• Club plan to buy back ground they sold for £10m in 2008
• Gills owner Paul Scally says he cannot comment on deal
What is going on at Gillingham? The club sold their Priestfield stadium for £10m in May 2008 in a deal that was funded by a loan from the taxpayer-owned Bank of Scotland. Now, little more than three years later, an AGM has been called at which Paul Scally, Gillingham's owner, will authorise the sale of the ground back to the club for only £1,050,000 – which works out at roughly a 10th of its previous value.
The vendor is Priestfield Developments Ltd, a company linked to the Gills through Scally's ownership via GFC Holdings Limited, which has been the club's and the stadium company's parent since the 2008 deal was structured. The cash at the time was used to repay £9m of the football entity's then £12.6m bank loans. But the total indebtedness of Gillingham and Priestfield Developments had grown by May 2010 to £15m. With the club now in League Two, that picture is likely to be worse. Even so, the Gills must find a little over £1m to buy ...
