Ebbsfleet United in danger as suspension continued

The National League posted the following statement this afternoon (Wednesday) in regard to the Ebbsfleet United’s position and extended suspension.

“The National League’s Compliance and Licensing Committee convened this morning to further consider Ebbsfleet United FC’s compliance with National League rules and regulations, and particularly the Club’s ongoing suspension.  The position remained significantly as previously.  The Committee considered the response provided by the Club and noted that its outstanding PAYE arrears to HMRC remain unpaid and that the winding-up order remains in place.

The Committee also considered information relating to the recent change in ownership of the Club and its current financial position, including whether, under its new ownership, the Club has the financial capacity to meet its obligations for the 2026/27 season, as required under National League rules and regulations.

Following careful consideration of all the information available to it, the Committee has decided, in accordance with the applicable regulations, that the suspension of Ebbsfleet United FC will continue.

The Club are required to provide any further information by 5pm on Tuesday 1 September 2026.   The Committee will then undertake a further review of the Club’s position.

The Committee notes the continuing failures of the Club, and that this will be the third consecutive week of suspension. The Club has been given time and opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the League’s rules and regulations, but matters cannot continue as has been the case. The range of actions under rules and regulations include the potential for expulsion from the National League. The Club is aware that such action is an option, and that it is entirely matter for the Club to satisfy the Committee under the rules and regulations, and to remove such as an outcome.

As a result of the continuation of the suspension, Ebbsfleet United FC will be unable to fulfil its away fixture against Farnborough FC on Saturday 29 August, or its home fixture against Horsham FC on Monday 31 August.

The Club remains subject to a [transfer] Embargo.”

Here is some context.

Abdulla Al-Humaidi is a man with big ideas. After he acquired Ebbsfleet United in 2013, he told fans of the non-league club of his desire to take it into the English Football League for the first time in its history.

His dreams of building one of Europe’s largest theme parks in the unlikely setting of the nearby Swanscombe peninsula, a mixture of Kent marshland and industrial space beside the Thames estuary, were even more ambitious. 

The supposed £3.5 billion London Resort, nicknamed the Dartford Disneyland, boasted of a deal with Paramount, the Hollywood studio, and was expected to feature 50 rides and attractions, including ones inspired by BBC shows including Doctor Who, a restaurant based on The Godfather, a 5,500-bed hotel and one of Europe’s fastest rollercoasters, themed around an extinct flying reptile, the Quetzalcoatlus. 

Perhaps Don Quixote would have been a more appropriate theme. The London Resort proved a catastrophe for the Kuwaiti businessman and its creditors. The project, which had been forecast to attract 12 million visitors a year and to create 30,000 jobs, collapsed in 2023, leaving behind more than £100 million in debts. Al-Humaidi was bankrupted in November 2023 in the fallout and later said the project had “destroyed my life”.

His reign and, following his bankruptcy, that of his family company at Ebbsfleet United came to an end last week after a tumultuous 13 years. The club is back in the sixth tier of English football, the same level as when Al-Humaidi acquired it, having survived more than a dozen winding-up petitions from HMRC.

Despite a change in ownership going through last Thursday, when it as acquired by Don O’Leary, a Dublin-based businessman, the club had a suspension by the National League over the club’s financial problems and breaches of league rules extended for a further seven days.

Abdulla Al-Humaidi “laundered” more than £200,000 through Ebbsfleet United, a Kuwaiti court found.  He paid funds via the troubled Kent-based football club that were the proceeds of what the court called a “criminal source”. 

The court’s finding came last year as Al-Humaidi was convicted in his absence by a Kuwaiti court of deception and money laundering, sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and fined about £6.1 million over funds he raised for a “false project” related to plots of land in Dartford.

The Kuwaiti court found that about £203,000 had been “laundered” via Ebbsfleet United by Al-Humaidi and that he “deliberately disguised the origin of the funds … for the purpose of laundering them and concealing their criminal source”.