Football: Bankrupt Goldberg owes pounds 30m

MARK GOLDBERG, the former Crystal Palace chairman who took the First Division club into administration with debts of pounds 20m earlier this year, will be declared bankrupt on Monday with personal debts of pounds 30m, writes Nick Harris.

The move will effectively rule out any future involvement for him at Palace and means that he will not now be able to recover a pounds 3.2m deposit he lodged with Midland Bank as security against Palace's debts though the trustee who oversees Goldberg's bankruptcy will want to use the money to pay Goldberg's personal creditors.

Paterson's job is to find a buyer for Palace and he has set a deadline of next Wednesday, 8 December, for potential owners to submit formal bids. At least three offers are likely to be made. One will come from the so- called "Directors' consortium." There has been speculation that this might involve Ron Noades, the club's former owner, who will have to decide whether he wants to give up his interests in Second Division Brentford, which he now owns, to return.

A second bid is expected from Jerry Lim, a businessman from Mauritius, who would probably want to build a property development around Selhurst Park, which is still owned by Noades, if successful. A third bid, from a mysterious US-based investor, has also been rumoured.