By Luke Mallett: Port Vale will have to sell their stars or hike up ticket prices to survive, warned a football finance expert.

Dr John Beech said the club faces tough choices after it was ordered to start paying back a £2.25m loan to Stoke-on-Trent City Council now an agreed repayment holiday is over.

Dr Beech, an academic lecturer at Coventry University, told StaffsLive: “In order to make up for the extra money they owe they will probably have to sell one or two of their top players.

“The alternative to this of course is to raise ticket prices, which is always unpopular with the fans, but football clubs are a business at the end of the day, they need to break even.

“If you think of it in terms of how many people you’re going to have to get coming through the gates every other Saturday, it’s significant, the club should think about restructuring their finances.

“It’s certainly a cause for concern, but not a cause for panic.

“I suspect the future of Port Vale Football Club hinges on whether the club is sold. I symphasise with Bill Bratt because he’s been there a long time and done a good job.

“However seeing as the club are in financial trouble it would seem as if selling to someone like Mo Chaudry would be a sensible option.”

The end of the repayment holiday means Vale will now be required to make monthly payments including the borrowed money with interest added on.

The League Two club applied to the local authority for financial help in 2006 to deal with outstanding debts.

In 2009 the city council issued the two-year repayment holiday because of the economic downturn alongside the need to support a community club.

However, the council has now said that the “holiday” is over and the club is required to begin paying back the loan.

Dan Egginton, 20, a life-long Port Vale fan, said: “It’s bad news as it puts pressure on them to increase the revenue they generate.

“This in turn could be bad for the fans as price of tickets could go up which is ridiculous. It’s hard enough to fill the stadium as it is.

“It’s quite obvious we need a major source of income to come in and bail the club out.”