AFC BOURNEMOUTH was threatened with a winding-up order if it did not pay the £80,000 they owe to Customs and Excise in three days. The letter followed a visit by two VAT officers who turned up at the club and demanded immediate payment.

But following a succession of telephone conversations with the VAT recovery office, chairman Peter Phillips says the club has been given a reprieve.

Mr Phillips is confident that the club can find the £80,820 to pay their most recent quarterly bill, which is now six weeks overdue.

And he has now written an open letter to the Chancellor Gordon Brown to complain about the "aggressive policies" of government staff despite a recent speech he made to the Football Supporters Trusts conference about the importance of supporting clubs and their development.

He wrote: "Like most football clubs we have a poor record of keeping up to date with PAYE and VAT payments.

"However, we are working extremely hard to eliminate these debts.

"Despite this progress, and despite the fact that the government is charging us usurious penalty charges on late payments, I received a letter today from HM Customs and Excise stating that if we do not pay them within three days they will start winding us up."

The letter to Mr Brown appears in full in Mr Phillip's weekly column on page 78 of today's Daily Echo. Speaking to the Echo yesterday Mr Phillips said: "Since I wrote that letter I have had discussions with the VAT recovery office and they have stopped the legal process."