SIR William Patey has confirmed that specialist accountants will be brought in to conduct the due diligence of Swindon Town’s finances ahead of any potential sale of the club.

As is the norm in situations such as that at the County Ground, where majority shareholder Andrew Black is keen to offload a large proportion of his 98 per cent stake in the Robins, interested parties will want to get a thorough understanding of Town’s accounts.

“Andrew Black has made it clear he is looking for new investors and new owners, and that has gathered a great deal of interest by trying to do that and we have had positive discussions and we are encouraged by the detail,” said Patey.

“It is much better to sell the club in its current state where it’s gunning for promotion with a good squad of players, and we want to attract new owners by showing off Swindon to be a club with potential.

“We are going to bring in some professionals who know football, because buyers want to go through details like financial forecasting which clubs don’t keep on a day to day basis and it will enable us to go through due diligence.

“There is no 10 point penalty (which could be applied if Town did go into administration) if we sell the club, so people are getting a little ahead of themselves.”