DOVER Athletic’s survival is still hanging by a thread after it was revealed that the club’s debts are far greater than the £120,000 previously indicated.

Mick Kemp, a local businessman heading the Supporters’ Trust-backed consortium which is trying to save the club following last week’s resignation of the three-man Crabble board, said in a statement: “Inquiries have been made on behalf of the Dover Athletic Supporters’ Trust, as potential new backers for Dover Athletic Ltd, by the club’s auditors.

“They have revealed massive debts far in excess of all indications from the outgoing board of directors.”

Kemp was not prepared to reveal either the exact sum, or the identity of the main creditors. But a figure of £400,000 is being bandied about on the local rumour mill, with the Inland Revenue among the creditors. Whatever the true figures, it could be only be a matter of days before the club are forced to go into liquidation unless the consortium’s rescue bid succeeds.

Kemp added: “The Supporters’ Trust has produced a plan to rescue the club and trust representatives are working to a very tight schedule in an attempt to bring the plan to a successful conclusion.

“The rescue plan, while offering all those owed money by the club a far better deal than they could secure if the club ceased to exist, is heavily reliant upon the goodwill and assistance of all the club’s creditors and employees.”

Kemp, a 55-year-old Dover plumbing company owner, is currently involved in what he describes as ‘several criticial meetings” with the club’s creditors.

If the creditors agree to what was on offer, Kemp plans to meet with the club’s major shareholders, John and Alan Husk to ask for their approval for the rescue plan before meeting with the Dover players, several of whom have not been paid for the last week of the season.

Kemp said: “I want to be able to tell the players what’s happening, because the current situation is not fair on them.

“But it must be appreciated by everybody concerned that the rescue of Dover Athletic can, at this time, be viewed only as a possibility rather than a probability.”

Pressed to put a figure on the club’s survival chances Kemp, who played for Whites along with his brother Peter, said: “I would put them at 70-30 in favour.”

He revealed that under the rescue plan, there would be a four-man board, headed by himself as chairman, and with one member of the Supporters’ Trust, their chairman Simon Harris. Kemp said: ‘The Supporters’ Trust will probably be the single largest shareholders.”

In addition, there would be a 12-strong support or non-executive board, again containing representatives of the Supporters’ Trust. Kemp himself has been heavily involved with the formation of the consortium’s business plan, drawing up the commercial, club set-up and management aspects. He said: “It’s a five-year plan, focussing on the playing side for the first three years and then developing the ground for the next two years."