CREDITORS of Darlington Football Club are being asked to accept an offer of only £150,000 for the club - despite being owed millions.

Financiers the Sterling Consortium have offered £700,000 for the club's business and assets but only a fraction will be available to creditors after trading costs and administration fees have been paid.

If it is accepted, the deal will see creditors walking away with a pittance compared with the actual amount they are owed. But the alternative - to place the club into liquidation - would present them with nothing at all.

The deal will be a huge blow to former Quakers chairman George Reynolds who personally funded the building of a new stadium before financial troubles forced him to seek a loan from Sterling.

Mr Reynolds, who says he is owed more than £20m,will get thousands rather than millions. And last night he vowed to scupper the deal saying the offer was derisory.

Mr Reynolds, who is facing a bankruptcy hearing in a row with Sterling, said: "I put my entire fortune into Darlington Football Stadium only to see it pillaged by the very company who held out a helping hand when we had short-term difficulties."

Sterling already own the stadium. They did a deal to buy the ground for £2.5m in March. If the new proposal goes through the financiers will take over the club itself.

Under the terms of the plan Darlington FC Ltd, a newly formed company set up by Sterling, will acquire the existing company's business and assets before May 28 - the deadline set by the Football League for the Quakers' future to be clarified.

Before then, an agreement with creditors must be secured.

Mr Reynolds, on paper the largest creditor, has vowed to reject the Sterling-funded proposal, but his power to sink the rescue deal could be taken from him. The second meeting of creditors will be held on May 19, the day before Mr Reynolds' bankruptcy hearing is due to resume in Newcastle.

He has vowed to fight the case, but if Mr Reynolds were to be declared bankrupt, a trustee would be appointed to look after his interests.

Read more about the Quakers here.