Press Conference Transcript - From Tuesday June 24th

Here is a transcript of the press conference given by Gerald Krasner:

Good afternoon and thank you for being patient with me. We've been working right up to the twelfth hour on this. The press conference has been called by me to explain where we are, where we've been and where we're going and how I see things as they stand.

To get one piece of news out the way the Season Tickets went on sale last week and all the Season Ticket money is coming directly to my bank account. We've already taken £20,000 which is now in a bank solely under my control and will not be released to whoever buys the club until such time as the Football League share has been successfully transferred.

Although it doesn't say on the application form, the bank account quoted is my account and I have the names and addresses of everyone who has put money in.

As you're aware an offer was received via Jeff [Mostyn] on behalf of a consortium of individuals for the club which has been agreed with me. Up to this moment we have been progressing with legal contracts. There are lots of issues that have to be dealt with and also commercial contracts some of which I as Administrator have told individuals will not be going forward and others which may well go forward.

I've had some funding from this consortium going forward and we've been discussing today the ongoing funding for the end of June and early July. I believe I'm due to get some money this week and hopefully the balance of it next week at which point we will be a lot further forward in submitting the sixteen point plan needed by the Football League to get the share back.

Everything rests on what is known as the Football League share. Having discussed this with the Football League authorities this is a moving target and there are no guarantees. The precedent with Leeds was that they got a fifteen point penalty for not having a CVA. It has been made very plain to me that the precedent is a list of terms and conditions that the Football League will put out together with any points penalty which the new company will either accept or reject.

I was privileged to attend on behalf of Bournemouth the Football League Chairman's conference in Portugal at which insolvency policy was discussed. There are no hard and fast rules; this is all under consideration as is the Luton and Rotherham position. No final decisions have yet been made. That is what I will call the official line.

I am now speaking personally in my own capacity as to what I believe will happen. I believe that subject to the sixteen point being accepted by the Football League that Bournemouth will start next season with a fifteen point penalty. There will be a number of conditions attached to that in respect of matters the new company will have to deal with.

We are waiting on the detail of those terms and conditions and I won't speculate what these may be privately or publicly. I do believe they should be acceptable because it's in the Football League's interest and Bournemouth's interest for the club to go forward. I envisage that if everything goes to the Football League for the July meeting the new company should be in a position to look at those sometime in the latter part of July with a view to saying yes and the Football League share coming back and me doing my final press conference.

That is where we are at this moment and there is no finite answer to how long this will take. We have moved forward from last time. I am coming down next Monday and Tuesday to ratify and finish off this paperwork because that moves us a big hurdle forward rather than hitting a stumbling block because I hope it will put in place the final funding of my Administration. The reason I'm coming down is that we are that near a major step forward after a few weeks of negotiations.

That extra funding is needed next week to pay the wages. At the moment I have enough money to pay some of the wages. The rest of it will be coming next week. I've had a discussion with a representative from the staff and will be providing a further update after this meeting.

If everything works out there will be no need to sell any further players, but I'll never say never. We've moved forward to a position where I've said to Jeff I'm more than happy to negotiate, in advance, the players' contracts. It's a necessary thing as the players want to know where they are for the beginning of next season assuming everything goes ok. I keep saying that as you never know what is going to happen in either insolvency or football.