Weymouth's future looks bleak without firm offers to buy the club

Weymouth are "under obligation to begin formal insolvency proceedings" after a deadline to buy the club passed without a compatible offer submitted.

An announcement was made by director Paul Cocks after administrators Benedict Mackenzie received no acceptable offers for the club.

The Terras are unlikely to acquire the £100,000 needed to keep the club in administration and find a new buyer.

Players and staff at the Wessex Stadium have not been paid for six weeks.

The Blue Square South club have had their share of problems during the last year, with relegation from the Conference top flight coming as financial issues took their toll - while the club has had seven managers in the last three years.

Malcolm Curtis stood down as a director and chairman in October 2008, and his successor Ian Ridley's second coming at the Wessex ended prematurely when he also stood down, due to ill health.

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Prior to their recent troubles, Weymouth had enjoyed success under Garry Hill with former chairman Martyn Harrison bankrolling the club to Conference South title success in 2006 as a full-time professional outfit.

However, with the club progressing well in the Conference, Harrison pulled his investment, having paid off the club's debt, prompting Hill's departure, while the entire team were transfer-listed in a cost-cutting move.

Jason Tindall took over as player-manager and helped keep the club in the Conference that season, and it was bought by his father-in-law, music promoter Mel Bush, in the summer of 2007.

Bush then sold the club to Curtis's company Wessex Park Ltd four months later, while Tindall was sacked in January 2008 and John Hollins took over to maintain Weymouth's precarious place in the top tier of non-league football.

The Terras endured a miserable campaign in the Blue Square Premier last season, finishing second bottom, while Hollins was sacked after less than a year in the job, and neither Alan Lewer nor Bobby Gould, who both had spells as manager, could prevent relegation.

The club also had to field an under-18 side in a 9-0 defeat by Rushden & Diamonds - coincidentally managed by Garry Hill - after the club's medical insurance policy proved to contain irregularities.

Being placed in administration at the end of October 2009 gave the club a deadline, but with a lack of serious, concrete bids from the two main interested parties, George Rolls and Chris Ryan, the future looks bleak at this stage.

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