Former Notts County owner Alan Hardy has reportedly submitted a bid as the head of a consortium looking to buy the former home of Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence and a pre-cricket legend Ian Botham.
Radio Humberside has been following Hardy’s interest in Scunthorpe United, who currently sit bottom of the National League table following relegation from the Football League last May. The Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club owner made his fortune in interior design as owner of the Chesterfield-based Paragon Interiors Group.
The club were served with a winding-up petition over an alleged unpaid tax bill on January 11. On January 14, Scunthorpe fans invaded the pitch during the second half of their 2–0 National League defeat by Woking, in a protest against current owner Peter Swann, who has presided over a period which has seen the club plummet from the Championship to the verge of the sixth tier of English football.
Hardy faces competition from a second consortium, headed by ex-director Simon Elliot and Scunthorpe-born entrepreneur Ian Sharp, while a London-based consortium that had been in talks to buy the club appear to be out of the running after they failed to provide proof of funds last November.
Fans may not want to get too excited about a Hardy takeover just yet, however. Hardy’s spell as Notts County owner saw the oldest professional team in the world, and founder of the Football League, relegated to non-league football in 2019. It was the club’s first exit from the Football league since their their formation in 1862.
