Consortium member Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamil is said to have confirmed to The Star on Wednesday afternoon that they were pulling back from the process and would not be re-entering the bid to buy the club.

After administrators Begbies Traynor conducted their own vetting processes on three formal bidders, the Bord consortium were named as ‘preferred bidder’ on Christmas Eve.

This was followed by on-going procedures to determine whether they were fit to pass the EFL’s Owners and Directors Test.