Fresh start for Chesterfield FC as club is taken over

The takeover of Chesterfield FC has today been completed.
A new era beckons at Chesterfield FC after the club has been taken over.A new era beckons at Chesterfield FC after the club has been taken over.
A new era beckons at Chesterfield FC after the club has been taken over.

The Chesterfield FC Community Trust, which is a charity, has bought the club from Dave Allen after acquiring loans of £500,000 from Chesterfield Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council.

The deal is subject to National League approval, but we are told it is a formality.

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The £1m loan from the councils has been used to buy the club and run it going forward.

The final papework was signed on Wednesday and the transfer of funds took place on Thursday afternoon.

The deal brings an end to Mr Allen’s 11-year involvement with the Blues.

Company secretary Ashley Carson, chairman Mike Warner and director John Croot are all set to step down from their positions.

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Their roles will be filled by representatives from the trust.

The club is now debt free, apart from the loans owed to the councils.

All previous debs were settled by Mr Allen before the takeover was completed.

The takeover has been welcomed by the majority of fans who have become disheartened after the club went from reaching the League One play-offs in 2015 to being relegated out of the Football League just three years later, followed by two seasons of struggle in the National League.

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In that time there has also been a number of PR disasters which embarrassed the club in the national press.

Derbyshire County Council’s loan is taxpayers money but the terms of the agreement mean the it will get more money back than what it has lent.

Chesterfield Borough Council has the same agreement in place, but their £500,000 has come from “internal borrowing.”

The councils’ loans will be jointly secured by a legal charge on the club’s stadium.

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The loans will be repayable over a 15-year period and will attract a commercial rate of interest.

Should the trust choose to sell the club in the future, then the councils’ loans would be repaid in full.

After first investing in the club in 2009, Mr Allen took over in 2012 before resigning in November 2016. He put the club up for sale in February 2017 and insists it was always his wish to sell the club back to the fans.