Goals Soccer Centres blows whistle over accounting errors

Five-a-side football operator Goals Soccer Centres has suspended trading of its shares on AIM following the discovery of a series of accounting errors.

Goals revealed on Wednesday that it had made "a substantial misdeclaration of VAT, going back over several years" and, while the full value of the misdeclaration was still to be established, the figure was already somewhere in the vicinity of £12m.

In addition to the historical accounting errors, Goals also expects that the VAT accounting policies it intends to adopt will have an "impact on profitability" going forward.

Goals believe the misdeclaration could lead to a "material change in its overall financial position" and told investors that it was currently unable to "provide clarity to the extent of that impact", leading it to request that its shares be suspended from trading on AIM.

In other news, Goals assured investors that trading since 8 March had continued to be "strong" in both the UK and US, over the comparable period in 2018.

As of 0820 GMT, Goals shares were suspended at 27.20p.