Are Pompey on the brink?

LOL! From the News of the World (no I don't read it, I found the link on SaintsWeb):

South Coast rivals Southampton are ready to write off £120,000 to help their penniless neighbours after handing over tickets for next weekend's FA Cup derby - even though they fear they will not get the cash.

The Saints were considering demanding Pompey pay for their 4,000 allocation up front in case the Fratton Park side are forced into administration before Saturday's fifth-round tie.

But a St Mary's spokesperson said: "It is a relatively small amount of money for us so we are prepared to take the risk rather than cause any bad feeling."

That really is going to chew the Sad Blue Few up inside, isn't it? Not that it can be possible for them to be even more bitter and twisted than they already are.

And

And the club's plight has been highlighted by January transfer target Nyron Nosworthy revealing how he snubbed Pompey in favour of dropping down to the Championship.

Nosworthy, who left Sunderland to join cash-strapped Sheffield United for the rest of the season, was wanted by Pompey.

And they were prepared to pay a £250,000 loan fee to land him.

But Nosworthy said: "Portsmouth were desperate to get people in but they are in a bad way.

"I had to look at everything and it's a lot more stable at Sheffield United."

Sensible chap.

The article.

Sorry but I would have made them pay up front! Check Storrie's wallet when he arrives as most of the cash will be in there. Still if they haven't paid us by end of next week can we start court procedings to get our money?

I agree matty, but the p!ss take there is just so funny and will annoy the SBF even more than the club demanding the dosh up front.

Pompey's hearing adjourned until 2.00pm. I admit, I have been enjoying Sky's persistant coverage today saying Pompey going down the today.

That keeps the Sk8s sweating for a bit longer. This is going to be a VERY interesting afternoon. Cardiff and Southend's cases have been adjourned for 28 days, but they have paid some of their debts but the skates have not. Obviously no-one can read the judges's mind, but I have a feeling that the Skates are finished as a going concern.

Sky are now saying that we should know before 1.00pm.

Hearing has been adjourned for a week. It is £11.5 owed to raxman, not £7.5m. Sky Sports are reporting that HM Revenue & Customs have told the High Court that Portsmouth are "insolvent" - which basically means it thinks the club would be unable to pay its debts even if they sold all their assets. Not a good state of affairs.

SaintMike wrote:If Pompey should beat us and then go out of business before the 6th round, I suppose there's no chance we would be re-instated??

I guess not. I suppose it would the team they draw in the next round.

I doubt it. I reckon that we'd be out and the club drawn against them on Sunday would get a bye.

Well let's fight for at least a draw. They might go out of business before the replay.

Alf Tupper wrote:Hearing has been adjourned for a week. It is £11.5 owed to raxman, not £7.5m. Sky Sports are reporting that HM Revenue & Customs have told the High Court that Portsmouth are "insolvent" - which basically means it thinks the club would be unable to pay its debts even if they sold all their assets. Not a good state of affairs.

They should have been wound up there and then. Even Mark Fry from Begbies Traynor, who did Saints' admin, said on Radio Solent just now that the judge today was 'very lenient'.

Agree even the judge said though they were trading but not solvent, thought that was illegal and a court is there to stop illegal activities. Watch out for some more smoke and mirrors next week from the crooks in charge.

Until today I was half hoping that they would survive. Now though I just want them gone.
Watching that cretin Bob Beech on Sky telling the world that our game on Saturday wasn't a big game because we are only Div 1 made my skin crawl.

I want us to beat them and beat them badly. I want them and their foul mouthed brigade to suffer for the stupidity of their peers. I know we have some mongs but pompey fans are brainwashed into believing the crap that they spout. They don't deserve a club.

SFC Forever wrote:Until today I was half hoping that they would survive. Now though I just want them gone.
Watching that cretin Bob Beech on Sky telling the world that our game on Saturday wasn't a big game because we are only Div 1 made my skin crawl.

I want us to beat them and beat them badly. I want them and their foul mouthed brigade to suffer for the stupidity of their peers. I know we have some mongs but pompey fans are brainwashed into believing the crap that they spout. They don't deserve a club.

I agree 100% with this. Not that long ago I said I would feel some regret if they went but now I don't. They are like a turd that just will not flush away (as a lot of people have said, lol) and I hope that, come the court hearing a week Monday, the plug is pulled on that odious football club and its' cretinous fans. I just hope we can give them a suitable and humiliating send-off on Saturday.

I agree with the fact we have mongs as you only have to see some of the complete tools on Saints Web to know that but, apart from a few sensible ones, the skates are mostly morons and so filled with spite and bile towards anything west of Gosport that we'll all be better off without them.

I have been checking out a few pompey boards and apart from a couple of threads bemoaning their possible demise(spelling) they are intent on building up the hatred for Saturdays game. I am going but I won't be taking any of the family. but 6 of us will cost permitting be at Wembley for a more joyous experience. Win or lose we will enjoy the day.

I can't go Saturday due, as usual, to lack of funds but I'll be watching on ITV and hoping we manage to turn them over. I hope the more intellectually-challenged of the skates (which is probably most of them) and our lot do not decide to start any nonsense. I have been to three local derbies at SMS (two premier league games and one cup game) and not encountered any bother but, with the very real possibility of them going out of business altogether, the atmosphere on Saturday could be downright poisonous and that could translate into ugly scenes.

Alan Pardew was on Radio Solent just now saying he's impressed on the players the utmost importance of turning the Skates over on Saturday. I think Rickie Lambert was already under no illusions as to what is required as he said in an interview after the MK Dons game on Tuesday that it's a big game against, as he put it, 'the rivals'.

I don't care if every member of Saints staff and the players deny it some of them will have been on the sites and hopefully will have seen the venom coming from the blue quarter.Pompey will field a strong physical side which will try to out muscle us. I hope Pards has that area tied up

I think the team will be up for this, they seem to have got the right spirit in cup games this season. Think it will be feisty early on and keen they get stuck in but dont do anything stupid, let the skates get sent off! Think Howard Webb is the ref on Sautruday, as always seems friendly with premiership players but lets face it the muppets we have had this year in Div 1 as refs couldnt ref Tyro league!

I'm in the northam in normal seat which is block 41 so think right next to the skates, better take a peg to keep out the fishy smell! Think police will have their work cut out with the morons from skateland as they have nothing else to lose now, the club could be gone next week so I'm expecting trouble when we win. I hope Hampshire police dont mess around and give a good hiding to anyone who tries to ruin the day.

It must help having that prat Bob Beech say what he did about the team. They will not need a pep talk in my opinion. They will want to shove those words right down his fish smelling gob.

Well, it seems that our friends down the road are set to go at least into administration and perhaps, even to fold. Pompey faces a winding-up order from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs next Monday unless they can pay £12m of unpaid tax before then. (Looking forward to the coverage on Sky News already).

Yesterday chief executive Peter Storrie was talking up a South African consortium stepping in before the end of the week with the necessary funds needed to stave off administration. Storrie didn't name the South African saviour and Portsmouth's new owner Balram Chainrai seemed sceptical a deal might happen. He gave the South Africans until the end of Monday to provide proof of funds but no such proof appears to have been forthcoming. Poor old Storrie, he does seem to get mucked around. Perhaps if he kept quiet instead of shouting from the rooftops every five minutes, the egg that seems to be permanently on his face would miss him from time to time.

Then we come to another former saviour and champion trumpeted by Storrie; Sulaiman Al Fahim. He has now resigned as non-executive chairman. He took the odd move of announcing he was stepping down from the board and handing his 10 per cent shareholding to the Portsmouth's Supporters' Trust by posting his resignation letter on arabianbusiness.com. The news came as a surprise to the Portsmouth board, who later issued a statement saying: "We have received his resignation, which has been accepted by the board.” Sulaiman claimed that Portsmouth was not keeping him informed on financial matters. So it was both ways then! Poor old Sulaiman (Poor old is becoming a continuing theme here). Last week he hit the headlines when a UAE newspaper alleged a warrant had been issued for his arrest after a £1.4m property deal in Dubai involving an Azerbaijani investor fell through. I see a common thread here.

Next Portsmouth's hopes took a further blow after one of the parties interested in buying the club ruled out taking over before the winding-up petition on Monday. New Zealand-based businessman Victor Cattermole is interested but he insists any deal will not be in place before Monday's date at the High Court. Cattermole told The Guardian: "In an ideal world we would like to purchase the club before Monday, but we will not be rushed.”

And now the playing staff is adding to their woes. According to the Daily Mail, Jamie O’Hara and Michael Brown came to blows after Brown launched a series of over-zealous tackles. One such challenge caught Tottenham loanee O'Hara who reportedly immediately punched Brown to the ground. The Mail quotes another player (unnamed) : "It was all over pretty quickly. Brown had been flying in with a few challenges and he just caught O'Hara with a nasty one. It was a possible leg-breaker. O'Hara just snapped and punched him. He didn't take any messing."

Don’t you just love it?

Well it looks like they are finally entering the last phase, seems like they have dragged this out right to the last minute. Think they shouldn't be allowed to go into admin as they could have done this weeks ago and just yet another scam by the crooks in charge to avoid paying what they owe. Only going into admin at the last possible minute before the court case which clearly would had them wound up. Hope Storrie and the other directors are all prosecuted for allowing the company to trade while insolvent, which it clearly was.

Just a shame Brown didn't injure O Hara as he's their best player, would have been a laugh if he had missed games due to team member hacking him!

/www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7309718/Portsmouth-owner-Balram-Chainrai-first-in-line-for-17m-repayment-as-secured-credit

Looks like the guy in charge will be alright and no wonder no buyers when things like selling revenue rights for next 3 years have already gone. Theyr are a mess!

It gets worse at Pompey. It seems that the blue few could start next season with a 20 point deduction. According to the Guardian if they go into administration (which seems certain now since the Premier League refused to advance any cash from television rights or parachute payments) they would get a 9 point deduction from the Premier League. That would almost certainly mean they would be relegated.
Then it would be down to the administrator to reach a company voluntary arrangement. That is a deal with creditors to accept only a proportion of the Club’s debts. If no deal is reached, then Pompey would start the Championship season with a points deduction. It’s happened before with Leeds (15 points), Rotherham and Bournemouth (17 each) and Luton (20).

As for the money. As Matt07 said, the Telegraph reports that Chainrai has structured his ownership in order to avoid taking a significant financial hit. He is a "secured creditor", after lending money to the club charged against their assets, including Fratton Park and future revenues.
According to insolvency law, creditors of failed businesses have to be paid in a strict order, with secured creditors close to the head of the queue if and when assets are realised to pay debt.

Chainrai has two charges over Portsmouth, the first against the ground, and a second charge against "the whole of [Portsmouth’s] undertaking and all its property and assets". This second charge significantly strengthens his hand, and he has further protected his position by transferring the freehold of the ground into a privately-controlled company.

The last accounts valued the stadium at £11million, but the local council has argued that the ground has limited real value as it can only be redeveloped if the club is found an alternative home. The impact of Chainrai's secured position is that he could be paid the bulk of the £20million the club are due to receive in broadcast revenue and parachute payments from the Premier League between now and next August.
Meanwhile interest from a South African-based consortium cooled when they discovered that the club's merchandising revenue has already been licensed to a third party for three years, cutting off a crucial source of revenue. It is understood to be one of many examples of future income being sold to meet current debts.

An interesting aside is that Chainrai's involvement with Portsmouth began when he agreed to loan £17million to Ali Al Faraj, enabling the absentee Saudi Arabian to take control of the club. He agreed the loan just two weeks after he successfully sued Arcadi Gaydamak, father of Sacha Gaydamak, for the same amount in the Israeli courts.

On the pitch Dusko Tosic is ready to leave the club now on a free transfer as a bizarre consequence of their financial plight. The 25-year-old Serbia international signed outside the window as a free agent having cancelled his contract at Werder Bremen but, after Portsmouth were threatened with a winding up order, the Premier League withheld his registration - preventing him from playing in league games. There was even some concern that his inclusion as a substitute in Portsmouth’s FA Cup squad tie against us would threaten their status in the cup as a consequence - but the FA confirmed that the club was safe as different regulations apply to their competition.

And we thought we were in a mess last year! I find the whole business fascinating.

What beats me is why they keep making everybody wait. The whole world knows by now that if nobody agrees to buy them out by tomorrow they will be in admin. Why not just do it?

Last year, they were gloating and laughing at us when we were in admin, struggling in the Championship and looking well and truly finished - they were openly hoping for our demise and bragging about how they were on the verge of getting a rich billionaire Arab who was going to take them to a 'whole new level'. Less than a year later, how the positions have changed and the promised 'new level' just happens to be the complete opposite of what every Skate expected. I am not going to gloat, remembering how things were last year, but neither am I particularly upset by the spectacular implosion in south-east Hants. I am, however, completely fascinated by their impressive demise - if Carlsberg did shambolic football clubs...

As I understand things, they are going to the High Court tomorrow to finalise the admin process. However, what I find a tad confusing in this whole convoluted saga is how Chainrai can put the club into admin himself. He's technically the owner, and I thought that, as things stand, any owners of Portsmouth cannot themselves put the club into administration. He owns Fratton Park, as he seized it in lieu of £10 million of the £17 million the club owes him...so is he a creditor as well, meaning that, therefore, he CAN put the club into admin? What will HMRC make of all this? Can the club say 'We are in admininstration' only for the High Court to say 'No. We will still convene on Monday as originally planned, for the winding up order to be administered'?

Tomorrow and Monday are going to be very interesting indeed. What is for certain is that Portsmouth are finished as a Premier League side and, dependant on CVAs, are likely to go right through the CCC and into League One for the 2011/12 season - which means (if we are consistent next season and all goes to plan) we'll pass them, waving as they plummet past us. The natural order of things will be restored. The only disappointing aspect of that is that we will not get the chance to thrash them out of sight at least once.