The fee paid by Pelligra, who offered $1 for the rudderless club in previous takeover attempt late last year, is understood to be of token value, with a pledge to plough up to $4 million each year into running the club believed to be the deciding factor in the Australian Professional Leagues and receiver KordaMentha giving the go-ahead to the acquisition.

With Pelligra now expected to be unveiled as Glory’s long-sought saviour in front of fans for Saturday’s visit of Brisbane Roar to HBF Park, Perth becomes the second football franchise in his stable after the purchase and subsequent revitalisation of Italian Serie C side Catania.

Optimistically valued last year at $15 million by both KordaMentha and the APL, the reality of the market place bit hard when another Melbourne property developer, Robert Brij, failed to provide anything close to that asking price back in November, despite an agreement being publicly announced by all parties.

The collapse of that sale brought Pelligra - who had previously sought to purchase Adelaide United - back to the table as essentially the last man standing.

The recent financial turmoil at APL HQ, with half its 80-strong workforce slashed in a brutal downsizing of operations, played into Pelligra’s hands in framing a deal which robbed the A-League’s owners of the sort of windfall garnered by the sale of the Auckland expansion licence to US billionaire Bill Foley for a cool $20 million.

Instead, pending final ratification overnight, the APL are at least finally freed from the ongoing burden of propping up Glory whose longtime owner Tony Sage handed back the licence last July after his cash reserves ran dry.

Pelligra plans to install former Socceroos Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano - both heavily involved in his Catania project - as executives in the new Glory regime.