BASINGSTOKE Town Football Club takes the final step towards becoming a private company next Thursday.

The club is holding an extraordinary general meeting at its Camrose ground to confirm what the annual meeting last August voted for - the setting up of Basingstoke Town Ltd.

Club chairman Dave Knight told The Basingstoke Extra: "After the meeting, we expect the new company to come into being within a month. There are a few legal bits and pieces to be tied up - it's a bit like buying a house - but we hope the new company will be up and running by mid-July.

"The Football Association have to give their approval but it is a formality that should also have been cleared by then."

Six days after the extraordinary general meeting, Basingstoke Town Football and Social Club Ltd, the old company, is due to appear before the High Court in London for an adjourned hearing on a wind-up bid by the Inland Revenue for money owed by the club.

"It is a complete coincidence that the adjourned court hearing is less than a week after the EGM," said Mr Knight. "We hope that all matters relating to that hearing will be resolved before that date."

When the Inland Revenue first took the club to court on May 1 this year, Mr Knight admitted they owed it money but said the debt would either by paid or transferred to the new company.

He assured fans that there was no question of the club being wound up.

Last August the club took the decision to form a new private company and offer £1 million-worth of shares to local businesses at £5,000 a share.