DOVER Athletic chairman Jim Gleeson has issued a warning about the club’s worsening finances. With Whites bottom of the Conference and home gates struggling to reach four figures, Gleeson confirmed that former manager Bill Williams had been brought back to Crabble as general manager to spearhead an urgent campaign to increase income.

Williams’ duties will include both administering the club, freeing up Dave Scoggins to concentrate on commercial operations and to use his own local contacts to find, in Gleeson’s words, “some serious sponsors”. The chairman also revealed that he is looking for definite results within a couple of months, otherwise the club will face a crisis.

Gleeson said: “I would say that, if there aren’t clear signs by Christmas of the situation turning around, then we’ve got a real problem. The bottom line is that, if Bill and Dave both fail, then the club will fold.

“I am not suggesting that their remit is to make us profitable by then. But what I am expecting is that we will be getting enough income to make my running of the club manageable, and that the level of potential debt is sufficiently low enough to attract other investors.”

Gleeson, who replaced John Husk as chairman nearly a year ago, estimates that since taking over he has invested “around £100,000 in cash and kind” to help keep the club afloat.

Fellow board member Roger Knight has also played his part, but Gleeson added: “There is not a cat in hell’s chance of the pair of us continuing to keep this club afloat - because the cost is too much to justify."

“It’s not a hobby any more when you get to this level. It’s a serious business, and we’ve tried desperately to get other people involved.

“But when you start mentioning the figures involved they run away.

“So we were left with two options, either to carry on as we are and to say it is all Gary Bellamy’s fault, or to do something about it - that’s why Bill (Williams) is back here.

“If we’re going to compete in the Conference, which is difficult enough anyway because of some of the big-money clubs we’re up against, we have got to have 1,500 to 2,000 coming through the turnstiles and also find some serious sponsors. At the moment the town doesn’t indicate to me that it wants a Conference team."

He stressed: “If the situation doesn’t change, there won’t be any football club or Jim Gleeson.”