Valley Parade owner and former Bradford City chairman Gordon Gibb has flatly rejected a last ditch appeal to let the club play rent-free at the stadium next season to save it from closure.

And he criticised the administrators for "leaving the negotiations until the 11th hour" and said he believed that it had been done "to put as much pressure on me as possible and hope that I would go weak at the knees".

"I have offered the administrators various options, the most sensible being a rent payable according to the club's financial performance," said Mr Gibb.

He also dismissed the notion that he would be seen as the man responsible for putting Bradford City out of business.

"Anyone that has got half a brain will realise that it is not that way," he said.

"The only people who have put money into the club and have not taken anything out are the Gibb family - it's as simple as that."

He added his "conscience was clear" and said he had done "everything physically and financially possible to help the club".

"I am not surprised that I have been put in this position," he said. "It has been typical of the treatment I have received from the club. I definitely won't be altering my decision-making platform."

Yesterday, the Telegraph & Argus made its own bid to persuade Mr Gibb to rescue the club after staff had told us he would be at the Flamingo Land pleasure park near Malton, North Yorkshire, where we tried to personally deliver a letter from T&A Editor Perry Austin-Clarke.

But when we arrived we were assured that Mr Gibb was not on site. We were told he was elsewhere "at a meeting" and could not be disturbed.

Mr Gibb's sister, Maureen Wood, who is also a director of Flamingo Land, tried to phone Mr Gibb on our behalf but told us he was unavailable. She refused to disclose his whereabouts.

In the letter we tried to deliver to Mr Gibb, Mr Austin-Clarke wrote: "As I believe you are now aware, we were faced with the unhappy task of reporting today that the club will close tomorrow unless administrators can strike a deal with you and the trustees of the Flamingo Land pension Fund.

"I say 'unhappy', as in the last few weeks the people of Bradford district have rallied magnificently to the club's cause and have so far raised £235,000 in a bid to secure its future.

"It was believed that those funds would be sufficient to keep the club going both through the closed season and into the 2004-05 season.

"We, along with our readers and City fans everywhere, are devastated and disappointed that despite the hard work, huge efforts and enormous sacrifices made in the name of saving Bradford City, it has come to this.

"However, the administrators have made it plain that without a rent-free deal on Valley Parade, the club's financial situation is simply not viable next season.

"Bradford City fans have not forgotten your public pledge made earlier this year to allow the club to play at Valley Parade 'forever and a day'. I, along with very many other people, hope you will feel able to honour that pledge before it is too late."

We also wanted to ask Mr Gibb about details of the offer he has claimed he made to the administrators.

We wanted to put to Mr Gibb whether he felt there was anything he could do to help the club's survival at this late stage.

If the club is eventually wound up Mr Gibb, who paid £2.5 million for Valley Parade on behalf of the pension fund and pumped money into the club, will have a freehold site whose estimated value is between £700,000 and £1 million.

We were anxious to ask Mr Gibb, who quit as City chairman at Christmas, whether he was willing for the Flamingo Land Pension Fund to lose that kind of money.

But other questions also remain unanswered.

Will Mr Gibb be prepared to negotiate with potential buyers of Valley Parade and how much would he accept for the site?

Sadly, Mr Gibb could not be found to answer these important questions which are now central to Bradford City's very existence.