Crystal Palace may no longer be in existence within the next 24 hours if no deal can be reached to buy Selhurst Park.

The CPFC 2010 consortium led by fans Steve Parish and Martin Long have already agreed a deal to buy the club from creditors however will not proceed without securing Selhurst Park, currently owned by Bank of Scotland.

An agreement had apparently been agreed however on receipt of the paperwork, the CPFC 2010 group now say a deal is “unworkable” and face the real possibility of extinction of the club if no deal is reached by 1500 BST on Tuesday 1st June 2010.

A statement on the Palace official website read:

“We are trying to acquire both Crystal Palace Football Club and Selhurst Park.

“Everyone would agree Selhurst Park is pivotal to the long-term future of the club and CPFC 2010 have always made it clear they will not proceed without securing it.

“We reached what we thought was an agreement with Bank of Scotland, who are the major creditor of Selhurst Park Ltd.

“Subsequent to this agreement we have been sent a contract that does not reflect this agreement and is unworkable.”

The sticking point appears to be the price that Bank of Scotland are looking to recover should the ground be sold on in the future, with the Bank wanting a substantial fee and the consortium wanting the “future fee” to be the difference between the purchase price and the actual worth of the land should the ground be sold to developers.

The consortium statement commented:

“It seems that the bank want to make an unlimited return in the future even if that value is created on the back of the success of the football club or money we have invested in a new infrastructure.

“We believe that the maximum they should make is the difference between what we will pay for the land as a football ground and what a property developer will pay now as a development opportunity plus interest.

“Bank of Scotland is currently government owned. As such we would urge the new Prime Minister to intervene personally to resolve the situation or see a club supported by many thousands, and with a 100-year history, consigned to the scrapheap.”

Palace avoided relegation from the Championship on the final day of the season with a 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday that condemned the Owls to League One.

The club currently does not have the money to pay its staff their wages for May and on Friday made 29 people redundant.

Fans were planning to hold a demonstration at Selhurst Park on Monday to highlight the club’s plight.

In January, star midfielder Victor Moses was sold to Wigan Athletic to raise much-needed cash for the club, and face loosing further players in their battle to avoid extinction.

Come back to yourfootballfix.com for the latest news on Crystal Palace and their bid to avoid collapse.

Jon Osterland