SOUTHEND United have confirmed an agreement has been reached for a consortium led by Justin Rees to buy the club.

Rees and a group of local businessmen have been in discussions for several weeks in a bid to save the Shrimpers.

And a deal has now been confirmed.

A club statement said: “We can confirm that an agreement for the sale of the Club has been reached with a consortium led by Justin Rees.

“Everyone is working towards a completion date of 1 November 2023, that is when the consortium will formally take control of the Club.

“The collaborative approach to agreeing this deal would not have been possible without the support of creditors and the assistance from the Leader of Southend City Council.

“We recognise that this has been a stressful time for all associated with the Club. “We would like to thank our staff for their incredible loyalty and also thank all our stakeholders for their patience.”

Current chairman Ron Martin has been in charge of the Shrimpers for 25 years but the club have struggled on and off the pitch in recent seasons.

Blues suffered back to back relegations to drop into the National League for the first time in their history.

The club have been hit by a number of off-field issues and have been under a transfer embargo for the past 12 months while also suffering a 10 point deduction after failing to pay off HMRC before a deadline set by the league.

However, the takeover offers genuine hope for the future and Rees is delighted to get a deal done.

He said: “We are very pleased to have reached an agreement to become the new custodians of Southend United FC.

“Whilst our advisors conduct due diligence, we will be working with Tom Lawrence, John Still and Kevin Maher to ensure we hit the ground running once the transition has formally completed.

“We would like to thank Ron Martin, Tom Lawrence, Southend's creditors and the Southend City Council for helping us reach an agreement in time to avoid administration.”