Bradford City chief Geoffrey Richmond today confessed this season had been his most difficult in 13 years as a football chairman.

He said: "I have been chairman here for seven years and we were viable in Division Two, we were viable in Division One, we were viable in the first year in the Premiership, but we have not been viable this year.

"I have been chairman first at Scarborough and now at Bradford City and I have got to say that by some considerable distance this has been by far my most difficult year in every respect on and off the field"

As City face relegation from the Premiership, Richmond revealed this week that the club's wage bill had more than doubled from £6m in their first season in the Premiership last year to £13m this time.

That followed the signing of high profile players like Benito Carbone, Stan Collymore, Dan Petrescu and David Hopkin.

The signings were made in an attempt to establish City in the top flight after they escaped relegation last season only by winning their last match against Liverpool at Valley Parade.

They have not been successful, however, and City have been at bottom of the Premiership since just before Christmas.

Richmond admitted: "If I had my time over again I would have been very much more prudent than we have been this season."

Since Christmas Richmond has been reducing City's wage bill and seven players have been sold and three more are out on loan.

He said: "It is likely that a sensible level next season should be a wage bill in the order of £5m, but there are still some important figures on the income side we don't know for next year's budget like season ticket numbers and parachute payments for relegated clubs.

Richmond admits: "" am guilty of over ambition. Our wage bill was a huge increase on last season, but we were guilty of trying to keep the club in the Premiership. Now we are paying the price of that and we are also trying to redress the balance.

"The pressure of a Premiership comes from both ends. At the top, there is tremendous reward for European qualification that spreads to the top six clubs and the pressure at the other end is the enormous price for relegated clubs in financial terms.

"There is pressure on clubs to spend more money on players' wages than they would do without these pressures.

"That is why Premier League clubs lost a combined total of £40m last year despite the amount of money that comes to them because they spent more money than they should prudently do so."