English football club in plea to Scottish bank as it fights for survival

AN ENGLISH football club on the brink of extinction has made an impassioned plea to a Scottish bank as it fights for survival.

A group headed by local businessmen is trying to buy London club Crystal Palace, whose Selhurst Park ground is owned by Bank of Scotland.

The consortium, CPFC 2010, has until this afternoon to conclude a deal or the English Championship team will go into liquidation. The prospective owners have appealed to Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene, as the bank is partially owned by the state after being bailed out.

Although a deal had appeared to be imminent, a sticking point arose because one set of administrators is working with the consortium and another is working for the Bank of Scotland, the club's major creditor.

In a statement, the group says:

"The future of Crystal Palace is very much in the hands of a person in a bank in Scotland whom we have never met and, it seems, we are not allowed to speak to.

"We would urge the Prime Minister to intervene to resolve the situation or see a club supported by many thousands, and with a 100-year history, consigned to the scrapheap."