DEBT-ridden Kidderminster Harriers’ future hangs in the balance after businessman Chris Swan pulled out of buying the crisis club.

The Warwickshire-based entrepreneur, who founded property business Cobalt Developments, addressed a shareholders meeting last Wednesday and offered to pay off the club’s debt and purchase all of the shares for £1.

However, he decided not to pursue his interest in the club, blaming a proposal from Harriers which requested he pays back Dave Reynolds and Mark Serrell the £125,000 they have put into the club since taking over in October.

The Aggborough outfit still remain on the brink of administration, which would also lead to an automatic 10-point deduction under FA and Football Conference rules, and need to find £150,000 to pay wages, PAYE, tax and National Insurance by the end of the month.

Mr Serrell, who is a director of Aggborough Holdings, the group which owns 60 per cent of Harriers’ shares, said: “People must remember that without Dave and I coming in and putting our money in that the club would have been wound up.

“In six-and-a-half weeks Dave has put in £75,000 and I have put in £50,000.

“Keith Chandler put the proposal to Chris Swan which had been unamimously agreed by shareholders at the meeting, but he declined.

“If he had accepted then we would have put in £25,000 each to KHIST, who would have then been happy to invest in the club at a time of their choosing.

“We appreciate Chris Swan’s interest but we must look forward.

“The club is in a critical state but we are still talking to people and are working hard to make sure the club has a future.”

Mr Swan confirmed he would have paid the £150,000 but claimed he had been put off by the club’s demands.

Mr Reynolds and Mr Serrell rescued Harriers from a winding-up order in November when they paid £93,000 in taxes, PAYE and National Insurance.

Mr Swan said: “I had a meeting with many of the club’s shareholders and felt it was positive. I was prepared to pay off the club’s debts on the balance sheet and take the club forward.

“However, Dave Reynolds and Mark Serrell wanted the money they had loaned to the club paid back and I was not prepared to pay them the money, I would rather have invested that cash in the club’s future.”

Harriers continue to talk to potential investors as acting chairman Mr Reynolds and Mr Serrell, who took the reins of the club in October after ousting Barry Norgrove and Neil Savery, try to close the club’s yawning financial chasm. The club even had an advertisement in the Sunday Times searching for potential backers.

Meanwhile, former vice-chairman Mr Savery confirmed at last Wednesday’s meeting he was no longer a member of Harriers’ board and had transferred his 20 per cent slice of Aggborough Holdings to Mr Reynolds, who now owns 40 per cent.

However, ex-chairman Mr Norgrove still owns his part of the parent company, despite initially agreeing to sell it to Mr Reynolds for £15,000 in November.

Last Wednesday he declined a new offer to sell his shares and give the money back to the club, a gesture which would have been matched by Mr Serrell.

Currently, the club only have Aggborough Holdings member Wayne Allen and Pershore-based architect Mr Chandler on their board of directors.