Sports surgeon performs delicate operation to save Stirling Albion

Published on Friday 18 December 2009 22:09

SCOTLAND'S top sports surgeon looks set to rescue cash-strapped Stirling Albion FC.

Former Rangers player Gordon Mackay said his plans would "secure the future" of the football club.

Troubled Albion, who are lying second in the Second Division, have been for sale since June last year, when owner and chairman Peter McKenzie, 83, announced plans to step down.

The club has been fending off threats from its landlord, Stirling Council, to evict it.

The Stirling Albion Supporters Trust has been running a campaign since May to buy the club and make it the first UK league club to be 100 per cent owned by football fans.

The campaign has received support from celebrities including the Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazil's former World Cup-winning captain Carlos Alberto, Dunblane's tennis superstar Andy Murray, TV chef Nick Nairn and I'm A Celebrity… duo Justin Ryan and Colin McAllister.

But it emerged this week that talks were at an advanced stage between Mr McKenzie and a potential purchaser other than the trust, which had an offer of 300,000 rejected in July.

Yesterday, Mr Mackay revealed that he was the mastermind behind the new bid and expected to see a deal signed shortly. He said he had "ambitious proposals" for a unique sports medicine facility at the Stirling Sports Village at Forthbank Stadium, where Albion play.

The sports medicine centre, which could see some of the world's top footballers working back to fitness at the Albion ground, would operate alongside continuing day-to-day football activities.

The son of a professional footballer, Mr Mackay, 44, who had a brief spell as a player at Rangers when the Ibrox club was managed by Graeme Souness, said he was "encouraged" by Peter McKenzie's interest in his proposals.

He said yesterday: "We are doing the due diligence on financial matters and we are very confident of final approval in the very near future.

"I firmly believe what we have put in place can be a template for the survival not just of Stirling Albion, but Scottish football as a whole in Scotland."