Last Post sounds for Gretna, set up by war heroes to give village hope

JUST over 60 years ago, servicemen returning from the Second World War set up a village football team which helped to bring life back to normal after five years of tense conflict. For most of the six decades that have passed since then, Gretna Football Club have ticked along at the heart of the tiny local community – followed by only a few, but loved nevertheless.

Today as the Last Post sounds for the club, its official demise is no more than a formality with Raydale Park being put up for sale. Even if a new team rises from the ashes of the current club, the sale of Raydale would leave any reincarnation with nowhere to play. Just six years after their election to the Scottish Football League and subsequent extravagantly funded romp to the Scottish Premier League, with a Scottish Cup final appearance and Uefa Cup participation achieved along the way, the club who began life in the Dumfriesshire Junior League in 1946 has seen its romantic story come to a bitter end.

Demotion to the Third Division by the SFL last Thursday effectively killed off any prospect of an 11th-hour rescue for Gretna who entered administration in March with debts of around £4million after their benefactor Brooks Mileson withdrew his support for the club.

The SFL management committee considered a business plan from a Glasgow-based consortium interested in taking over Gretna as a First Division club to be "fundamentally flawed" and that potential lifeline was withdrawn over the weekend.

David Elliot, of Yorkshire-based administrators Wilson Field, informed the SFL yesterday that Gretna would not be able to fulfil their fixtures next season and anticipates their expulsion to be confirmed this week. While he confirmed that Gretna have now ceased trading as a football club, however, Elliot does not intend to put them into liquidation as that course of action would impact adversely on the plans to sell Raydale Park to "parties outside football".

In the last set of club accounts, the ground was valued at £850,000 but the attractiveness of the site for developers could be limited by local council policy which states the land is for sport and recreational use.

"We have been concentrating on our first objective, which is laid down in the Insolvency Act, of trying to save the business," said Elliot. "Well, I've come to the conclusion now that's not going to happen. So we go back to our agents to discuss how we now market it outside of football.

"I'm not thinking of formally putting it into liquidation because there may be some tax reasons for selling the ground in administration, but in effect there will be no trading. That's it.

"In terms of the wording of this, technically we still hold a share in the SFL's Third Division. But they are asking me today if I can fulfil fixtures next season and I now respond that I can't, so it will now be a matter of days before they come back and say the share is taken away. We are still in the Third Division of the SFL, but that is going to change within days just as soon as the formalities are completed."

While Gretna basked in what was painted as 'living the dream' under millionaire businessman Mileson's indulgence, Elliot believes they were effectively living a lie which has now been graphically exposed.

"The problem with this club is it started off in 1946 with a group of ex-serviceman coming back from World War Two setting up a village football team," Elliot told BBC Scotland. "Then a few years ago, Mr Mileson took over and injected a lot of money into the club and it enjoyed a lot of success on the football pitch. But if you take away the benefactor, the person supplying the money, then financially you have a real mess.

"The actual debt is made up of different parts. There is approximately £1.8million due to Mr Mileson, he is claiming, or is in the accounts to that amount. The Inland Revenue are owed approximately £500,000 and an ex-manager (Rowan Alexander] has put in a claim for breach of contract for £800,000. There are other trade creditors on top and amounts due to footballers of approximately £100,000.

"The prospective purchaser had produced a business plan based on First Division football, so he has formally withdrawn. One of the underlying points for the SFL is that they want the integrity of their competition to be protected. What they don't want is an administrator at the start of the season who will pack up after a couple of months.

"Quite clearly, I do not have any funds at all. I was being funded by the SPL to fulfil their fixtures and the SFL were not going to be in a position to fund me, so it was a fundamental breakdown that I couldn't do it. The only way it could be done was if a third party came, but that third party has withdrawn."

The SFL will invite applications to fill the vacancy in the Third Division, but their chief executive David Longmuir said last night the process would not begin until Gretna's position had been made absolutely clear.

"We are still waiting on total clarity from the administrator on Gretna's situation," said Longmuir, "so we can't open up a vacancy at the moment. If we have one, then we would hope to elect a new member of the SFL before the end of the month."

As for the future of football in Gretna, there is one possible lifeline for the game if not for the club. The land at Raydale is earmarked for sport and recreational use by the council, and any non-football development could be rejected. But today, with league membership slipping away and the club having no employees to its name, this technicality looks like the proverbial straw to be clutched at.