Archibald goes back for more

Steve Archibald has not turned his back on Airdrie

Steve Archibald insists he has taken an important step in his attempt to take control of debt-stricken Airdrie.

Archibald says £880,000 has been pledged to North Lanarkshire Council to improve a piece of land next to the stadium.

The ground on which New Broomfield Stadium stands is owned by the council, who have indicated they will hand over the title deeds on the condition that the park area is improved for community use.

The former Scotland internationalist will now put together a fresh bid to take over the Diamonds.

KPMG have renewed their call for any interested parties to make direct contact with them as a matter of urgency

  KPMG statement

"Depending on what their asset list is, we will make an offer immediately," said Archibald.

"We will take it one step at a time. We will consider an offer, make the offer and hope that the offer is accepted.

"The key factor here is that nobody has done this before, and we are very excited about that. We are pushing hard.

"We are happy to open the club again and happy to take care of the costs that may incur."

The ex-Barcelona and Spurs striker has also sought legal advice in a bid to recover the payments he has already made to KPMG, a move KPMG said they would oppose.

"The initial fax communication outlines an intention to seek recovery of all sums paid as part of the management agreement, which will be strongly resisted by the interim liquidators," the statement read.

"Subsequently they also indicated a willingness to reopen negotiations.

"But no specific proposals have been put forward at this time which, in any event, will have to fully address the concerns and specific requirements of the liquidators which have been explained to them on numerous occasions and as recently as Wednesday last week.

"In the meantime KPMG have renewed their call for any interested parties to make direct contact with them as a matter of urgency."

Cup exit

Les Jones, spokesman for the pressure group Diamonds Direct Action, was pleased to hear that Archibald had not turned his back on Airdrie.

"We are glad he's going to go back in," said Jones. "We just hope he's able to conclude a deal which will keep the club alive.

"We spoke to Steve over the weekend and we are confident that he can do the job. We're hoping for a bit more good will from everyone concerned."

Airdrie were kicked out of the Scottish Cup on Friday after the Scottish Football Assocation refused to allow their tie against Peterhead to be postponed.

KPMG said that the club did not have enough players to fulfil the tie after terminating Archibald's management contract three days earlier.

Airdrie are due to host Ross County on Saturday on league duty.