Charlton Athletic: Roland Duchatelet agrees price to sell club

Roland Duchatelet used to own 10-times Belgian champions Standard Liege

Charlton Athletic are a step closer to being taken over after a price for the League One club was agreed with two separate parties.

The Addicks have been owned by Belgian Roland Duchatelet since January 2014.

"The good news is the terms of the deal, including the price, have now been agreed between the parties," said director Richard Murray.

"We are now just waiting for their respective lawyers to finalise the sale and purchase agreement."

Murray had expected a takeover to be concluded in February but now says a deal should be finalised "within the next few weeks".

"You can never tell how long lawyers will take," he told the club website.

Charlton are seventh in the table, two points off the play-offs, with 13 games of the season remaining.

Unpopular Duchatelet close to selling

Many Charlton supporters are likely to welcome the news that a takeover of the south east London outfit is imminent after organising a series of protests about Duchatelet's ownership over the past two years.

The businessman added the Addicks to a network of clubs around Europe, which included sides in Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Spain, when he bought the club four years ago.

However, a section of supporters became disillusioned with how Duchatelet and Katrien Meire, formerly chief executive at The Valley, were running the club and formed a coalition group called Campaign Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD), urging the 71-year-old to sell.

CARD questioned Duchatelet's long-term strategy for Charlton, the club's recruitment strategy and the high turnover of managers, with five managerial changes made during his first two years of ownership.

Duchatelet responded in March 2016 saying some supporters "want the club to fail", and Charlton were relegated from the Championship at the end of the 2015-16 season.

Meire left The Valley in December 2017 and subsequently became chief executive at Sheffield Wednesday,

Charlton Athletic fans staged a series of protests during the 2015-16 season