Hardy in line for shock return to football club ownership

Former Notts County owner Alan Hardy could be in line for a shock return to football club ownership after being linked to a consortium interested in buying stricken National League club Scunthorpe United.

The Iron, who are languishing at the bottom of the National League after being relegated from the Football League last season, are currently reeling after a winding-up petition was served to them by HMRC.

The current owner, Peter Swann, is deeply unpopular with fans after a disastrous decade which has seen the club fall from the Championship to be in danger of relegation to the obscurity of the National League North.

Radio Humberside says that Hardy is leading a consortium to rival a takeover by another local group in the North Lincolnshire town.

Hardy tweeted over the weekend: “I will certainly listen to public opinion as I’m not prepared to come into a hostile and toxic situation. Notts went on a great run and we broke the stadium record for most supporters through the turnstiles in a season. I know what success and failure look like.”

Hardy enjoyed initial success at Meadow Lane when he took the club over in 2017, but this soon turned sour as the club was relegated to the National League for the first time in its long history. Shortly after he sold the Magpies to the Reedtz brothers.

Hardy currently owns the Nottinghamshire Golf Club in the village of Cotgrave.