During the 2009–10 English football season, Notts County competed in Football League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Shortly before the season began, the club was subject to a high-profile takeover by Munto Finance, purportedly a wealthy Middle East-based consortium with ambitions to take the club to the Premier League. The former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed director of football, and lavish spending began in apparent early efforts to achieve these ambitions. In reality, Munto Finance was controlled by the convicted fraudster Russell King, and the club had been acquired as part of an elaborate scheme to list a fake mining company on the stock exchange. The promised money did not exist, King fled when the scheme collapsed and Notts County were left deeply in debt. Eriksson resigned following a further takeover by Ray Trew, who prevented bankruptcy and oversaw a successful conclusion to the season, with the team winning the League Two championship and promotion to Football League One. The team also fared well in the FA Cup, reaching the last sixteen of the competition.
The season saw four different owners, three permanent first-team managers and two spells of interim management. In total, the team played 54 competitive matches, winning 31, drawing 14 and losing nine. Lee Hughes scored 33 goals across all competitions, becoming the first Notts County player to score 30 goals in a season since Tommy Lawton sixty years earlier, while Ben Davies made the most appearances, featuring in 51 games. Munto Finance's takeover and the wider scheme of which it formed a part were investigated by journalists from the beginning. It was the subject of a 2011 episode of the BBC One show Panorama, a BBC Sounds podcast series in 2022, and a documentary for Sky Documentaries in 2025. Notts County continued to experience off-field problems over the following years, culminating in a four-year spell in non-League football between 2019 and 2023; coverage of the club's plight and subsequent attempts to recover often refer to the events of 2009.
Background Notts County In the 2009–10 season, Notts County (nicknamed the Magpies) competed in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system, their sixth successive year at this level. The club's time in the fourth tier had been preceded by a serious financial crisis. Between 2002 and 2003, Notts County had spent a record 534 days in administration. Bankruptcy was prevented in a takeover largely financed by supporter Haydn Green; as part of the deal, the Notts County Supporters' Trust also gained representation on the board of directors. In 2007, shortly before his death, Green sold his stake in the club to the Trust for £75,000, making the latter the majority shareholder. The Trust were not required to pay Green upfront; instead, the £75,000 would only be paid to Green (or his estate after his death) if the Trust sold their shares in the future.
The years after exiting administration saw the team consistently struggle. It was relegated to League Two in 2004, and was in danger of relegation to non-League football before its final game of the 2005–06 season. In 2007–08, League Two safety was assured only in a 1–0 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season, while the following season the team finished 19th. The sustained poor on-field performance resulted in supporters becoming progressively more unhappy under Trust ownership. There were rumours that the club had taken on large loans from unknown individuals in response to financial problems, and the efforts of supporters to find out more were resisted by officials. In April 2009, John Armstrong-Holmes (the club's chairman) and Eric Kerry, the Trust's representatives on the club's board, survived a vote of no confidence, with Armstrong-Holmes arguing that his and Kerry's removal would mean "potential investment may be jeopardised".
Russell King and associates The Munto Finance takeover of Notts County was orchestrated by Russell King, who had first been convicted of fraud in 1991 after falsely reporting his Aston Martin had been stolen to claim £600,000 in insurance. Before his involvement in Notts County, King had stolen £671,000 from Belgravia Financial Services Group, and had acquired a 49% stake in the investment bank First London by falsely claiming he was managing billions of dollars for the Bahraini royal family. The others involved were Nathan Willett and his father Peter, of whom little is known; in 2022, the makers of a BBC podcast series about the takeover were unable to locate even a forwarding address for the pair. Once the takeover was completed, Peter Trembling acted as executive chairman of Notts County; Matt Scott of The Guardian would later describe him as Munto Finance's "mouthpiece". Following the takeover's collapse, Trembling maintained that he had been deceived, and that he had lost much of his own money as a result of the affair.
Pre-season events Takeover While preparing for the 2009–10 season, Notts County were approached by Trembling, who indicated that Munto Finance was interested in buying the club. At a meeting, Trembling told Armstrong-Holmes that Munto Finance were a Middle East-based consortium, and that unspecified royalty was involved. A further meeting took place in Bahrain between Armstrong-Holmes and Roy Parker (a shareholder in the club and its vice chairman) and representatives of the consortium. According to Armstrong-Holmes, King was in attendance, but played no part in the talks until Armstrong-Holmes demanded a bank guarantee as a condition of a sale, which King soon produced. Unbeknown to Notts County's representatives, the guarantee, which appeared to be from First London, was worthless. It had not been approved by the bank's board and came from a part of the bank that no longer existed. A deal was agreed, with the takeover announced in July 2009. Trembling was appointed as chief executive, and Munto Finance announced its ambition to see Notts County promoted to the Championship within five years.
As part of the deal, Munto Finance insisted that it be given ownership of the club for nothing, and the Trust pushed its members to approve the "gift" of the Trust's shares to the consortium. As this would not be a sale, no money would need to be paid to the estate of Haydn Green. Some supporters protested, questioning whether paying Green's estate would not be the "honourable thing" to do, but Armstrong-Holmes urged Trust members to back the deal, saying that "Haydn Green's position in the club's history is acknowledged and will be honoured by Munto". Trust members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the transfer of the shares, and Munto Finance consequently acquired the club for free. Chris Porter, who discussed the takeover in a study of fan ownership of football clubs, says that the sale "amounted to an up-front outlay from the would-be recipient of promised future riches", and that the Trust failed to ask why supposedly wealthy investors were unwilling to make a relatively modest initial outlay to buy the club. The identity of those who would be financing the club was shrouded in secrecy, but the journalist and Notts County supporter Simon Goodley was soon tipped off about the involvement of King, and he began to investigate. Also soon investigating was Matt Scott, who was encouraged to do so by a source after noting in his column that the takeover had not yet been approved.
Player transfers, arrival of Sven-Göran Eriksson Notts County had already begun signing players for the 2009–10 season before the takeover, with these players either being from League Two or non-League clubs or joining on loan. Midfielders Neal Bishop, Ben Davies and Ricky Ravenhill joined from Barnet, Shrewsbury Town and Darlington respectively, while Kettering Town striker Craig Westcarr had joined on a one-year deal. Also signing pre-takeover were defenders Graeme Lee, who joined the club for an undisclosed fee from Bradford City, and Brendan Maloney, who joined on a six-month loan from Nottingham Forest. In the week after Munto Finance took control of the club, the Magpies announced the signing of two strikers, Lee Hughes and Luke Rodgers, on free transfers from Oldham Athletic and Yeovil Town respectively.
On 22 July, Notts announced the appointment of the former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson as director of football in what Stuart James of The Guardian described as "one of the game's most staggering moves of recent times". Despite Munto Finance's initially stated target of seeing Notts County promoted to the Championship, Eriksson said he wanted to see the club promoted to the Premier League. Eriksson said he was "particularly attracted to this role and the unique opportunity to help build a club over the longer term". With Eriksson's appointment, Notts began to target, or were linked in the press with, much more high-profile players. At one point, reports suggested the Brazil international and World Cup winner Roberto Carlos might join the club. On another occasion, David Beckham was asked by a radio journalist about the possibility of working with his old England manager. The club's final pre-season signing was that of striker Karl Hawley from Preston North End for an undisclosed fee.
Friendlies To prepare for the new season, the Magpies played a series of friendlies. The first match after Eriksson's arrival, the game against Nottingham Forest at Notts County's Meadow Lane stadium, attracted nearly 13,000 spectators, and saw Eriksson "paraded" before the crowd prior to kick off. Match details Key
In result column, Notts County's score shown first H = Home match A = Away match
Results DateOpponentsResult21 July 2009Arnold Town (A) 7–025 July 2009Nottingham Forest (H) 2–128 July 2009Derby County (H) 2–331 July 2009Liverpool XI (H) 2–2 League Two August–October Notts started the season strongly. Hughes scored a hat-trick on the opening day as the Magpies defeated Bradford 5–0 at home with over 9,000 spectators in attendance. The team won 4–0 at Macclesfield Town in its first away game, but then suffered its first defeat, losing 2–1 at Chesterfield. During August, the club used its apparent new-found wealth to strengthen its squad. The signing of goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel from Manchester City for an undisclosed fee believed to surpass the club record was announced on 14 August. That of Johnnie Jackson from Colchester United (also for an undisclosed fee) followed two days later. Schmeichel made his debut in a 3–0 home win over Dagenham & Redbridge on 22 August. Three days later, Notts announced the signing of England international Sol Campbell on a five-year contract: "there were offers from the Premier League but that would have been short-term. I'm thinking of the future", he told the BBC. In their final match of the month, Notts were beaten 1–0 at Barnet.
Early in September, Notts County strengthened their squad further, bringing in winger Matt Ritchie on loan from Portsmouth until the end of December. The month began with two home games, a 1–1 draw with Burton Albion and a 5–2 win over Northampton Town in which Hughes scored his second hat-trick of the season. Campbell made his debut the following week at Morecambe, but he could not prevent the Magpies from losing 2–1. It proved to be Campbell's only game for the club, as he left by mutual consent four days later. He had grown suspicious that the club's supposed wealth was not real; defender Mike Edwards later said that, shortly before leaving, Campbell had warned his teammates of his doubts. Despite losing Campbell, Notts ended the month with two victories, a 3–1 home win over Port Vale and a 3–0 win at Lincoln City in which Rodgers scored a hat-trick.