Former Macclesfield Town chairman Mike Rance has responded to allegations that he is at the heart of the club’s current financial problems.

The Silkmen’s recent takeover bid, led by Mr Rance’s former vice-chairman Andy Scott, broke down at the final stage with majority shareholder Amar Alkadhi pulling out of the deal, paying off sizeable football debts and vowing to keep the club sustainable.

But it’s Mr Alkadhi’s statement, planned for the official website but instead published on the Silkmen Supporters’ Trust site, that prompted his former chairman (right) to tell his side of the story – of a critical period in Macc Town’s history that saw tragedy off the field and ultimately disappointment on it.

Amar Alkadhi’s statement includes the following lines: “I made errors of judgement over the last few years. The choice of football management teams during the horrible relegation season were certainly some of those.

“Another was not putting in place the necessary measures to control unauthorised overspending by the volunteer chairman I put in charge to look after the club leading up to relegation.

“That overspend amounted to over £1 million (a vast proportion of which did not go on the playing side).

“I had made that decision in all good faith, but it turned out to be an enormous and hugely costly error which I regret every day, and for which the club is still paying.”

Mr Rance, who stood down as chairman in 2012, is now looking to put an end to this chapter of the Silkmen’s story.

He told the Express: “Early in the relegation season we were in receipt of significant unbudgeted income and we did take the opportunity to address several years of underinvestment in the club’s infrastructure.

“We also spent pretty heavily on the football side, paying several transfer fees to strengthen the squad and by adding new faces such as the ill-fated Dwayne Mattis in January when, after the cup run and with the team within striking distance of the play-offs, we were looking up rather than down.

“Then, as relegation loomed, we spent on loanees and ultimately, with Mr Alkadhi very much involved, on a very expensive and ultimately ineffective change of management in an attempt to avoid the inevitable.

“Despite our best efforts we failed to preserve our Football League status and as chairman I have to acknowledge the important part I had to play in that outcome.

“However, at the end of June 2012 the club’s balance sheet was stronger than it had been for a long time, with more than half a million pounds in guaranteed future payments from transfer fees due over the following 18 months.

“I simply can’t accept that the club’s financial performance in the relegation season was the primary reason for the financial problems that were to follow.”

Macclesfield suffered in the second half of the 2011/12 season, eventually losing their Football League status
 

And Mr Alkadhi’s assertion that the Football Conference would have expelled Macc from the fifth and six tiers of English football is also questioned.

Andy Scott and Mark Blower, who was also heavily involved in the ill-fated bid to buy out Mr Alkadhi’s majority holding, attended the league’s recent AGM.

They returned with the blessing of the Conference board, on the condition that their takeover would be finalised.

However, it was the deal breaking down that put Macclesfield Town’s place in the league back in jeopardy.

The league recently expelled Hereford United and demoted Salisbury City to the Conference South after they failed to pay creditors. Mr Alkadhi’s fresh investment brought players’ and staff wages up to date and the outstanding HMRC debt.

“My biggest disappointment about last week’s statement was that Amar, in making his very personal comments about me, ignored the context of the period leading up to the relegation season,” added Mike Rance. “Everyone needs to recognise that in the years after they took over responsibility for the club in 2002, the Alkadhis were very generous benefactors and without them we would probably have lost our league status much earlier.

“But that era came to an end in 2008, shortly after Andy Scott and I became chairman and vice-chairman.

“The financial support previously generously provided by the Alkadhis dried up, despite later promises to the contrary, and they both relocated overseas, making day-to-day involvement at Moss Rose more difficult.

“Andy and I, helped by many other like-minded local people, took on the challenge of running the club we loved but which was still owned by Amar and Bashar.

“For the next three years we somehow made ends meet, without financial reward and often at great personal cost, financially and in the impact on our day-to-day lives.

“Add the tragic loss of Keith Alexander and Richard Butcher and the surprise really is, not that we were relegated in 2012, but that we were able to survive the three difficult years that preceded it.

“I totally accept how important the earlier Alkadhi investments were to the club but I feel that Amar should also recognise that – without the enormous commitment of the folk on the ground over the years to keep the Silkmen alive when he became an absentee landlord – there would have been no club for the council to rescue last year or to fight for today.”