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01/05/2009, 10:01 AM
A beautiful club with amazing fans and an excellent young manager in Jim Gannon -
Stockport County announces with regret and the deepest frustration that the Club has today been put into Administration by David Farms Limited, Aylesbury who hold a debenture over the club.
While still trying to grapple with the impact of this move on the future of County, Chief Executive, Seán Connolly, summed up his frustration and that of Chairman, Martin Reid and Financial Director, Paul Cheetham: "We have been working round the clock for the last few weeks putting together a package that would have guaranteed a secure future for County. We had the support of Cheshire Sports, by far our biggest creditor, who fully supported our approach. We had introduced a number of investors to help bring the club forward. The Trust would have continued to play a strong role. We were in the process of drafting heads of agreement and we were absolutely convinced that the deal could have been completed within the next 36 hours and we had informed David Farms of this early morning. As part of that deal the debenture holder would have had the loan of £300k paid back.In fact we offered to pay a large sum to them this morning as an earnest of our intent.Now, I don't know what any of these parties will feel or do. One thing, none of us is going to give up on County as yet even though officially we no longer have a role in the Company which is now being run by the administrator."
Connolly went on to say that part of the deal was that the Club would relinquish any option it had on Edgeley Park and that it had already begun negotiations with Sale Sharks and the local Council to develop a new stadium that would be state of the art and guarantee a wonderful facility for both clubs and for Stockport. He also said that the matter of points' deduction was not now at all clear where before we calculated on losing 10 points this season.
Chairman, Martin Reid said: "I am absolutely gutted.To have been so close and to have the rug pulled from under our feet is soul-destroying. After all the work by Paul and Seán and the great support from Sale Sharks I can now only hope that Stockport County can rise from the ashes."
He confirmed that the origins of the debenture lie in an agreement made without the prior knowledge of the Trust Board.
Stockport County announces with regret and the deepest frustration that the Club has today been put into Administration by David Farms Limited, Aylesbury who hold a debenture over the club.
While still trying to grapple with the impact of this move on the future of County, Chief Executive, Seán Connolly, summed up his frustration and that of Chairman, Martin Reid and Financial Director, Paul Cheetham: "We have been working round the clock for the last few weeks putting together a package that would have guaranteed a secure future for County. We had the support of Cheshire Sports, by far our biggest creditor, who fully supported our approach. We had introduced a number of investors to help bring the club forward. The Trust would have continued to play a strong role. We were in the process of drafting heads of agreement and we were absolutely convinced that the deal could have been completed within the next 36 hours and we had informed David Farms of this early morning. As part of that deal the debenture holder would have had the loan of £300k paid back.In fact we offered to pay a large sum to them this morning as an earnest of our intent.Now, I don't know what any of these parties will feel or do. One thing, none of us is going to give up on County as yet even though officially we no longer have a role in the Company which is now being run by the administrator."
Connolly went on to say that part of the deal was that the Club would relinquish any option it had on Edgeley Park and that it had already begun negotiations with Sale Sharks and the local Council to develop a new stadium that would be state of the art and guarantee a wonderful facility for both clubs and for Stockport. He also said that the matter of points' deduction was not now at all clear where before we calculated on losing 10 points this season.
Chairman, Martin Reid said: "I am absolutely gutted.To have been so close and to have the rug pulled from under our feet is soul-destroying. After all the work by Paul and Seán and the great support from Sale Sharks I can now only hope that Stockport County can rise from the ashes."
He confirmed that the origins of the debenture lie in an agreement made without the prior knowledge of the Trust Board.