Gillingham chairman Paul Scally believes the club can put their money troubles behind them after completing the financial restructuring.

The club are now left with a £3.3million overdraft, down from £12.5million from the last financial figures, but it does leave them without a ground.

Priestfield stadium and the majority of the debt now belongs to Mr Scally’s company Priestfield Developments, which have given the football club an initial security tenure on the ground for 12 years.

The chairman, now based in Dubai, is confident that the deal will mean a brighter future for the club.

"It’s guaranteed the chance for the football club to go forward a long way," he said.

"The debt is with Priestfield Developments. There is no come back on the football club. If Priestfield Developments fails then the debt won’t come back to the football club.

"We are in a much stronger position now than we’ve ever been.

"When I came to the football club in 1995 we had around £1.5-£1.75m of debt and we paid that off in a couple of years. My intention will be to pay off the £3.3m as quickly as possible."

The drop into League 2 hasn’t hit the club too hard financially but the change of manager and personnel last season cost around a quarter of a million pounds.

"It was money we didn’t budget for and money we didn’t particularly have to spend," said Mr Scally.

"We had a reasonably decent season otherwise because we kept our overheads down and we did mitigate a lot of our losses anyway. Trading wise we’re doing okay."