FLAMBOYANT football boss George Reynolds has been ordered to pay an industrial tribunal award far larger than originally believed, it has been revealed.

The multi-millionaire chairman of Darlington FC must hand over more than £61,000 to a former employee who was sacked after it emerged she was having an affair with a director.

Originally, it was thought that the total was £12,400 for breach of contract.

But the panel has also awarded her a further £48,789 compensation.

Ex-commercial manager Helen Coverdale took Mr Reynolds to an employment tribunal after she was fired from the Nationwide Third Division club.

The club chairman last night vowed to fight the decision, claiming it was a "disgrace" and added that veterans injured in the Falklands War had not received as much.

Miss Coverdale rowed with the wife of former club director Mike Metcalf, with whom she was having an affair, at half-time during a game.

At a tribunal in October last year chipboard magnate Mr Reynolds claimed the affair had tarnished the small club's family image and told the panel in Newcastle that she had performed badly in her job.

But in December, the tribunal found in favour of Miss Coverdale, ruling she had been unfairly dismissed. The amount of compensation Mr Reynolds must pay was disclosed yesterday.

Miss Coverdale, 34, was awarded £12,400 for breach of contract because she claimed she had not been paid commission on the business she brought to the club. The panel awarded her a further £48,789 compensation for unfair dismissal after she left the post she had held for two years, which paid a salary of £18,000.

In a written judgment, the panel said they had considered reducing the compensation by £11,000 - the amount she was paid for selling her story to a national newspaper. But the tribunal decided that would not have been fair after the case had generated "substantial and somewhat salacious publicity''.

At the panel hearing in October last year, the tribunal heard how Miss Coverdale was passing the directors' lounge at the club's Feethams ground when her lover's wife, Michelle Metcalf, grabbed her and told her to stop the affair.

Mr Metcalf has since left the club.

Mr Reynolds said: "In my opinion, the tribunal was a disgrace and a miscarriage of justice. We are going to appeal.

"There are people who fought in the Falklands War who didn't get as much as that. There's something wrong with the system."

Miss Coverdale was unavailable for comment.