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Motherwell FC News
| March 2001 |
| Tuesday, March 13 |
New bid to buy Broomfield
According to this morning's Daily Record, the club are
once again considering buying Airdrie's New Broomfield stadium for use as a
youth academy. John Boyle first contemplated the move last year but backed
down when Steve Archibald appeared on the scene. As well as
using it to develop our own talent, the plan is to rent the ground to Airdrie,
if they can find a buyer, or the likes of Ayr United and Falkirk while their own
stadia are being built. Speaking yesterday, Motherwell's financial
director Andrew Lapping said:
"We've been kept abreast of the situation by KPMG, as we requested.
We were looking at Airdrie's stadium about a year ago but decided not to become
involved until Steve Archibald removed himself from the transaction. I
don't own the club, John does. We act as a team but until Steve's out of the
frame and we see a clear path we won't be doing anything. If he is out of the
frame we'll obviously discuss it. We wanted to build a Lanarkshire centre
of sporting excellence, while allowing Airdrie to trade as a football club. I
take a strong view that clubs don't need to own their stadium. There's a
lot of cash tied up in stadia that would be better employed running teams."
When it was suggested that New Broomfield could
also be leased to Airdrie or other interested clubs, Lapping said:
"That
would seem to be the sensible
option if I wanted to buy a football club. I'd rather lease a stadium than buy
one because it ties up so much capital."
The Sun reports that the club are set to start negotiations with Said Chibba's agent today in an attempt to get him signed up until the end of the season. It is hoped that the Moroccan internationalist will be signed up in time to face Rangers on Saturday.
It seems that Norwegian trialist Arne Moen didn't have much
chance to impress Billy Davies during Friday's closed-door game against Dundee,
such was the feebleness of the opposition! The 29-year-old centre-half
turned out for Motherwell in the 3-0 win but was reduced to being a virtual
spectator. Moen's agent said:
"They were poor opposition and he couldn't show much of what
he can do. Motherwell wanted to organise another game. We refused but gave
them a video of Moen in action. I think it will take about a week before a final
decision is made."
Although Moen is now back training with Brann Bergen, the deal is still expected to go through.
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