New finance boss at trouble football firm as Deloitte joins the team

In March Goals revealed that it had discovered what it called “substantial” VAT errors totalling £12 million and counting.

The company, which is almost a fifth owned by Sports Direct and House of Fraser owner Mike Ashley, said the mistake went back “several years” and efforts were underway to determine the full extent of the accounting blunder.

The company has confirmed that its lender is Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds Banking Group, and that bank debt stands at £30m.

Against this backdrop, Mr McGill comes in having worked with companies including Baxters Food Group, McDonald Hotels and the Murray Group.

Mr McGill, who has not joined Goals’ board, replaces Martin Johnson who previously held the role on an interim basis and leaves the company on 31 July.

Trading in the firm’s shares were suspended following the March announcement as the error identified could lead to “a material change” in its financial position, the company said.

And the business further warned that new VAT accounting policies it will now be compelled to adopt “may have an impact on future profitability”.

When admitting the discovery of accounting errors, Goals said full-year results would be “materially below” expectations and their publication delayed.

However the firm, which operates 50 outdoor football centres in the UK and California, said that trading since 8 March had been strong in both the UK and US.

It had estimated profit for 2018 of between £4.3m to £4.5m, but these figures which are now in question and the company said it now plans to enter into discussions with HMRC immediately.

“The value associated with these errors is still to be finalised but remains significant,” it said.