AN independent group of Bromsgrove Rovers supporters are preparing ambitious plans to become the club's saviours if it ever falls into crisis again.

Bromsgrove Rovers Supporters' Society held a meeting on Wednesday, January 11, to discuss various ways of generating money should the club ever fall into administration again, or be put up for sale by Rovers' current chairman and owner Tom Herbert.

The society, a member of national fans network Supporters' Direct, wants to avoid a repeat of the club's darkest hour in the summer of 2001.

Bankrupt Rovers had tumbled into administration and was only hours away from going out of existence, before Herbert bought the club.

Society chairman Des Best said: "Finances could be raised to purchase the club if it becomes available in the future. Tom Herbert put the money in and took the club out of administration. What would happen if he left?

"There is no indication that Tom will sell Rovers, but we have to prepare for that situation. If we do not then anybody could buy the club.

"At the moment the society only has the money to run it for a week or so, but we are looking at moving to a situation where we could buy the club in the future."

The Society is planning to set up a loan note scheme, similar to those used by supporters' groups from Brentford and Greenock Morton to save their clubs, and is taking advice on the project's legal requirements.

Fans would loan money into a supporters' trust, which would invest the cash into the club or a holding company. The proceeds would be used to buy shares in Rovers. Each loan note would be worth a certain amount, such as £100, and could be paid for straight away or over time by fans.

The scheme, masterminded by Cobbetts Solicitors, ensures that the community in Bromsgrove would own part, or all, of the football club.

Greenock Morton fans set up a similar scheme to save their club from going to the wall when its previous owner put it into administration three years ago.

However, plans for buying the club may be dashed before they begin, after Herbert admitted he was not ready to sell Rovers, especially not to the Society.

The relationship between the chairman and the Society has deteriorated to such an extent that neither side is talking to each other.

Herbert said: "I have no reason or intention of selling the club.

"It would take a big offer for me even to think of selling and I'd never let the Society buy it anyway."

By Peter McKinney