Maidstone United are up for sale

CHAIRMAN Paul Bowden-Brown has announced he has put Maidstone United up for sale.

The board of directors of the Ryman Premier League club met yesterday and key items on the agenda were the funding of the new stadium, along with club budgets to the end of the season.

Mr Bowden-Brown bought the club sixteen years ago and has spent a huge amount of personal time, effort and money in rebuilding the business to its present position. As it is widely known the chairman is not in the best of health.

The club, who groundshare Sittingbourne’s Bourne Park, have issued the following statement on it’s website, www.maidstoneunited.co.uk.

“The present credit crunch has meant that some new funding options have not materialised and this has led the club to review the current position and consider the best way to go forward.

“At the meeting, Mr Bowden-Brown expressed the view that it would be in the best interests of the club and its supporters, himself and his family to pass on ownership to the next generation in order to allow the club to achieve its ambitions.

“The shareholders have therefore taken the decision to make 100% of the shares available for sale to serious interested parties, along with other enquiries that are also being considered.

“It must be stressed that certain criteria will be attached to any sale of the club and that would involve a commitment to the building of the stadium, the continuing support of the semi professional team and the reserves. It would also include a commitment to the membership of the club, the community programme and the youth, ladies and disabled sections.

“In the meantime the shareholders have agreed to fund the ongoing operations of the club based on revised budgets. The board also intends to continue working on plans to build the new stadium and progress its major fund raising initiatives. “

Meanwhile, back on the pitch, the Stones said farewell to veteran Neil Smith as the former Tottenham Hotspur, Reading, Fulham and Gillingham professional took the opportunity to move back into football management.

Smith had only recently joined The Stones and in his short stay he made 10 first team appearances, having joined the Stones from Grays Athletic where he was on the coaching staff at the Blue Square Premier club.

Smith now moves to Ryman League Division One South side Croydon Athletic as number two to their new manager at Mayfield Road, Tim O’Shea.

Smith and O’Shea were team mates during their days at Priestfield with Gillingham.

The former Welling United manager told www.maidstoneunited.co.uk:  “I’d like to thank everybody at Maidstone for making me feel so at home. Although I wasn’t at the club for too long I did love every moment of my time there.”

Article courtesy of www.maidstoneunited.co.uk

Maidstone United v Heybridge Swifts
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 6^th December 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Bourne Park, Central Park, Eurolink, Church Road, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3SB