Peter Varney insists his attempts to bring new investment to Charlton are not distracting him from his work at Ebbsfleet.

Mr Varney, the Fleet vice-chairman, has tried to broker a meeting with Charlton owner Roland Duchatelet on behalf of someone who wants to buy the League 1 club.

Addicks chief executive Katrien Meire claimed Mr Varney wanted to move Charlton away from The Valley, something he quickly denied.

And with Ebbsfleet rebuilding both their stadium and playing squad, his focus is very much on events at Stonebridge Road.

Mr Varney said: "The people who will tell you whether we’re working hard enough are the people who work here and the directors.

"They know the commitment I’ve got here and you’ll see it again by the time we’ve constructed everything. We’re building a stand, we’re doing the pitch, signing a fairly sizeable number of players in the squad and none of that’s been affected at all.

"It’s just that someone (Meire) decides to pop up at a press conference and say ‘we turned that down because he wanted to move’ which is just untrue. If I don’t respond, it gives it a degree of credibility.

"Why she came out with this story about moving the club to Ebbsfleet – although she didn’t name it as that – was left of stage.

"Look at it from the Ebbsfleet angle. The reality is we’re going down to 2,200 capacity while the works are going on so if it was going to happen, where are they going to watch the game? It’s ludicrous, it’s not actually possible anyway."

Mr Varney, who spent 14 years working for Charlton, has seen fans there become increasingly disenchanted by the way Mr Duchatelet is running the club.

He said: "I had the opportunity to introduce someone to him but he doesn’t want to sell, end of story.

"I have no interest in going back there at all.

"I have a feeling for the place and somebody approached me to broker a meeting. I haven’t been able to get that meeting so there’s been no other discussions about anything.

"For her to come out with ‘he wants to leave The Valley’ is purely to get people back on side. It’s political.

"People are reading it and thinking ‘he must still be doing this, that and the other with Charlton’ but it’s old news."

Read the full story in the Gravesend Messenger.