Notts County chairman Peter Trembling has completed his takeover of the League 2 club, meaning director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson will stay. Trembling bought the club from Munto Finance for a nominal fee, only five months after the mysterious Middle Eastern consortium took over at Meadow Lane. There had been concerns that the owners, registered offshore in the British Virgin Islands, would demand a price of £3m despite having acquired the club for almost nothing.
Notts County chairman Peter Trembling has completed his takeover of the League 2 club, meaning director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson will stay. Trembling bought the club from Munto Finance for a nominal fee, only five months after the mysterious Middle Eastern consortium took over at Meadow Lane. There had been concerns that the owners, registered offshore in the British Virgin Islands, would demand a price of £3m despite having acquired the club for almost nothing. Backed by what looked like impressive financial guarantees, and setting out ambitious plans, more than 90 per cent of members of the Supporters’ Trust voted to give their shares to Munto. Steve Thompson, a founder member of the supporters’ trust, commented, ‘we didn’t have much choice because the club appeared to be heading towards administration, with an unpaid tax bill for £400,000.’ Trembling, who arrived in the summer with the Munto Finance takeover, has already passed a Football League fit and proper person test. The club is currently in the play off positions in League 2, and Trembling has emphasised that much remains to be done before the world’s oldest professional football club achieve their ambition of reaching the Premiership. One encouraging sign is that average gates have doubled this season.