Motherwell: Well Society continues negotiations for club

Owner John Boyle is looking for a new owner for Motherwell and Fir Park

A Motherwell community group says it is continuing negotiations despite being told it will now take more than £800,000 to keep alive its dream of fan ownership at Fir Park.

The Well Society is hoping to buy the club from owner John Boyle.

"Some reports today stated that we needed to hit the £800,000 mark by the end of this month," it said.

"That was initially the case, but we were told last month that it would take more money than that."

Boyle has handed his 70% shareholding to the club to be held in a trust fund in the hope that the Well Society, a community-based group advocating fan ownership, can raise the funds to buy them.

The Well Society said at the beginning of November that it had raised £500,000 and was targeting a further £1m in loans.

But there have been reports of rival groups expressing an interest in the shares - and the club, who are also looking for a new team manager after the resignation of Stuart McCall.

Well Society acting chairman Brian McCafferty said in a statement: "We are doing everything possible to help finalise a deal which would stabilise Motherwell FC's finances and ultimately hand control of the club to supporters.

"The proposed deal is complicated and we are trying to help find a way to satisfy the need to commit ongoing funds from Well Society members and new recruits.

"We had an excellent response to our recent plea for help to keep the club in the hands of Motherwell fans and are hopeful we can find a way to bring the discussions to a positive conclusion."

However, McCafferty stressed that "time is of the essence".

"Our aims are first and foremost to stabilise the club's finances and keep the ownership of the club in the hands of Motherwell fans - and also to keep alive the goal of supporters owning the club," he added.

"We are doing everything we can to make sure that the club is in the hands of people who have its best interests at heart."