Tranmere Rovers put up for sale on eBay

Tranmere Rovers were put up for sale at a starting price of $10m on online selling website eBay this morning, much to the dismay of club chairman Peter Johnson, who said he was "appalled and furious".

Earlier this year Johnson had instructed Dornoch Capital to use his shares in the League One club to broker a sale to an American investor, and this afternoon condemned them for treating the affair as though it was a "second-hand bike" sale.

He did not expect the North Carolina-based advisors to list the Merseyside club on the popular website, and in a statement issued by Tranmere Johnson indirectly expressed his anger. The item has now been removed from the site.

The statement, released this afternoon, read: "Mr Johnson was very disappointed to discover that Dornoch Capital had chosen eBay.com as a route to find a potential buyer and would not have given permission for them to do so had he been asked.

"Mr Johnson has instructed Dornoch to remove the eBay listing immediately."

Johnson told BBC Radio Merseyside: "We were appalled - it's totally inappropriate. We immediately e-mailed them and said 'take it off right away'.

"You can imagine how shocked we were to wake up this morning to find out we were on eBay.

"We'll be considering their [Dornoch Capital's] mandate. It's not a second-hand bike we're selling.

"One has to think of supporters and the ability to run the club. Putting it on eBay is not the right way of doing it and we would certainly have not let them if they'd asked us, so we're pretty furious."

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