• Blue Square Premier

High Court orders the winding-up of Chester City

The lights have temporarily gone out at the Deva Stadium © Getty Images

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Conference side Chester City have been wound up in the High Court over debts owed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in a brief hearing - but a fans' group have vowed to resurrect the club.

The decision brings an end to the club which has existed in some form since 1885, and comes after Chester City FC 2004 failed to settle its immediate debts of £26,125 with HMRC.

The club had earlier been put up for sale for just £1and there was various media speculation linking Chester City to a takeover from a Danish consortium and other buyers - none of which materialised.

The club were expelled from the Blue Square Premier last month after being unable to guarantee that they could fulfil their fixtures, having pulled out of matches against Forest Green and Wrexham.

But David Evans of Chester City Fans United told Sky Sports News: "125 years of history have been extinguished today but that's just the body of the club - its soul lives on.''

A new club, along the lines of AFC Wimbledon, is the group's goal and Evans continued: "Today is the day to say to everybody that our club will be run in a professional way and be a credit to our city and to football.

"Our model is AFC Wimbledon or AFC Telford, where a new club has been run on a very prudent basis. We want to atone for the way the club has been run - we see this as our responsibility even though it wasn't our fault.''

© ESPN EMEA Ltd

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