Bradford City's directors today bought themselves time to finalise their bid to buy back the club with a £400,000 cash injection.

And it also emerged that multi-millionaire theme park boss Gordon Gibb has dropped out of the deal.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond and directors David and Julian Rhodes have signed an agreement with the administrators giving them exclusive rights to buying the club.

The consortium has paid £400,000 to ensure City's future can be settled next month after administrators Kroll Buchler Phillips admitted they were running out of money.

Mr Richmond and Professional Footballers Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor will face the fans at a special forum at Valley Parade on Monday at 8pm.

Today fans gave a mixed reaction to the news that the club's new owners were likely to be the same individuals who called in the administrators last month.

Chris Hawkridge, chairman of the newly-formed Bradford City Supporters' Trust, said: "Any deal that can help this club survive has to be welcome," he said.

But Dave Pendleton, former editor of the City Gent fanzine, said many fans would be concerned about Mr Richmond returning