OUTGOING shirt sponsor Focal Point has taken a swipe at Cherries after exercising a clause to prematurely terminate its three-year contract with the club.

The locally-based international manufacturers, whose deal with Cherries was believed to be worth £75,000 per year excluding VAT, opted to pull the plug after claiming the Dean Court outfit did not have the "common courtesy" to inform them about entering administration.

A spokesman for Focal Point Fires plc told the Daily Echo: "The contract had one year left to run and we're just not happy with what is going on there.

"No-one phoned us to tell us about the administration. That's not the way to conduct business between sponsor and club.

"We did the deal with Peter Phillips when Seward moved out. We did a very lucrative deal for the club and we've done well out of it as well."

Cherries chairman Jeff Mostyn was keen to express his gratitude to the company for their sponsorship of the struggling League One club.

He said: "They have decided to exercise the option in the agreement, but I would like to thank them for their tremendous support over the past two years.

"They have terminated their contract in respect of sponsoring the players' shirts.

"We thank them for their fantastic support and hope they will continue to support the club through the hospitality areas available to them."

The Focal Point spokesman added: "There was a clause in the contract that said if either party went into administration the other one could pull out on written notice, which is what we gave two weeks ago.

"We're very disappointed they look as though they are going to be relegated and we don't like to be associated with failure.

"We were very pleased to be sponsors, it was a lot of money for a local sponsorship."

Meanwhile, Mostyn yesterday confirmed that there will be no Cherries press conference this afternoon.

The Cherries chairman's consortium had been expected to reveal their plans for the club, but things have been temporarily put on hold.

"As a result of me being abroad for four days, our timing has been put back," Mostyn told the Daily Echo.

"In order to ensure all the legal work has been completed, we're deferring the press conference until hopefully the end of next week."