Ken Tone

Strange. I thought he was definitely right-footed. K.

Yes I understand how the law applies to unsecured creditors and that HMRC are, since 2002, just in the queue with everyone else. What I don't know is why, and by what right, football creditors come first in the queue, and whether HMRC and others are able to challenge that preferential treatment for football creditors. Who says the players and other clubs waiting for transfer money should be paid in full before other creditors? If it is merely a condition of continued membership of the premiership or football league, so what? Why can't HMRC etc challenge that? The point of all this is, in effect, is there any chance of Pompey not being accepted into the football league next season? K.

+1 k.

Can anyone explain to me WHY football creditors take precedence over others? (So the players and other clubs get paid whilst the poor local businesses that are owed money don't) I presume this an FA rule, as a condition of membership of the league(s) ? Surely there is no legal reason for it? Why are the other creditors required to accept this if so? Could HMRC etc challenge this legally? K.

Yes but I think she in her mind is answering the question, "will the administrator break the club up completely, close it and and sell off the goal posts, training kit etc, not "will s/he sell off all your best players? ", which of course the administrator will do. The admooistrator won't break the club up completely except as a last resort if/when they can't find a buyer for a club as a whole. Btw I see Storrie is now offering to stay on, with a pay cut! Says his reported £1.4 million salary is only about half that in 'basic' wage ..the rest came in bonuses for selling players! The mind just boggles. How much more does he want to bleed from that club? K.

A good question and answer page on the pompey paper's web-site if anyone wants clarity from an objective third party. Answers from the firm that were our adminstrators http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/pompeyinvestigation/Questions-and-Answers-on-administration.6098944.jp K.

Tut, tut. Suspect you mean 119 degress and 34 minutes? 34 radians is more than 5 full circles, approx 1948 degrees. It's important we keep up the standards of intellectual superiority over the blue few ;-) K.

Not for certain but that is my memory of how/why Luton etc got treated so badly by the FL. So it will be -9 now because earliy enough , and then anythingnext season will dpend on how admin has gone. Can't see HMRC wanting to agree to anything as a creditor, other than full payment. K.

Pompey were paying 90% of income in wages at one stage. Don't know if that was just 'wages' or all payments to players etc. For example I suspect that Utaka's plaintive cry that he only gets £28k a week wages overlooks his 'image rights', playing bonuses, etc which may well bring him closer to the publicised £80k a week than he'd like to admit. Either way it was simply crazy of pompey to pay so much, and other clubs get sucked into trying to compete , also paying more than they can afford. k.

Agree in principle with what you say, but it's the wages that have crippled pompey not long term transfer fees on the never never. Have you seen David James saying that the players' bonuses for winning the Cup were bigger than the money the club made from winning it? Crazy. The FA has to introduce some sort of wage cap. Can't be on individual wages legally ,but could be a rule for membership of league that your total wage bill did not exceed say 60% of total income. K.

Amazed to see myself writing this about the Daily Mail, but they seem to have a pretty good summary later in that article. Chainrai's move to sell himself the ground and lease it back for £1 million a year is clearly a ruse to protect himself as they go into administration. Otherwise he'd just be another creditor/shareholder and would lose most of his money. Admin very soon IMO, then the question becomes will the premiership help them find a compromise with HMRC? If not, even if they avoid actual winding up, pompey could find themselves still in admin at the start of next season, with no agreement with creditors and maybe facing a further points deduction from the league on top of the, surely now inevitable, -9 from the premiership this season. The administrator might then say that the lease on fratton park is too dear, and threaten to move them elsewhere, eg to Havant and Waterlooville's ground. There's months of fun in this still! K.

The £44 ones are the second top price, not the dearest. The £50-plus (£58?) ones are sold out according to the girl on the phone. Was virtually the first thing she said when I finally got through. And I too wonder what is happening to 239-245. Hardly a segregation issue with them is there? K.

10,000 sold at 6pm according to OS. Amazed the ticket office managed to function at all at that rate to be fair ..though the phone system did cut me off after 20 mins of music earlier and it took another 30 mins just now. All the top price seats gone apparently K.

Telegraph says south african consortium no good and administration by end of week http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7292588/Portsmouth-heading-into-administration.html I see chainrai has now taken ownership of Fratton Park and is leasing back to the club. I presume that protects him in administration in that whilst he'd lose his shares in the club he would still get his £1 million a year rent and indeed still own the ground if the club doesn't pay the rent. The club's only other option would be to move away from fratton park if the rent was too high. They could always ground share with Havant and Waterlooville. They have a capacity of about 5500, easily enough for pompey in next few years! K.

If the club is liquidated, then surely all its employment contracts are cancelled? If so all the players become free agents ..no transfer fees to pompey. I was and still am, absolutely gobsmacked that they didn't have a firesale in the transfer window, and their signing of extra, new players just beggared belief. As i see it either the premiership persuade hmrc that they wil get their money out of next year's parachute payments, or they're buggered. K.

The premier league have pretty much already said that they won't *advance* the payments. (Not least because it would require a change of rules and some other clubs wouldn't agree to that. )The talk now is of them promising them to HMRC when they become due. And the promise would be that at least pompey would get the parachute payments. They would of course get more in the unlikely event of them not being relegated. As i said before they don't want to have to deal with all the questions over what to do with the lost league points if pompey go out of business during a season. After the season ends the premiership will wash their hands of them ... they become a league problem anyway. K.

No that would be if they paid the HMRC now. That isn't going to happen What seems more likely is that the prem will show HMRC proof that pompey will eventually get the parachute payments at least, ie guaranteeing that they will have enough money to pay off their debts to HMRC, if not to everyone else. The question then becomes how can HMRC be assured that it will be them that gets the money, not someone else. *If* HMRC believe that, it makes sense for them to wait a few more months for all their money rather than wind the club up now and get a few pence in the pound. The premiership's motive is that they will be determined for the whole season's fixtures to be played rather than to have to deal with the consequences of a club stopping mid-season. So in my opinion pompey's fate depends solely on whether/how the premiership can give HMRC first call on that money. Oh, plus of course on all those investors Storrie has beating a path to his door ;-) K.

Well except that, now the court hearing isn't on Friday as originally implied, but not until March, there is presumably time for another 'rich sheikh' to appear before the end of the month. (Mind out for that low-flying pig btw!) Not sure what happens to the papers that they are required to lodge tomorrow, between tomorrow and March 1st. Do they just sit there? Or does a court official look at them? Personally, am increasingly of the view that the Premiership will promise money to HMRC so they can play out the season, then abandon them to their fate in the summer, be it liquidation or administration. (They'll be even less attractive to a buyer by then, as the first year's parachute money will have gone to HMRC) K.

Sorry. Didn't see other thread. Mods please delete K.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~1966914,00.html Btw what is 'cw'? K.

Enjoy your moment, mate. To quote from my earlier post "...... so Pompey are still buggered in short. The *best* they can hope for is administration in the CCC." And the 'pay up pompey ' chant shut up the visiting fans every time they started the chimes. They just didn't know how to respond. Who cares what it sounded like on TV? K.

Thought most of the media were raving about James's save from Lallana? Haven't watched it on TV, but at the time thought Waigo just messed up...several times ..and Jaidi header over from 6 yards, mostly in surprise at the ball coming to him I suspect to be fair! k.

Could happen in some places, but right next to the river? How low can the water table be at St Mary's ? K.

"Storrie also revealed that he discussed the possibility of walking away from football with his wife on Sunday, but insisted that that he cannot abandon Portsmouth while he is so close to preventing the club from going under." Translates as "I earnt over £2 million from this job last year. Where else would I get that sort of money? I'm not going anywhere till they prise my hands off the cash" Purely in my opinion of course! K.

My view for what it's worth, is that the premiership will do all they can to keep them in business this season, to avoid the problems of how to deal with all the consequences of them not fulfilling fixtures. However they won't give a damn about them going out of business after the season ends. They've already said they will not advance the parachute payments , but will provide reasurance to HMRC that that money will become available at the normal time. I reckon that means they hope that HMRC will hold off on the winding up for now, on the promise of their £11 million by late summer. After that Pompey are on their own, but an even less attractive proposition to buy ... in the CCC still owing about £50 million, with a whole load of players still on ludicrously highly paid contracts reluctant to go and with no other club daft enough to buy them on those wages ..and the first year's parachute money already spent on HMRC. So still with outgoings well above income. Administration would still be their only way out, in the hope of a lucky find of a new owner buying them on the cheap like we had, but the owners would still want to avoid admin as they'd lose everything ... so Pompey are still buggered in short. The *best* they can hope for is administration in the CCC. k.