Gloucester City Football Club have announced that two prominent city businessmen have taken on the role of joint chairman.

Eammon McGurk, head of the McGurk Group and Alex Petheram managing director of Soldi  are taking on the role.

Fellow Gloucester businessman and one-time Olympian Jody Gooding has been appointed as vice chairman.

Mr McGurk has a long-standing association with the club as major shareholder for 25-years while Gloucester-born Mr Petheram joined the board last year.

Mr McGurk has played a key role in the club's attempts to return to Gloucester after being forced to leave their Meadow Park home after the 2007 floods.

Since then, the club have been forced to play home games in Nailsworth, Cirencester, Cheltenham and now Evesham.

However, the club have had plans for a new home ground - on raised groundworks - at Meadow Park approved and hope to be able to return during the 2019/2020 season.

They have also applied to the Football Stadia Improvement Fund for funding and in a statement said that process is due for completion by September 2019.

In a joint statement, the three said:  "We're extremely excited and proud to take on the roles. This is an important time in the club's history and we all need to come together to get this club over the line and playing in the city again.

"Our drive and vision is for the children of Gloucester to have the opportunities we had in our younger days, being able to go and watch the team in their City, creating a strong club culture throughout all sectors especially the Youth, Ladies, Foundation, Supporters Trust and Fans all the way through to the first team.

"Our goal for next season remains the same, to stabilise both on and off the pitch as we continue our long journey back to Meadow Park.

"Now we got planning granted and our funding application is in, we're currently working with the FSIF in the due diligence stage, which due to the nature of our detailed application will be concluded we hope at the end of September 2019."

The club have also announced a recent rebranding that includes a new crest and new colours for the team.

Known as the Tigers since a 1980s rebrand thanks to a tie-in with Westbury Homes that saw the club change from red shirts to yellow and black, the rebrand will see another change of colours.

Yellow will still be kept, but as a secondary colour as the club return to their red roots.

Gloucester City recently successfully battled against relegation from National League South - the highest level they have played in during their long history.

They are expected to be moved across the non-League pyramid in to National League North next season, due to the geographical spread of the teams in the top regional divisions.