Six days left for stricken Gretna

takeover bids need to be quick, says elliot, or directors could be made personally liable for debt

Published:

Gretna could be plunged into liquidation next week after the administrator running the crisis club placed a May 17 deadline on takeover bids.

David Elliot, of administrator Wilson Field, revealed yesterday that four parties are interested in buying the club.

He urged them to launch bids as soon as possible to avoid Gretna having to go out of business altogether.

Speaking after a meeting with the club’s creditors, who are owed £4million, Elliot said: “The proposal is that we continue to trade until the end of the season whilst we seek a buyer.

“We have four interested parties and I would like to remain hopeful that one will come through before the end of the season. The final match is on May 13.

“We have funds until May 17 and at that point, to be quite frank, we stop. I would like to think that we would get it away before that date.”

But Elliot emphasised the need for expediency.

He said: “I think we are in dire straits and I think these potential parties who have expressed interest need to get on with it now.”

Elliot also revealed that the directors of Gretna could be held responsible for the club’s debt if it is found they continued to trade knowing the club was insolvent.

One of those directors is the millionaire Brooks Mileson, whose illness and subsequent withdrawal of funds caused the whole crisis.

Elliot said: “This club has traded without the ability to pay its debts from its footballing income. It hasn’t been able to do that for a long time.

“A lot of people have lost their money so I said to the creditors that I would personally want to look at the possibility of wrongful trading.

“That is not fraud but is when a company director allows the company to trade while knowing, or ought to have known, that the club was insolvent.

“If it is found that this was the case, the directors could be made personally liable for the debt.”

Elliot revealed he was also urged by one creditor to have Gretna put into liquidation but he rejected the proposal.

He said: “I was asked by one irate creditor to stop and wind the club up now.

“But I said that, having gone this far, I am not prepared to do that.

“I am not going to stop and not give Gretna the chance of keeping its football club. We go to the end of the season.”