CITY football club chairman Stephen Vaughan plans to throw open the club's doors by putting £3m of shares up for grabs.

The pot of cash will be wiped off the balance owed to Mr Vaughan by the club, giving fans, supporters and business people the opportunity to invest.

He said: 'It will be an opportunity for people to get on board and a way of putting more capital into the club.

'The money won't go back to the shareholders, or even to me, it will go directly into the club.

'If this is successful, more money will be available to get the right players out there so the team can keep climbing up the leagues and then the process can be done all over again.'

Mr Vaughan continued: 'You get the highest return of value on shares as you climb up the tables

'People should take this opportunity to get on board now while the foundations are being formed because there might not be another chance.'

Mr Vaughan, who owns 75% of the shares in the club, is now preparing to call an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to discuss his plans.

He added: 'I want the other shareholders to be on board with the decision.

'We need to figure out how we will divide the shares out and whether we should have a minimum or maximum amount that people can buy them for.'

The decision to raise the share issue was first announced at a meeting held at the Saunders Honda Stadium last week where Mr Vaughan stood up before fans.

He said: 'I don't mind how many shareholders there are. We could have 20,000 shareholders at a meeting if it was necessary.'

He insisted a winding up order on his company, Vaughan Trading, was only a result of a dispute with Goldcrest Financial Corporation, which has since been settled.

And he reassured supporters that his decision to apply to put the club into administration was just a 'stalling tactic' to buy the club time to pay off VAT and Inland Revenue debts.

He said: 'We simply had a dispute with a finance company like many other companies do. The only difference is I have to do my business in the spotlight.

'It is well documented that we had a VAT problem.

'When we turned up in court, there was an uninvited guest - the Inland Revenue looking for £225,000 then and there and we weren't able to do that.

'The court date is set for December 12, 2004, but it will be settled before it gets to court. It was the only option at the time to safeguard the future of the club.'

He told fans: 'When I took the club on, I expected to hit problems. I have lost no desire to keep the club going whatsoever, if anything I have become more determined - though sometimes I do feel like putting my coat on.'