7:00am Friday 4th July 2008
By Neil Perrett
CHAIRMAN Jeff Mostyn is confident he can ward off interest in Cherries from a rival bidder by meeting Gerald Krasner's latest deadline.
Administrator Krasner has given preferred bidder Mostyn until close of business tonight to stump up further funds to keep the club running.
And members of a rival consortium, which is hoping to hijack Mostyn's bid to take Cherries out of administration, are likely to be watching the situation with interest.
A group headed by businessman Alan Pither, who runs Christchurch-based Priory Homes, launched a fresh bid to buy the ailing Dorset club earlier this week.
Pither, along with partners Gerard Day, a St Albans-based finance expert, and Kent fruit farmer Melvyn Newman, claim their proposals would guarantee the club a secure future.
The Pither consortium - along with Mostyn - is understood to have already provided substantial funds to keep the club afloat during its five-month administration.
Some sources even suggest Pither, Day and Newman were the main moneymen behind Mostyn's bid until their alliance turned sour at the end of last month.
The breakdown prompted Pither to table his own bid, with Mostyn now believed to be in league with a new consortium involving Cherries' interim chief executive Alistair Saverimutto and his Sport-6 marketing company.
Speaking to the Daily Echo last night, Mostyn said he had every intention of meeting Krasner's demands for additional funding.
Mostyn said: "I fully understand the administrator's requirements and have every confidence of fulfilling them."
Krasner yesterday went on record to say that, should the finance not be forthcoming, it could open the door for Pither's group, which is understood to have extended the terms of its bid until Monday.
"I'm supposed to be getting some more money tomorrow," said Krasner yesterday. "If I haven't got it by close of business tomorrow night, I will re-think what I'm going to do over the weekend.
"The money is required to fund the club because there is no income. There are bills coming in every week but no money from games or anything else. The proposed purchasers have agreed to fund the club."
Although Krasner declined an invitation to reveal the amount he was expecting, he did say it would "allow me to release certain cheques on bills that have come in".
He added: "I have an option to go back to the other bidders if the Jeff Mostyn consortium does not continue to fund me.
"The fact that Jeff was the only one to give me the money on the day I wanted it (last month) keeps him in as the preferred bidder. That doesn't mean he has to continue to comply with our agreement.
"If, come Monday morning, I've got a bill to pay and I haven't got any money and somebody else turns up with a cheque, they are back in again."
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