The company behind Cafe Football, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs’ failed restaurant venture, is being formally dissolved.
A newly-filed notice on Companies House said that the firm is being “dissolved via voluntary strike-off” with full documentation published next week.
The former Manchester United stars had opened two UK branches of Cafe Football, one in Manchester and another near London Stadium in Stratford less than 18 months after the Olympic Games. Its menu included “Treble Pies” and “Nev's Noodle Pot” with food critics delivering a number of positive reviews.
A third branch remains open in Singapore, operating through a different company, but both UK restaurants closed in early 2019 with the pair saying at the time that they would be focusing more of their resources on other business interests - including their hotel next to Old Trafford.
Pre-pandemic Hotel Football was generating revenue of more than £6m per year but the coronavirus lockdown had a profound impact with their most recently published accounts, until the financial year ending December 31, 2021, stating the company “registered a loss before tax of £1,148,879, down from the £2,042,812 registered in the previous year… [and it was] still experiencing a number of restrictions due to the pandemic.”
Neville and Giggs, who also include unpopular Valencia owner Peter Lim as a business partner, also own the luxury Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester city centre.
Meanwhile, Neville has called on the Premier League to put an "instant embargo" on transfers to Saudi Arabia as the Gulf state’s new Pro League, which has four clubs run by the state’s Public Investment Fund, attempts to lure talent with exorbitant pay deals.
Four Chelsea players are in the process of completing switches while Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves is set to join Al Hilal in a £47million. Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema will formalise his transfer from Real Madrid to Al-Ittihad on July 1.
"The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn't being damaged," Neville told BBC Sport . "Checks should be made on the appropriateness of the transactions.
"If it comes through that process, obviously transfers could open up again. But I do believe, at this moment in time, transfers should be halted until you look into the ownership structure at Chelsea and whether there are beneficial transfer dealings that are improper."
Neville also made a similar plea on Instagram while renewing calls for an independent regulator. He wrote: "Any chance the Premier League can look into this Saudi trading like NOW!!!! Get a regulator in ASAP that's agile enough to stop these things at source! If it doesn't look right, it's probably not right! Independence is required ASAP. The governance of our game is a mess."
