Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes prepare to step aside as new era beckons for Bradford City

BRADFORD CITY'S new owners will tomorrow fly into England to start a new era at the club.
CHANGING TIMES: Bradford City fans at Valley Parade at the recent play-off semi-final against Millwall.  Picture:Tony JohnsonCHANGING TIMES: Bradford City fans at Valley Parade at the recent play-off semi-final against Millwall.  Picture:Tony Johnson
CHANGING TIMES: Bradford City fans at Valley Parade at the recent play-off semi-final against Millwall. Picture:Tony Johnson

German based investors Edin Rahic and Stefan Rupp completed a 100 per cent buyout of the Bantams over the weekend. Talks began a year ago in the wake of a failed takeover by Italian businessman Gianni Paladini and then stalled in March only to be revived shortly afterwards.

As part of the deal – which will be confirmed tomorrow once Rahic and Rupp are in the country – joint chairmen Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes will both step aside. Manager Phil Parkinson is understood not to have yet met the new owners but that will be rectified this week.

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All parties are bound by a confidentiality agreement and cannot speak until tomorrow, when the deal will be confirmed publicly.

City were beaten in the League One play-off semi-finals last Friday by Millwall. In today’s Yorkshire Post, Parkinson underlined his desire to put his plans for next season into action.

Speaking in the wake of the 1-1 draw at The Den that meant Bradford lost 4-2 on aggregate, he said: “It will be a busy summer. We have to be on the ball because we need to quickly improve. And we will do that.

“Other teams will improve and we have to have that belief that we can get to that extra level and into the top two.”

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The takeover will bring to an end not only Lawn’s nine years at the helm but also the reign of Rhodes, who first joined the board in 1997.

For much of that time, Rhodes single-handedly kept the club alive through two stints in administration and a slide from the Premier League to the basement division.

Lawn’s arrival following the third of those three relegations helped spread the burden but there were still tough times at Valley Parade. More recently, though, Bradford have been a club on the up with Phil Parkinson’s near five-year stint at the helm having brought an improvement in league position each year. City also reached the Capital One Cup final and won promotion from League Two.

The takeover follows a similar attempt by Gianni Paladini a year ago. The Italian eventually admitted defeat in his quest to raise the purchase price but only after weeks of uncertainty.

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Transfers and contract talks were all put on hold during the saga involving Paladini, something that hampered the preparations for the 2015-16 season. Both Rhodes and Lawn were adamant that would not happen again.

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