Truro City saved as businessmen stump up £50k

Source: West Briton

A NEW dawn has broken for struggling Truro City Football Club after it was almost forced out of business.

The 123-year-old club came within a hair's breadth of being thrown out of the league before three local businessmen stepped in.

Its demise was already being reported when, just after 5pm on Friday, it emerged that nightclub owners and a taxi boss had stumped up £50,000 to keep it playing at least until the end of the season.

Pete and Jason Masters from the city's L2 nightclub and Philip Perryman, owner of A2B Taxis of Truro, decided on Friday afternoon to put up the bond demanded by the Football Conference as a condition of Truro staying in the league.

Mr Perryman said: "We didn't want to see Truro City go down.

"We have a long way to go to get it right and go forward.

"We heard the other party had pulled out and we jumped in and took over."

The businessmen held a meeting with fans at Treyew Road on Monday evening.

Truro City went into administration after former chairman Kevin Heaney was declared bankrupt.
Negotiations are now taking place to establish a full sale of the club to the new trio, who promise a break with the past.

In a message to fans the businessmen invoked a quotation from late Liverpool Football Club manager Bill Shankly, who said: "At a football club there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques."

The administrators had believed they were on the verge of signing a deal with another businessman, thought to have been Tony Murtagh from Truro's The Money Group, but this fell through at the last minute.

The West Briton discovered that a company called Truro City Football Club 2012 had been registered at Companies House on October 17, with Mr Murtagh as a director.

Mr Murtagh was not available to comment.

Rhod Mitchell.

The administrators thanked everybody involved in saving the club but warned of tough times ahead.
Kate Breese, from administrators Walsh Taylor, said: "We were on the deathbed and we've come round but there's a lot to do until the club is safe."

She asked for support at home games so gate receipts would keep the club running until a sale was completed.