THE Football League have intervened and paid Gillingham's final instalment on striker Marlon King's £250,000 transfer from Barnet in June, 2000.

The League advanced the money, thought to be in the region of £60,000, on behalf of Gillingham in response to an SOS from Barnet that the amount was overdue.

Barnet, former members of the Football League but now of the Nationwide Conference, still employ a full-time staff and needed the money to pay their wage bill.

The League will deduct the cash from Gillingham's next payment due from what they call their basic award from sponsorship monies.

Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous, who sold King to Gillingham with a 30 per cent sell-on clause, is out of the country and unavailable for comment. Football League spokesman Ian Christon would only say: “The matter has been sorted between the two clubs and there is nothing more to add.”

The news will heighten fears among Gillingham supporters regarding the parlous state of the club's finances following decisions in the past fortnight to make first team coach Richard Hill and youth manager Kevin Bremner redundant.

Long-serving groundsman Billy Wood departed earlier, while a number of administration staff have left in the wake of stringent cut-backs demanded by the club's bankers, the Bank of Scotland.