No deal has yet been reached to secure the future of troubled Plymouth Argyle. On Thursday Kevin Heaney, the man behind the Gibraltar-based Bishop International bid, told BBC South West, ‘If the administrators will not get the deal over the line on Thursday I will walk away.’ However, subsequently the Truro City owner and property developer has vowed not to walk away.
No deal has yet been reached to secure the future of troubled Plymouth Argyle. On Thursday Kevin Heaney, the man behind the Gibraltar-based Bishop International bid, told BBC South West, ‘If the administrators will not get the deal over the line on Thursday I will walk away.’ However, subsequently the Truro City owner and property developer has vowed not to walk away.
The patience of the administrators is running out, however and they have started to talk to other potential purchasers. Devon businessman James Brent is understood to have re-submitted his bid to buy the club while a consorrtium headed by London-based businessman Paul Buttivant is still interested.
James Brent was expected to hold talks in Plymouth on Friday with acting chairman Peter Ridsdale. Next week they are expected to travel to London to meet with key creditor Lombard. The mortgage lender is owed £2.1m by the club and had been offered a better deal as part of the bid tabled by Mr Heaney.
The Football League has yet to approve the deal but Mr Heaney has said that if the administrators put forward the deal to the league, he believed they would pass it. The Football League will only return Argyle’s suspended ‘golden share’ which entitles them to play in the league when they are happy and all the indications are that they are not.
A Football League spokesman has stated, ‘Based on the information available to it, the board were unable to consider a transfer of the club’s share in the Football League to the proposed purchaser at this point in time. Discussions with the administrator and proposed purchaser will continue.’ The League could not give a green light because a fresh sale and purchase agreement has not yet been signed. There must also be a settlement of Argyle’s £3m football creditor debt, largely owed to staff and players.
So far only £300,000 has been handed on with staff and players expecting pay on Thursday. The chairman of the Plymouth Argyle Fans Trust, Chris Webb, commented, ‘We feel that Mr Heaney has dragged this process out for five months now, to the detriment of the club. If Mr Heaney had the money, then it should have been handed over months ago.’