Southampton unable to pay wages

Southampton have been unable to pay their players or staff in May as their financial problems continue to mount, BBC Radio Solent understands.

Office staff were told that their monthly salaries had not been paid at a meeting on Thursday.

The troubled club remain in talks with four groups of investors, with administrator Mark Fry hoping for a resolution in the next seven days.

Southampton's parent company went into administration in April.

The team were relegated from the Championship last season and will start next campaign in League One on minus 10 points as a punishment for their financial affairs.

Administrators have asked the club's staff to carry on working for another week as a "goodwill gesture" while they continue to look for a buyer.


Southampton hope to complete the sale of winger Nathan Dyer to Swansea for a fee in the region of £400,000 which will keep the club going in the short-term.

Fry said he hoped to have more positive news for staff in time for planned meeting with them on 5 June.

"We are still negotiating with four seriously interested parties, but the process of disposing of the shares in a football club, particularly a distressed one in this economic climate, is an extremely complex one, and it has not yet been possible to conclude a sale," he said.

"However, I am confident that we are very close to entering into an exclusivity arrangement with one of the interested parties." (from BBC News)