The9

23 April, just for the record. If there's no buyer they'll carry on looking as long as the costs are covered. They can be in admin for 18 months as far as the FL is concerned and they won't even be part of the FL until July 1st. Administrator's responsibility is to the creditors. Gaydamak is the main creditor so he'll have some input, as will Chainrai no doubt.

You're not really paying attention. They will get to the end of the season, Chainrai's company covered the wages and will do so again, so they'll have players, the windup petition is off due to administration, and the administrator is the only one who can pull the plug now and has just said he'll get them to the end of the season.

No contradiction there, he didn't say they would come out of admin with a CVA, he said the way to come out of admin was with a CVA.

Here goes : Mess is not dissimilar to other clubs he's worked on Players paid yesterday Needs to generate working capital - sale of 1 or 2 players, looking for concessions from Prem Lge to do that Won't be a firesale Wants assistance from PL, there's a meeting of all PL officials on Thurs One of the things they will request is advancement of £16m parachute payments due over next 2 years Amount of debt is "near what's been in the papers", £60-70m is "accurate" With Transfer Window closed and current PL/FIFA stance, they will have to seek concessions. Mark Jacobs glossed over, "main interest is a sure footing" Peter Storrie described as "position untenable given recent events" and the Admin's "priority is the football club" Significant cost cuts at all level, details in 7-10 days Avram Grant has given and receives full support and staying to end of season "Naive to look for new manager" but no assurances beyond this season Freehold of stadium is still on balance sheet with Portpin (Chainrai's company) receiving a "fixed charge" Very confident of getting to the bottom of it and has a staturory duty to do so. Will make no comment on criminality "You'll be surprised" at the assets. Has "seen far worse" Not spoken to players re pay cuts, not on the agenda. Role is to present to the creditors in 8 weeks, may need to extend for/by the CVA. Gaydamak largest creditor, hence dealings with him. HMRC attitude : he will try to get them onside to support a CVA. Secure creditors priority, then Superclass of football creditors, then everyone else is "unsecured creditor". When asked about HMRC not negotiating below 100p in pound, he said "everything will be done in line with legal precedent". There is always a danger of the club going bust Every confidence of fulfilling fixtures Staff being addressed today (now) Few hours working on this seems like a month Reassure fans fixtures will be completed, players as sportsmen will be playing for futures as "not all are at the end of their careers" Haven't got to job losses yet but will be cutting to the bone Will need a week to break down how they got into the mess. Exacerbated situation by being in PL, resembles other clubs. Goal and passion is to ensure PFC exist "We won't be the last" Players paid by Portpin, who will provide support to take the club forward, inject further money. All necessary expenses inc tax will be paid from now on.

I'll get a summary of what I saw on SSN just now re the Administrator up here shortly...

It'll have nothing to do with any PL -9 as their justification will have to stand alone on its own merits. Plenty of clubs previously have been given deductions for not having an appropriate CVA to exit administration. They almost certainly won't have one of those by June.

18 months according to FL rules. Dunno what the financial regs are.

There IS no deadline in the Prem, they've got no reason to have one as no-one yet has tried putting a club into admin at half time on the last day of the season when in the process of getting relegated anyway a la Boston United and Wrexham... The -10 will be a condition of an in-Admin Portsmouth FC joining the FL, of which they are not currently a member. And that's just the start.

Pretty sure you're spot on there. They're not a FL member and will have to agree to whatever the FL wants in order to become one. It is technically possible that the FL will refuse to have them as a member altogether, but what they've always done so far with clubs in admin is insist on a points deduction in exchange for the right to play, based on the CVA. Even if they don't get a -10 going in, there is little likelihood that Portsmouth FC will exit admin with an agreement for creditors that HMRC will be happy with, so as they're a major creditor that will necessitate a further deduction. And there's always the dubious transfers and irregularities for another -15... It used to be the case that clubs had to resign from the league and give a notice period if they wanted to leave. That's gone by the way since the PL as PL teams and FL teams switch leagues every year. The very fact that the FL allowed the teams relegated from old top tier Div 1 in 1991/2 to join "new" second tier FL Division One in 1992/3 despite the fact they'd resigned from the FL in order to potentially join the new Premier League, and the fact that every relegated club since has taken their place in the FL the following season suggests there's a practical workaround to this PL/FL "resignation" issue. But this is the first time a club has come into the FL from above with this kind of baggage.

My favourite bit of information so far : The new reality will start when the players fly on budget airline Flybe for £47.99 each to the game at Burnley tomorrow. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1253961/Portsmouth-docked-points-administration-plunges-cash-strapped-Premier-League-relegation.html#ixzz0geEQZ4o5 God I hope they wheel out the Le Tissier plane for that one.

It was the local MP claiming the Prem should pay small local businesses and St John's Ambulance as "the Premier League is a licence to print money" (this attitude may be the source of the proble) and "they've had all they can out of us and should give something back".

Ok, NOW it's official, it's on the Skate website according to SSN.

Their most saleable assets are James and Belhadj, neither of whom will be wanting to sit out the run up to the World Cup. The fact that James didn't go in January suggests that no-one has come in for him. His contract expires in June (now he's cunningly waived the right to another year's contract which would have been invoked automatically from the number of games he's played - more like a prison sentence that...) so he's actually got no value anyway.

The clip of Storrie being face to face with him as he got out of his car is probably better, Storrie all but handed him off despite the security being there. I doubt they'll show it again, the fan was on some dodgy legal ground with certain claims.

It was a precis of what he said, I'm not a court transcriber you know !

My favourite new quote from here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2010/02/portsmouth_fc_in_crisis_qa.html Q: So this is all the taxman's fault? A: Erm, well, only if you think paying VAT, PAYE and National Insurance is optional. 3pm press conference. Awaiting confirmation from High Court now. BBC have already gone with it : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8538457.stm

"The Prem is a licence to print money, they've had all they can out of us and now they should put something back for the small companies who are owed money". Erm, righty ho, someone ELSE should pay the bills they haven't paid... it's like asking my employer to pay my unpaid gas bill because I've not got time to do a more highly paid job elesewhere while I'm working for them.

Awesome hilarious Skate bloke on SSN as Storrie got out of his car : Highlights being... "You gonna resign Peter ? You've known for 18 months. 1.2million pahnd a year, you're 'avin a laugh mush". Also called Storrie Gaydamak's lapdog and said half his money was bonuses for shutting up from Gaydamak. On Sky Sports News. Brilliant. That bloke's a legend. As opposed to the local MP who is banging on about paying small creditors and "loyal fans".

It's a Football League rule (and presumably a Premier League rule given the reallocation of funds) to prevent clubs screwing each over re: transfers etc -in fact exactly the stuff the Skates were doing. HMRC used to have precedence and now don't, and they tend to express their displeasure at this and the subsequent short-arming in payments of what they're owed by not agreeing the CVA to come out of administration, which at least penalises the club in footballing terms. The fact that there was an Act of Parliament in 2002 to remove HMRC priority suggests they'd have no grounds for overturning it. Awesome hilarious Skate bloke on SSN : "You gonna resign Peter ? You've known for 18 months. 1.2million pahnd a year, you're 'avin a laugh mush". Also called Storrie Gaydamak's lapdog and said half his money was bonuses for shutting up from Gaydamak. On Sky Sports News. Brilliant.

Interview with Marc Jacobs coming up. Dunno why they keep saying its a bad day for south coast football. LOL @ "did we catch up with Peter Storrie? Find out soon". Guessing not, but join the peloton.

Done.

I was laughing at that a LOT in the office thanks to the CatchUp tv link (I already had an account, didn't think to use it!).

Are they Football League members at the moment ? No. Will they have to apply to join the Football League when relegated ? Yes. Will they get their "golden share", voting rights etc when they are applying to join the league if already in Administration, with no previous Football League punishment against them... almost certainly not without penalty... Same link as above... http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2010/02/portsmouth_fc_in_crisis_qa.html The crunch, however, arrives this summer when the wage bill keeps coming (£3m a month, including tax...and Pompey will have to start paying that) but the gate receipts are not. Without outside investment - in the form of a new owner - the administrator will find it hard to look the Football League in the eye and say: "Yes, we can fulfil next season's fixtures." The administrator will also be expected to extricate himself via a "company voluntary arrangement" (CVA). As the name suggests, this is a deal between the creditors to accept a new schedule of payments and less money. A CVA requires the backing of 75% of the creditors, based on amounts owed, and usually run for one to five years. This places a huge burden on the business, but a failure to agree one will see further point-penalties from the Football League. Oh, and HMRC almost always votes against them in football cases. So I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings (I'm a Southend United fan, so I would be a fool to gloat), but I thought somebody should tell you straight. If you want to get into more detail about all this - "floating charges", misfeasance, the Insolvency Act 1986, Leeds United/Luton Town and so on - I'm happy to dig out my notes and try to answer your questions. But let's be honest about this, the people who really know what's happening/happened at Pompey aren't talking yet. Until they do (if they do), it's educated guesswork.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article4340138.ece Luton's punishment was -20 for failing to exit admin correctly (as it was a second offence) -10 for the illegal agent payments In addition to the deductions I mentioned above... ...possibly an additional -15 for failing to get a CVA and maybe even more for any irregularities found (bearing in mind they have ex and current employees on bail for tax evasion and they are also under investigation for transfers).