JOURNALIST Ian Ridley made a shock return to Weymouth Football Club as a new board was unveiled to in a bid to rescue the ailing club.

Mr Ridley was revealed as the new chairman of the Terras under a survival package put forward by local businessmen Shaun Hennessy and Paul Cocks.

Former director Dave Higson was also unveiled as vice chairman and the new board said they face six weeks of ‘crisis management’ to tackle the club’s debts before they could look forward to the future.

Mr Ridley, who resigned from his previous stint as chairman in September 2004, said: “This club has not been in good shape for quite a while now and for the next six weeks on and off the field it is about survival.

“We have given Alan Lewer a bit of leeway to get some players in and hopefully we will be able to get the six to nine points we need to stay up. We desperately want to stay in the Blue Square Premier.

“Off the field it’s about managing the debt and our finances and we will then re-evaluate the situation.”

Along with Mr Hennessy and Mr Cocks, the board will be completed by previous finance director Ian Winsor and representatives from both the Terras Trust and the Supporters’ Club.

Mr Ridley said the club was facing crippling debts of around half a million pounds but he believed that with sensible management of finances and help from the fans they could steer the club through its present difficulties.

He added that former chairman Malcolm Curtis had agreed to ‘park’ debts of around £220,000 owed to him by the club and would not call them in for five years.

Mr Ridley said that there was no wealthy backer behind the new board and the club would have to look at investment opportunities and ways of increasing revenue.

The board also announced that it would be reissuing its appeal to fans to buy shares in the club.

Mr Ridley said that any supporters who had already invested were able to claim their money back if they wished.

Mr Ridley said that all those buying shares would receive a share certificate and that the first certificate had actually been made out to Mr Cocks after he bought shares this week that ‘had kept the club going’.

Mr Ridley wouldn’t say how much Mr Cocks had invested. He said the club was entering a new era in which lessons from the past had to be learnt and the club would have to live within its means in the future.

“The simple fact is this club overspent, the wage bill was too high for the amount of people coming through the gates and the sponsorship it was getting and that has got to stop.”

Mr Ridley added that there was a distinct possibility of the club reverting to a part-time set up from next season, with the players employed on a 40-week basis to keep the wage bill down.

Mr Hennessy said: “Paul and I have stood next to each other on the terraces for years and we came to realise that the future of Weymouth Football Club was not in the ownership of one man but in the ownership of the fans.

“The situation got so desperate we had to act and we were confident of the support and backing of Dave and Ian. We are not a board coming in to this club injecting masses of money but we have other plans of how to get money through to the club and we want fiscal responsibility.

“We want to make this club a family club that the fans, players and staff can be proud of again.”