BOLTON Wanderers were celebrating qualified success last night as a High Court verdict lifted any restrictions on the sale of the club.

After more than three hours of deliberations at the Manchester Court of Civil Justice yesterday, a judge removed Wanderers’ parent company, Burnden Leisure Limited, from the equation in a bitter battle between previous owner, Ken Anderson, and Laurence Bassini.

The case between Anderson and Bassini will be heard again on Monday, September 2, as the injunction against Anderson’s company, Inner Circle Investments Ltd, was amended.

The amendment allows the administrators of the football club to finalise a sale quickly and provide a measure of stability.

Geoff Cunningham, a senior associate with Walker Morris solicitors said: “The order is a fantastic result for Ken Anderson and the administrators of the club and the hotel. The order now gives them the ability to go ahead and sell the club and now make the progress that everyone wants to see.”

Mr Bassini also welcomed the verdict, adding: “I am very pleased that the judge has accepted my continued entitlement to an injunction. Obviously I fully believe in the integrity of my claim.

“The judgement also contained a very clear warning about a potential transaction – and I say again, potential – raising questions about the administrators’ conduct, for which there will be separate redress.”

In what proved a complicated afternoon in the courtroom, Judge Stephen Eyre QC said his original injunction order, which had been sought without the prior knowledge of Wanderers’ administrators or the potential buyers, Football Ventures, last Thursday, had been “misrepresented” in communications between the two parties and “did not say no disposal of shares could take place”.

Effectively, the decision puts Wanderers back into the position they were at the start of last week, where Football Ventures must now satisfy the demands of both club and hotel administrators to complete their deal.

A statement from the club’s joint-administrator, Paul Appleton said: “I know it has been a frustrating few days for all involved. Now we must progress to completion as quickly as possible in order to secure the future of the club. Accordingly, my lawyers and I are in contact with all parties to progress to completion as soon as possible.”