TopGun

He has pretty much raped every football club he has been involved with... let's hope he ends up with criminal charges. It's laughable how Storrie bleats "I'm just the CEO, not the owner..." Sorry, sunshine, that makes you a director and culpable for anything untoward that comes out of the Vantis assessment.

A wake up call to football in general.

A Southsea Bubble some 200 years on!

Looks that way Mero. The Red and White stripes will welcome you and all of the Few Blue in Fareham of course!

Good lad Gary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8522283.stm Meanwhile, a financial expert says Portsmouth face a very real threat of extinction because of their financial problems and he believes administration is an unlikely option. "Arguably, the level of debt associated with this case will mean that it is unlikely that a suitable or willing benefactor will be found," said Simon Wilson, a partner with restructuring experts Zolfo Cooper. "Portsmouth therefore face the very real threat of liquidation because it is increasingly unlikely that an administration order will be sought or granted. "In this eventuality, the players contracts are no longer assets of the club and it would lose its membership of the Premier League. "The role of the liquidator would be to realise whatever free and available assets still remain. "The value of these assets would be nominal. While the unsecured creditors, including HMRC, would likely see no return from such a process, it is not in their interests to continue to support a business that is simply not viable and has no financial substance. "To continue to underwrite the club would most likely result in greater losses at a later date. This would be an unprecedented case in the realms of the Premier League and would throw light on the fact that clubs can no longer rely on 'white knights' to rescue them from financial ruin. "Many football clubs have allowed their levels of debt to grow to immense proportions. These debts cannot be serviced and investors simply don't have the appetite or ability to take on such poor business propositions."

Don't think they are formally insolvent until the judge decrees so.

Quite possibly the case, but they have halved any player transfer value by their cry for help. Bottom dollar sales.

Zilch on the Portsmouth News atm! http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/ They're still bigging up new transfers

Some feller on SSN: Russell Underhill (Portsmouth fan) says... This is a stupid story, there is absolutely no restriction stopping Pompey selling any player outside the transfer window. The transfer window allows a club to register a player, Pompey can sell whoever they want, when they want. The problem is that the buying club could not register the player until the next window opens, unless it's a country who's transfer window doesn't run parallel to the standard European league one. Posted 13:42 18th February 2010 He might be right but who wants to buy/register players you can't play and have to pay?

Lol. They made their bed, they should have to lie in it. It's the fault of no one else. I'm sure that plenty of other clubs are watching this episode very closely. Floodgates if the PL cave in and also a whole load of legal battles. Plus, Cortese should be watching hard for potential FA Cup reinstatement if Pompey are trading insolvent.

Sets a serious precedent if the PL caves into Pompey's request. Total a%rseholes. Why should the PL bail out this rotton club?

This is what it is partly about, no matter the money. If any case is presented well in front of the judge, then it should do ok. I don't personally believe that hiring a QC will make a difference if the case is watertight in the first place. I have seen well paid and very accomplished barristers lose cases because they can not compete with significant or overwhelming evidence many times. It's all in the case files and that might be down to HMRC and the way their lawyers have analysed the evidence initially and then how they use it in front of a judge.

F'sure. One can imagine there have been heated words said this afternoon.

I certainly think it is a waste having RL take freekicks from deep, wide positions as he did today. Fine, if he can hit the target from deep and there is a case for his tricky corners too.

Christ, no.

Can I nominate Ali Dia for comedy value?

So Unreal are having a tough time in V. 243 and are third from bottom with only 4 points. The net two games are critical as they are both against one of the teams below me. If we get 6 points from that auto relegation will not be a worry although I fully expect a play-off game against a League VI team at the end of the season. I am saving up for £1.7m to buy a solid coach as I think this will improve the squad more than the same spent on one or two goodish players.

That's just a complication that should be overlooked!

There's a few halfway houses the Probation Service can point you towards!

Pompey press statement Portsmouth Football Club today welcomed the decision by the High Court to allow the club time to demonstrate its plans to restructure and stabilise the business under new owner Balram Chainrai. The club was given seven days to produce a statement of affairs for the court and HMRC and this will be produced in conjunction with Vantis plc, a firm of accountancy and insolvency practitioners. Following this submission a hearing will be convened on the first available date after Friday, February 19. In January, the club was granted leave to appeal the judge’s decision on the application to strike out the HMRC petition. The total outstanding on the petition in December was £11.5m. This includes £5.8m of disputed VAT, £1.1m of undisputed VAT and £4.6m due on PAYE and NIC. In relation to the PAYE and NIC, £4.5m has subsequently been paid, leaving £7m outstanding. However, the total amount of VAT included which is subject to a dispute is £7.4m (of which £5.8m has been petitioned for). Therefore we contest that there is no payment due. There was a further submission issued late yesterday in relation to £4.7m, which included £3.8m PAYE. The club is making arrangements to pay this to bring the club up to date with PAYE payments. The club will show that the business will be sustainable as a going concern and how it will deal with outstanding creditors as a result of the recent takeover. Balram Chainrai’s trustees – chief executive Peter Storrie and Ashok Patel of Balsara & Co – are in advanced discussions with more than one interested party who have the ability to further stabilise and grow the business. The club would like to thank the staff, players and fans for their continued support through this difficult period.

It also seems incredible that Vantis were appointed as financial experts at the very last moment. They are living in cloud cuckoo land.

You can come and join the red and white horde after your final game! I don't expect your pal Corpy to show up here for a while!

On http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Pompey-handed-high-court-lifeline.6060141.jp?CommentPage=2&CommentPageLength=10#comments Fratton man,London 10/02/2010 13:21:59 This is pure discrimination by HMRC not allowing us 28 days.Can we not protest through the european courts ? LMFAO!

Presumably a 28-day extension plea would involve a minimum sum of £1.8m being paid immediately and the remaining immediate part that can't be agreed on with HMRC (let's estimate £1.2m) now going to the judge. Super high risk strategy of sh!t or bust... It would appear to indicate that BC is not prepared to gamble any more of his own money at this stage. He must be confident that the judge will offer 28 days for them to consider their options.