Harrison rules out return to Weymouth (From Dorset Echo)

Harrison rules out return to Weymouth

9:12am Thursday 29th October 2009 in Club News By Ky Capel

FORMER chairman Martyn Harrison has ruled himself out of a dramatic return to help save the ailing Terras.

Weymouth filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on Tuesday and director Paul Cocks revealed that any party interested in a takeover must make an offer to insolvency practitioners Benedict Mackenzie by the end of this week.

If no buyer is found then Cocks declared that the club “could die”.

Harrison, who left the Terras’ boardroom in June 2007 after selling his majority shareholding to Mel Bush, is sad to see Weymouth on its knees but hopes the club can pull through and live to fight another day.

He said: “It’s a sad situation but perhaps the administrator will be able to delve deeper into what’s gone on at the club and maybe some good will come of it.

“Hopefully the club will survive but it’s going to be a long struggle.

“It depends whether the administrator can do anything with the club, because if not it could go into liquidation. I would have thought the administrator would find it difficult to sell the club unless they can get back the freehold of the land.

“Any potential investor would look at wanting to possibly do something with the land in the long term, because they know they won’t make any money without it.

“I had offers myself for the land before I left but as it worked out Malcolm Curtis managed to get hold of it.

“The club was debt free when I left but somehow it got itself £500,000 in debt with £221,000 of that owed to Malcolm Curtis.”

Asked if he would consider getting involved with the club once more, Harrison added: “You have to be a complete nutter or very rich to want to take on a football club.

“I spent £2,500,000 on Weymouth, got the club into a decent league and all I got was hassle from a small minority, which made me think it’s not really worth it.

“I’m older and wiser now and football is not a great place to be unless you’re very rich.

“It’s sad to see the club in this situation but at the moment it’s not financially viable because it’s not being supported by enough people.”

Harrison paid a visit to the Wessex Stadium on Tuesday night and saw the Terras suffer their seventh straight defeat in all competitions – losing 2-0 at the hands of Bath City.

He said: “I got a call from Paul Cocks inviting me to come and watch the game if I was in the area, which I was, and it was nice to see a few old friends.

“I thought Weymouth did okay in the first half but when David Obaze was sent off it made life difficult.”

n Weymouth’s home clash with Woking on Saturday, November 7 will be rearran-ged as the Cards take on Swindon Town in the FA Cup that day.