FINANCE experts hired to sell Northwich Victoria’s home say the club’s owner ran out of time to buy the land.

A spokesman for Deloitte Touche has confirmed to the Guardian that they intend to evict the Evo-Stik NPL Premier Division club before the weekend.

They will hand the keys to a new owner shortly after that.

“We’ve waited several years for Jim Rushe to come up with the money,” said Deloitte’s Dan Butters.

“It’s not happened, so we’ve been left with no option but to consider alternative offers for the site.

“Following a recent enquiry from a third party, an offer was received to acquire the land that our agents recommended we accept.”

He gave no indication as to who the mystery bidder is, nor what they intend to do with the nine-acres site.

However he confirmed that contracts had been exchanged.

Vics were served by bailiffs with a notice to vacate the Victoria Stadium, their home since 2005, on Monday afternoon.

Only minutes earlier manager Andy Preece, plus his assistant Andy Morrison and first team coach Darren Ryan, had resigned after agreeing to take over at Welsh Premier League club Airbus UK.

“It’s a devastating blow,” said Vics owner Jim Rushe.

“At the moment all of my attention is being put into finding out more.”

Vics will be left with nowhere to play once the locks on the gates to their ground are changed.

They are due to host neighbours Winsford United in the Mid Cheshire FA Senior Cup semi final next Tuesday, but the Guardian understands that match is now likely to be switched to Blues’ Barton Stadium.

No plan is in place yet for the visit of Marine for a league encounter on Saturday week, although Northern Premier League rules allow officials to approve a temporary ground share at short notice.

“We’ve done it on a number of occasions,” a league source told the Guardian earlier.

Meanwhile Deloitte, hired by Scottish lender Clydesdale Bank in October 2008 to recover money owed to it by the club’s previous landlord, will repossess the Victoria Stadium.

They had originally been asked to recover £1.2m in debts owed by Beaconet Limited, a firm set up by Vics’ former chairman to manage the site with the club as a tenant.

The value of the deal done this week is not known.

“We agreed in 2009 to grant Northwich Victoria Developments Ltd a licency to occupy the property so that the football club could continue to play there,” added Butters.

“That was while the former sought to obtain the necessary funding to acquire the site, and in turn guarantee tenure for team.

“It is with some regret that we have reached this stage, clearly prompting a time of great concern for the supporters of a club with such a long history.”

In August last year Deloitte confirmed that Northwich Victoria Developments Ltd, a company registered by Rushe in March 2009, had agreed a deal to buy the ground, subject to contract.

Confident of completion, they predicted Vics’ owner would have the keys a month later.

But the deal fell collapsed, according to Rushe, when the two parties failed to reach an accord on the terms of the mortgage.

That prompted the team’s first Premier Division encounter of the campaign in front of their own fans to be called off by the league as the club did not have security of tenure – a membership requirement for the competition – at its home ground.

They escaped with a fine despite being charged with failing to fulfil a fixture, signing a season-long lease with Deloitte before Frickley visited days later.

It seems that document is not sufficiently robust to protect the club from the land being sold to another bidder.

“I’m waiting for a lawyer’s advice,” said Rushe on Tuesday night.

In a statement, the league refused to comment until it learns more about what is happening.