Tuesday, June 01, 2010

'Eagles' still soaring as takeover deal is agreed in principle !


Selhurst Park stadium - home of Crystal Palace Football Club


Crystal Palace Football Club have been saved from extinction after an agreement in principle was reached to enable the consortium 'CPFC 2010' to buy the club and Selhurst Park.

Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle gave them until 3pm today to reach agreement with Lloyds Bank or he would start to liquidate the club.
Hundreds of fans protested outside the bank's offices prior to the deadline.
But an 11th hour deal was reached with 'CPFC 2010' which is headed by Palace fans Steve Parish and Martin Long.

The headquarters of Lloyds Bank, who own Bank of Scotland, was the focus of a peaceful but vocal protest by Palace fans today.
This followed a demonstration by around 1,000 supporters outside Selhurst Park on Monday.

A statement from Lloyds said:

"PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has reached an agreement in principle with CPFC 2010 in relation to the sale of Selhurst Park. This enables the consortium to go ahead with the purchase of both the Crystal Palace Football Club and Selhurst Park.

We have worked hard throughout this process to achieve a durable solution. We are pleased a successful conclusion has now been reached. We are also pleased that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which acts on behalf of Selhurst Park, has publicly acknowledged today the ongoing support it has received from the Bank."

The 'CPFC 2010' consortium said:

"We can now confirm that there are no material differences between ourselves and Bank of Scotland regarding the sale of Selhurst Park.
Whilst its not 100% done we are confident that all the main barriers have been removed."


The next step in 'CPFC 2010's takeover is to agree the Company Voluntary Agreement – a process that is no formality, but one that has been eased by reports that both Agilo, the hedge fund that put the Club into administration in the first place, and ex-chairman Simon Jordan have agreed to do a deal.

If all goes well, a CVA meeting should be announced within the next few days (with the date set two weeks in advance) – and the club will then finally be able to step away from administration, and be able to look ahead with confidence, in the knowledge that the future of the club is finally secure.


Palace avoided relegation from the Championship under manager Paul Hart on the final day of the season with a 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday that condemned the Owls to League One.

It was just another twist in a turbulent year so far, after the club was docked 10 points for going into administration in January. Manager Neil Warnock then left to join London rivals QPR and star striker Victor Moses was sold to Premier League side Wigan Athletic..

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