Guilfoyle confirms Crystal Palace sale discussions (From Your Local Guardian)

Guilfoyle confirms Crystal Palace sale discussions

6:41pm Friday 5th February 2010 in Sport By Graham Moody

Crystal Palace joint administrator Brendan Guilfoyle has confirmed he has started discussions about the possible sale of the club.

Lifelong Palace fan Steve Parish has been linked with a takeover and although Guilfoyle would not names, he admitted there was interest.

"I have been asked about bids to buy the club," he said.

"Whilst I appreciate that football transfers are discussed in the media, I cannot do the same for the proposed sale.

"What I can say is that the dancing has begun, a lot of people are marking my dance card, but I am not kissing anyone yet."

Guilfoyle also said he was trying to renegotiate the rent on Selhurst Park with Rock Investment Holdings administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers in an effort to make Crystal Palace more attractive to buyers.

"I have identified an issue that might affect purchasers of Crystal Palace Football Club, it is the rent on the stadium of £1.2m a year," he said.

"Historically, the club paid approximately £350,000 a year, but, in April 2008, the rent was increased to £1.2m a year.

"The landlord, a subsidiary of Rock Investment Holdings Limited, went into administration in June 2009.

"I now am in touch with the landlord’s administrators and am optimistic that I will be able to agree a short term rent concession and long term a more realistic rent or a sensible price for the freehold.

"However, my immediate priority is to ensure that I have enough cash to enable Crystal Palace FC to complete this season's fixtures and that is what I'm actively working on."