Council set to decide on Ryder bid
Stoke-on-Trent city council are set to make a decision on Keith Ryder’s bid to take over Port Vale FC on Monday night, the Sentinel reports.
The council are the club’s biggest creditors with a loan of £1.85m.
According to the Sentinel, Ryder’s £1.4m bid will include a payment of £800,000 to the council for the Vale Park freehold. But the paper claims Ryder is seeking to pay an initial £250,000 for the freehold with the rest being repaid back in installments – potentially over eleven years.
Critics would argue that this would mean Vale effectively taking out a new loan with the council. Meanwhile, council leader Mohammed Pervez has claimed the council could lose around £1.4m of their existing loan if Ryder’s bid is approved.
However, administrator Bob Young insists that Ryder’s bid is the best one for the club.
Young told the Sentinel: “It is the best possible deal. It will see the return of the £200,000 the council has put in for running costs and it will return a decent return on capictal – either immediately or over the fullness of time.”
But any decision by the council to authorise another loan could be hugely controversial with austerity measures in place around the county and the council making huge losses from the original loan to the club.