BLUEBIRDS owner Paul Casson put close to £1million into the club to help push them onwards towards the Football League.

Accounts filed with Companies House for the year ending May 31, 2016, show the Bluebirds have a net liability of £1,207,461 – an increase of £990,754 on the previous year.

The accounts reveal an overall liability of £1,807,461 – minus £600,000 in assets in the form of share capital – up from £816,707 at the end of May 2015.

Casson says that rise is purely down to his own investment in the club, with no external debts built up from banks or other companies or individuals.

The American-based businessman says the debts appear on the accounts because he has treated it as a loan for American tax purposes, which he describes as a standard investment procedure.

But he says the amount of cash which has been put into placing AFC as one of the contenders for promotion from National League is nothing more than he expected when he took over the club in 2014 – with no chance he could up sticks and leave the club demanding it all back.

“It is 100 per cent money I have put into the club. There are no debts to anyone else,” said Casson, who will return to the UK from his Texas home in time for the final match of the National League season against Dover on April 29.

“The money is put in as a loan. I don’t want to go too far into it, because it is to do with US tax laws. It is overly technical, and it will cause people’s eyes to glaze over.

“What I can say is that, if you read our original presentation when we took the club over, the money is not really out of line with anything we said then. It’s no surprise.

“It would have been nice to draw Manchester United away in the third round of the FA Cup to write it all off, but it didn’t happen and what we have is pretty much in line with what we expected.

“The company may seem like it is carrying a large amount of debt, but it is not like we went to the bank and borrowed a large amount of money.

“I couldn’t leave and demand the money back – I own the club, so I would be talking to myself if that was the case.

“It’s all part of the plan. We knew it would cost this much to be competitive – we didn’t go into this thing with our eyes shut.

“We knew that operating at the top end of this league is completely different to operating at the bottom end, it requires a totally different level of investment.”