Bradford City have abandoned plans for a full flotation on the full stock market.

And chairman Geoffrey Richmond revealed today that he had been in talks with supermarket chief Ken Morrison offering him 'involvement with the club at boardroom level,' but he declined.

The Bantams had been considering joining the stock exchange with a hope of raising between £10-£15 million for Paul Jewell's team strengthening.

However City analysts told the club just a few days after winning promotion that the image of Bradford was 'not sexy enough'.

And Richmond says the club have decided against the flotation.

He said: "We could have got the flotation away but it would have been on such unattractive terms that we decided our answer had to be no.

"It would also have resulted in control of the club being taken away from Bradford and we did not want to go down that line.

"People talk about us needing all this money but Blackburn are a great example of how money does not guarantee success."

Richmond said he had the meeting with Morrison ten days ago. "It was an extremely amicable meeting," he said, "but the bottom line is that Ken Morrison does not feel sufficiently interested to be involved although he wishes us well.

"I asked him in straightforward terms if he would like to get involved at Bradford City now that we are in the Premiership.

"I told him we would welcome his input and his help to maintain our place in the Premiership, that he had a previous interest in the club many years ago and we wanted to explore with him the possibility of renewing that interest."

Ken Morrison's involvement with Bradford City began in October 1973 when he joined a new board formed by Bob Martin who was a personal friend.

Martin had joined the board 12 months earlier under the chairmanship of Stafford Heginbotham, but when he gained the interest of Morrison, Heginbotham agreed to step down and Martin formed a new board with Morrison as a member.

Despite being a director, Morrison's involvement in the club was low key and he left the board n 1976.

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