Stanley reject £1.5M bid to buy club

5:42pm Thursday 3rd April 2008

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ACCRINGTON Stanley chairman Eric Whalley has revealed that a £1.5m takeover bid for the club has been rejected.

Former Blackburn-based businessman John Batchelor, who recently had a bid turned down to buy League Two rivals Mansfield Town and re-brand them as Harchester United after the team in Sky One's "Dream Team", made two bids for the club, Mr Whalley revealed Mr Batchelor, who once owned York City, is also said to have proposed moving a newly-formed Lancashire United to Leigh and also spoke of building a 10,000-seater stadium.

But Mr Whalley, whose Stanley side face Dagenham & Redbridge tonight, said: "I think I'd have to move a lot further than Leigh to keep my windows intact if I sold up and the club moved there!

"I met with Mr Batchelor three times, the last about six weeks ago. First he bid a million, and then £1.5m, and told me he wanted to move the club to Leigh and call it Lancashire United, and I just couldn't go along with that.

"It sounded a bit like an MK Dons situation. It would be a club with no history and someone would have to resurrect Accrington Stanley again.

"It was a serious offer, but we've worked too hard to put Accrington Stanley back on the map to see it fade away again."