're still bringing on new investment, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks, but at this moment we are fine," he added.

"It's absolutely been sleepless nights, a lot of worry, but for now we're safe.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't dire straits until [we got] the money into the account.

"The reality of it, is that the club's going to be sold for probably £1 - based on the liabilities that we have, the money I sent over will be able to pay off almost all of that and then we'll have games and money will be coming in."

Woking's Kingfield Stadium has a capacity of 6,036 - but the Cards' average home attendance last season was 2,723

'The owners twisted on 19' - football finance expert

Volpe and his business partner John Katz took over the club in 2021.

A 15th-place finish in the National League in 2021-22 was followed by a promotion push that ended in fourth place behind Wrexham, Notts County and Chesterfield in 2022-23, with Woking beaten by Bromley in the play-off eliminator.

He conceded that it had "probably not" been wise to spend "a lot" to compete with the likes of former National League sides Notts County and Wrexham, who had much higher budgets.

Last season, the team regressed to end the campaign 17th.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said Woking lost £25,000 a week in their fourth-placed season, and 2023-24 was "substantially worse".

The Price of Football author described Volpe and Katz as "well-intentioned" but "naive" owners.

"It looks from the outside as if the owners essentially twisted on 19 at the blackjack table in terms of trying to get up [into the English Football League] and that's not worked," Maguire told BBC Radio Surrey.

"And that's put the club into the precarious position we now see."

'A systematic failure from all angles' - Volpe

Woking announced in June that Katz had stepped down from his role as chief executive officer but would remain on the board of directors.

They said Katz, who previously managed the club's women's team, would also continue in his position as football secretary.

Volpe says it is a "systematic failure from all angles" that has led to the club's perilous financial position and that entering administration would represent a "catastrophic failure" to himself and Katz.

"I think we had higher expectations than we should have had in terms of commercial revenue and also in terms of making a run in the FA Cup or FA Trophy - those are very important to covering your projective losses," he said.

"And we didn't have that this past year, we had basically nothing.

"It's hard to say we're not guilty of that [overspending] given where we are."

BBC Radio Surrey approached Katz but he did not wish to comment.