Nobody appeared for COH Sports Bidco Limited. The hearing in the High Court on Wednesday took about ten seconds, and at the end of it the company through which Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy bought Sheffield United in December 2024 was placed into liquidation. The petition had been filed last month by United World, the former owner's vehicle, over roughly £35m still outstanding on a purchase price of just over £100m. The debt has never been denied.
Until Wednesday this was a dispute between two sets of owners with a possible sanction attached. It is now an insolvency that has happened, and it opens two separate EFL processes that run on different tracks and different timetables.
The 12 points
The first is the points deduction, and it is not automatic. A club that goes into administration is punished mechanically. A 'group undertaking' becoming insolvent is a judgement, and the regulations direct the EFL board to weigh factors including "the need to protect the integrity and continuity of the competition" and "the reputation of the league". What the board has to judge is the June restructure: the shares in the club were moved out of CSBL and into 1919 Partners LLC, a US company that became the parent of Sheffield United, with Timothy Ryan added to the board at the same time. Rosen and Eltoukhy control the club through that new company. The debt stayed behind in the one that has just been wound up.