Salisbury City: Consortium fails to take over demoted club

Salisbury were demoted out of the Football Conference earlier this month

A consortium has failed to assume ownership of demoted non-league club Salisbury City.

The five-strong group went to the High Court in a bid to overturn current chairman Outail Touzar.

BBC Wiltshire learned on Thursday that the consortium had not been successful in their initial takeover attempt but could still return to the court next week for a further hearing.

Salisbury City have been plagued by off-field issues throughout the summer.

Touzar and supporter Mark Winter took over the club for £1 in May, with the pair becoming responsible for £150,000 worth of debt.

The latter paid around £75,000 of his own money to try to save the Whites, while Touzar did not provide any investment.

Winter attempted to overthrow Touzar, but eventually quit as co-owner because of the Moroccan's reluctance to hand over his stake.

The Whites were then relegated one division to Conference South after failing to pay players and staff.

And two weeks later, they were thrown out of the Conference after missing further payment deadlines.

An appeal against their demotion had been launched, but it was thrown out by the Football Association.