Sam Hammam appointed Peter Ridsdale onto the Cardiff City board
Peter Ridsdale is confident Cardiff City's long-standing battle with the Langston Corporation over the club's £15m debt will be concluded next month.
And the Cardiff chairman hopes if the deal with Langston is legally agreed, the Championship club can pay of its debts within the next 18 months.
Ridsdale believes the club and Langston have reached an "outline agreement."
Langston took Cardiff to the High Court in 2008 demanding repayment but a judge ruled the case could go to full trial.
Ridsdale told a press conference that Langston, owned by controversial former Cardiff owner Sam Hammam, loaned £24m to the Welsh club in 2004.
But he insisted he renegotiated the debt to £15m in 2006 in the same year Ridsdale became Cardiff chairman.
"We have been in discussion with Langston for a number of weeks and we believe we have reached an outline agreement," said the Cardiff chairman, who was approached by Hammam to help resolve Cardiff's cash crisis in 2005.
"The agreement is presently with the two sets of lawyers.... and we hope we can see if we can sign a deal.
"It is with the lawyers and I know to my cost until you have read the small print, a deal is never done until it is done.
We might substitute one level of debt for a different level of debt but at least it might be with somebody with a name over the door
Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale
"Verbally there is an agreement in place, but legally there is not.
"But I'd be disappointed if it is not resolved by the end of November on the basis that we think we have agreed the deal and if that deal appears to be what is written down by the lawyers then it will be done very quickly.
"This club has two levels of debt, one of which is the stadium and the other is to do with Langston and we are actively through normal financial routes looking to repay both those levels of debts.
"The first one is simple because it is known, which is the cost of the stadium and the other one is less easy to quantify because when I arrived at this football club the debt was £24m and we then did a deal in 2006 to make it £15m."
Cardiff successfully argued in the High Court in 2008 that the dispute should go to full trial where Cardiff's barrister named, for the first time, its former chairman Hammam as the man behind Langston.
Mr Justice Briggs decided in favour of Cardiff after a two-day High Court summary judgement in March 2008 - a ruling that that secured the immediate future of the club.
Langston wanted Cardiff to repay the debt in full immediately but the club's lawyers argued that the monies owed are not repayable until 2016.
The Bluebirds won the initial case against Langston and now Ridsdale hopes to settle the protracted dispute very soon.
Cardiff have been in discussions with investors in the Far East and any deal could pave the way for Malaysian property magnate Datuk Chan Tien Ghee to invest in the club.
Ridsdale has also recently been in New York to negotiate with American financial institutions about potentially restructuring the club's debt.
He added: "I am confident that when we have the Langston agreement signed there are routes to pay off our debts in the shorter term not the longer term and by that I mean the next 18 months not the next six years.
"Whether that be routes that we have already talked to routes we haven't thought of, time will tell.
"We might substitute one level of debt for a different level of debt but at least it might be with somebody with a name over the door we recognised rather than somebody we don't know who they are.
"The current debts that we have we intend repaying and we intend in part refinancing and if we can pay it off completely.
"The Langston debt has to be taken out and paid off through a substitute financing institution or from somebody wanting to invest because it can't continue, as we can't continue to have debts to companies who we don't know who they are."
Langston, who have registered offices in Panama, could still pursue a full hearing, but a High Court injunction prevents them taking further legal action until January.
A full trial could spell a bleak financial future for the Bluebirds who spent an estimated £500,000 on legal bills for the case.
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?