The Professional Footballers' Association has handed Bradford City a multi-million pound loan to save the club from extinction.

The players' union stepped forward to bail out City with the offer as the administrators running the club were poised to liquidate the business.

It formed part of a rescue package revealed by chairman Geoffrey Richmond last night at a highly-charged meeting packed with 2,000 fans at Valley Parade.

Under the terms of the deal, some creditors owed money by the club will be asked to accept as little as ten pence in every £1 they are due.

But Mr Richmond (pictured) said he was confident the deal would be accepted and called on fans to back it.

Season ticket holders will see their investment honoured, and all 16 players sacked by the club in May will be offered the chance to return on their old contracts.

Mr Richmond faced an audience split by his decision to lead the rescue package.

The chairman, who called in the administrators with the club facing debts of more than £13 million, said he understood that many fans would be sceptical about his return.

But he said suggestions the administration had been a "sham" to wipe-out the club's debts "could not be further from the truth".

Most fans at the meeting came out in support of Mr Richmond and a 25-year season ticket holder who declared he would never return to the club was booed and jeered.

Mr Richmond told them: "I accept fully that I have to regain your trust and confidence and that is what I intend to do. Lessons have been learned and been learned for a lifetime.

"This is not about Geoffrey Richmond, it is about Bradford City. The only way this club will survive is by us working together. It is not about supporting me."

During a short address to the packed crowd, a relaxed Mr Richmond paid tribute to the PFA, which was represented by its chief executive Gordon Taylor.

Although the size of the loan was not revealed, it is understood to amount to several million pounds, which will be repayable over a number of years. It will be used to pay the players' wages until the club is back on a stable financial footing.

"It looked a mission impossible until our meeting and without their help, the club would have been mothballed last Friday night," said Mr Richmond. "There would have been no Bradford City - I can tell you that categorically."

Mr Taylor, who publicly fell out with Mr Richmond last year over a proposed players' strike, said the loan would represent the biggest investment the union has ever made in a single club.

And - in a show of support for Mr Richmond - he called on fans to back the rescue package.

"If I am prepared to bury the hatchet for the sake of the future of Bradford City then I hope that you as supporters would do the same," he said.

"We have never put as much money as this into one football club before in our 100-year history. This is a case of the players' union looking to keep your club alive."

Mr Richmond said the package, drawn-up with father and son directors David and Julian Rhodes, had been the only offer on the table for the debt-ridden club.

He said: "We came together and put together a bid that we thought could persuade the administrator that we could save the club. The other inquiries between them were not worth a bag of salt.

"All this talk about white knights waiting to save the club is a load of hot air. The truth is there was nobody out there."

Details of the offer to the club's creditors will be sent out next week, with a meeting of all creditors expected to be held at Valley Parade on July 26.

The offer of ten pence in the £1, to be paid over 25 months, will be made to unsecured creditors. They will receive a further 20p in the £1 in the event of a settlement being reached between the Football League and ITV Digital, and up to 70p more if the club wins promotion to the Premiership and stays there for two years.

The consortium will need to secure the backing of 75 per cent worth of the total amount owed in order for the club to exit administration.

But Mr Richmond said he was confident the deal will win the support of most season ticket holders (who represent 10 per cent), the players (25 per cent), and the secured creditors who will be paid-off in full.

He asked season-ticket holders to give their approval and rally other creditors to back the deal.

"If it doesn't get through it would be cause for major concern and major worry, but we believe it will," he said.

"We will only know if we have the support we need when it comes to July 26, but the overwhelming feeling is that we have the vast majority of supporters behind us."