Athletic have not folded

Last updated : 07 October 2003 By The Chairman

Stories have been rife that the Latics have folded but that’s not the case. Meetings have been going on through last night and an announcement should be made today (Tuesday). The rumours are that the two American based businessmen are close to closing a deal which will ensure the safety of the club. The initial plan is to buy time by covering this month’s expenses with an immediate £200,000 cheque and then to come up with a plan for the long term survival of Oldham Athletic AFC. A new company would have to be formed which would need £500,000 with a further £700,000 being required to pay off existing football creditors.

Club officials, the administrators and Oldham Council backed OPP will be involved in the negotiations and it is expected that the purchace of the Boundary Park land will have a big bearing on the outcome. Sean Jarvis said, “The administartors, PKF have imposed a deadline of today for investors to show their commitment. At this stage there are a string of meetings planned today (Monday) that can hopefully secure something. As supporters know there has been a lot of possible investors approach the Club from a variety of differnet angles. At this moment we undertand there are three parties that have real credibilty. There is still a massive amount of work to be done and a lot of detail to be covered but the whole club is remaining positive that the outcome will be good news for Latics.”

Trust Oldham director Alex Metcalfe added, “This funding is a show of commitment and will hopefully lead to bigger and better things. If they don’t take over, there’s always a risk that other investors will have been deterred from staying involved. But it’s cause for optimism and a very welcome step forward.”

The local consortium is the main back up if the deal does fall through but Athletic must report to the Football League next Monday. Let’s all hope this nightmare ends soon and the Latics can finally report something positive.