THE former owner of Hereford United said the club’s debts in 2011 were “no worse than it had been for 25 years” and the “poor results on the pitch were sinking the football club”.

David Keyte spoke today at Herefordshire Council’s scrutiny meeting which was to discuss future leases for the grounds in Edgar Street.

Mr Keyte said the level of debt accrued during his tenure is a “myth” and he said the club accrued more than £1million of debt to an outside firm of developers from the mid 90s.

He said the club’s accounts show in 2004 there was a £1.6m debt and in June 2010 was £1.3m when Mr Keyte bought the club.

He said he then worked to get the leases back, which gave a paper profit of £600,000, which he said, brought the debt down even further in 2011.

Mr Keyte said: “Actually it was no worse than it had been for probably 25 years in terms of the level of debt.”

He said following the club’s relegation from the football league in 2012 the revenue dropped dramatically.

He said: “The financial difficulty... the poor results on the pitch were sinking the football club- that is what sank your football club. Torquay United will be in that situation next year, without a doubt.”

And he said in May 2012, when the club was relegated, they had a £1.2m football playing budget, which should have left them mid table.

Mr Keyte said they were always very open about the club’s finances, and from January 2014 they announced they needed £300,000 of investment to survive the season.

But when no businesses came forward to help, they were left with two options- Essex businessman Tommy Agombar and the Hereford United Supporters Trust, who he said never came back to them to complete negotiations.

He added: “Insolvency is an important word in the commercial world. We were fully aware of the situation and very open about the situation but we were never declared insolvent as a trading company.”

Director at Herefordshire Council Geoff Hughes told the meeting the leases proved to be effective as the council was able to get back the money it was owed and the grounds.

He said he believed the council should have considered an option to terminate the arrangement of the lease over the terms of ownership.

And he said the council should not have signed the development rights over to the tenants, with hindsight.

The committee agreed on a number of recommendations for any future leases including: “That there should be proper assessment of whether it would be beneficial in any future leases, for the council to retain a right to exercise a break clause in the event of (1) a change of ownership/ change of control; and/or (2) professional football ceases to be played at the ground. And that any lease should include appropriate safeguards in the event of a hostile takeover of a corporate tenant.”