Insider Media Limited

The new owner of Mansfield Town Football Club has told Insider that his main ambition for the club is to “retake ownership of its land”. John Radford said he was “working on a deal” to secure the ground for the Blue Square Bet Premier league team, which currently rents the site from its former chairman.

Radford also said he has “no plans” to follow the former management’s plans to use the stadium for music concerts.

The multimillionaire, who founded the One Call group in 1995, purchased the club in September for £1.

However, due to prolonged financial difficulties, the club is renting the ground from its former chairman. Radford said it was his “main ambition” to buy back the land for the club.

And Radford said he was already working towards buying back the land, and was “comfortable” with the financial position of the club.

The entrepreneur bought the club from previous owners Andy Saunders, Steve Hymas and Steve Middleton in September this year. He said the reason behind his purchase was simple.

“It’s my local team”, he said. “I remember the first match I saw them play, and I wanted to keep the legacy going. The deal went through very quickly. I knew that if I didn’t move fast, the club would go into administration, and that would be the end.

"I don't think anyone buys a football team for financial gain - it's a very difficult thing to achieve."

He added there was work to be done to the club, but that he would not follow the lead of the former management team, whose highly-publicised music concert featuring Irish boyband Westlife failed to sell out in August this year, leaving about 4,000 seats unoccupied.

“That’s not the route I want to take with the stadium,” confirmed Radford.

“The ground does need some work doing to it, and that’s what I’ll be concentrating on. The pitch needs about eight weeks to cultivate and refresh itself.”

Radford also said that attendance records have recently risen slightly.

“Obviously, you need to perform well on the field to pull in the crowds”, said Radford, whose team currently ranks eighth in the league. “Saying that, attendance has increased a little recently; we’re at about 2,500 at home games. We’d really like to get that up to 3,000 in the near future.”