FORMER Cambridge United chairman George Rolls has less than 72 hours to save Weymouth Football Club from extinction.

Chris Ryan and Steve Beasant pulled out of a deal for the beleaguered Terras, leaving Rolls as the only possible saviour for the Wessex Stadium-based club.

But Rolls must come up with £25,000 by midday today, another £25,000 by noon on Friday and also meet conditions laid down to him by the end of the week, according to company secretary Ian Winsor.

“Whatever happened needs not just board approval but also the shareholders of Make It So Ltd to agree as well,” said Winsor. “Make It So Ltd hold about 62 per cent of Weymouth Football Club shares.

“A proposal was put together this morning which was agreed by myself and Paul Cocks as Make It So Ltd shareholders.

“It’s also been agreed by Shaun Hennessy as a shareholder in Make It So Ltd and a director of Weymouth Football Club.

“It’s also been agreed by Connor Kinsella and the board unanimously agreed yesterday to accept the George Rolls offer. That really does leave it down to George Rolls.”

Rolls has been set the same conditions imposed upon Ryan and Beasant, Winsor added.

The Cambridgshire-based Trade Recruitment supremo must deposit £25,000 with Weymouth Football Club’s lawyers by midday today. He then has a further 48 hours to complete due diligence, agree to offer indemnity to the club’s directors and agree that the remaining Make It So Ltd shares will be sold at 50 pence each.

Rolls must also arrange a meeting with the current Weymouth board – of which the make-up is unknown after Liz Bell, Connor Kinsella and Hennessy resigned within the last 48 hours – on Friday and hand over a banker’s draft for £25,000.

The £50,000 he would have given to the club would be to purchase shares and therefore be available to invest in the Terras while the others – thought to be around 600,000 – would be available to sell at 50 pence each. That means up to £300,000 could be made for the club through selling shares.

“I would love to see the rest of those shares sold to investors because it would raise money for Weymouth Football Club,” said Winsor.

The collapse of the Ryan and Beasant deal this week means Rolls has just a short amount of time to meet all the conditions imposed.

If the ex-Cambridge chairman can’t meet those in the short time frame then the other option is to liquidate the 119-year-old club.

“George Rolls has been set a short and probably unreasonable timetable,” said Winsor. “If George Rolls doesn’t come up with the money by the end of the week then it has to be liquidation.”

Earlier in the day, Ryan confirmed that he would not be taking his deal forward at the current time, but praised directors, staff, manager Ian Hutchinson and the players for the amount of hard work they had put in.

Ryan said: “On Monday the board of directors of Weymouth Football Club rejected our offer in favour of George Rolls.

“The directors placed certain conditions on our offer and Steve and I were unable to reach agreement with them.

“Consequently our offer was rejected in favour of George's and we can see no point in continuing negotiations.

“Over the past month we have spent a lot of time with the directors and staff and have been impressed by how hard they are all working to ensure that the club survives.

“We wish them well in their endeavours and encourage the town and supporters to get behind them despite the uncertainty and upheaval because the club will only survive with considerable support.

“The players, under Ian Hutchinson’s management, are on a roll and playing excellent football and deserve to be cheered on.”