Ken Tone

The Riverside isn't so bad. The one to avoid is the City Ground http://www.stadiumguide.com/cityground.htm That has a change of stand height part way along an end. Looks terrible. Think St Mary's could still look ok it they extend 'sympathetically' . Need not be all 3 stands at once either. Could just put another tier on the Northam for instance, thereby solving the away fans issue too, because they could have 2 tiers of a much narrower section of the end/corner, still providing as much space for them as now, with 2 tiers of nearly all the bigger Northam end for home fans. But I too can't see this happening for a while. I presme btw that during the building work, there would have to be some closure of the existing stands underneath? So maybe if Liebher and Cortese are *really* ambitious they might just do it in the CCC in preparation for the premiership, whilst the crowds are still a bit smaller, but I doubt it. K.

Already has a work permit according to the Mail's website, and could play against us. Gobsmacking isn't it. K.

Speculation is now that the Premier league will advance portsmouth the parachute payments they'd be guaranteed if relegated, so they can pay off HMRC and avoid liquidation Daily Mail claims Scudamore is sounding out other clubs for their views. Meanmwhile, incredibly , they have apparently signed a new defender who may play against us. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1250437/Portsmouth-swoop-Dusko-Tosic-despite-dark-clouds-hanging-cash-strapped-club.html K.

Are you serious? If people like me didn't come to games, and hadn't for the past 17 years with my family, the club wouldn't exist for you 'lads' to go to . K.

My favourite was.... > K.

For what it's worth, the policy was already set weeks ago. The club made it clear at the norwich game, before the last leg, never mind the home 'final', and reiterated later.......... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~1951347,00.html K.

BBC article gives apretty good summary IMO. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2010/02/pompey_court_out_but_still_ali.html K.

What really gets me about this is that Pompey do have a better team than us, but they damn well shouldn't have. It's only because they've been living above their means. When I hear commentators saying things like 'how can a team win the FA cup then be in so much trouble so soon after', it makes me want to shout but it's effectively *because* they won the cup that they're in trouble. They 'bought' the cup with players they couldn't afford. And they've still got most of them, so I fear will probably 'buy' a win against us, even if it may well be the last game they play. K.

Absolutely right, and what makes them completed stuffed, is that no one who has the power to put them into administration has any incentive to do so. The current owners would just lose everything, and Storrie as chief exec would be sacked, losing his reported £2million salary. There's no bank involved to force the issue as there was with us, and Gaydamak has said he won't. It will only be if any of them care enough to actually save some remnant of the club even if it means a definite loss to themselves that they'll go into admin. None of them seem to me that noble! In the meantime they're hanging on grimly, against all logic, trying to salvage what money they can ..cf Lowe et al before the bank effectively forced us into admin. I reckon their best bet is to hope Gaydamak changes his mind. K.

I really think they are in worse trouble than that. HMRC is out to make a point. Unless someone is mug enought to immediately throw a significant part of £11.5 million of good money after bad, and then take on the other £50 million debts, they're stuffed. And why would anyone do that ? K.

Exactly. We didn't pay the debts in full. Guardian is wrong. Herr Liebherr paid what he was required to do by the deal with the administrator. Creditors lost money. However we are now debt free, because that was a final (though only partial) pay out. K.

I sell photocopiers ?

More likely to be HMS Illustrious moored next to Paul Allen's boat! Time for some more sheikh spotting? Any good, "my mate's a taxi driver and he says...." stories we can send them? K.

My interpretation is that pompey have made claims that all will be well, honest, and the court is saying show us the definitive state of your finances, never mind all this smokescreen stuff over who owns what and who owes what. The fact that it is only 7 working days (so deadline is Friday of next week) indicates they didn't have great deal of credibility with the court. Maybe, just maybe , if the position in 7 days is clearer they may then get 28 more days or whatever. But if I were a pompey fan I'd be very, very worried.Tthis has to be next worse outcome after immediate liquidation. K.

But a) they owe £60 million, much more than £25million, and b) their players are overpaid so no one will want to buy them because they won't want to pay those wages ..and the players won't leave voluntarily because they know they won't be paid that much anywhere else. Does b) sound familiar? But they have far more such players that we did and far more excessively paid. So they will have great difficulty even matching income and outgoings, even with parachute payments , and no chance of paying off debt. Not crowing over this. Much as I dislike all things pompey this is all the fault of greedy, and maybe even dishonest, people with no real love for the club. The fans are the victims. K.

If it is correct it basically means that their debts and outgoings exceed their income and assets. If so there is no way out that makes any sort of economic sense. Seems about right to me. However football never does makes economic sense. It didn't make any sense for Chainrai to lend £17 million to a club with £60 million debts and land assets worth only about £15million, but he did it. And now he is left holding the baby in effect. Pay up at least most of another £7 million or the club closes down and you lose your £17 million. Either there is some very odd motive behind his actions or he is too stupid to be worth all that money in the first place! K.

If anyone wants to follow it see http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/custompages/custompage.aspx?pageid=81654 Cardiff and Southend both given 28 more days . Portsmouth case about to start K.

What the club had on its web-site in advance (and I think has had there since the norwich tie is that ST holders can buy 2 each then those who attended last night's final get next priority, for one ticket each, then presumably any left go on general sale. The good thing about the JPT is that unlike the FA cup final there should be far fewer general FA hangers-on and neutrals there, with a greater proportion of the 90k tickets being available for genuine followers of the 2 clubs. K.

Yet weirdly the Leeds game is on TV and is also a 7.45 ko! Bit of a mess all round really. Didn't buy tickets when it was 7 because couldn't make it from work, and only realised too late that it had been moved again. Did the poor sod who'd booked hotel rooms etc for original date ever hear back from the club? Anyway, give them a shout from me. K.

You'll need a long -sleeved one to get oxlade-chamberlain on ! K.

It is true that the council gave the stadium (only) ground to the club but I haven't heard of any legal tie to ensure it is only used for football Of course this does suggest that the council would fight ant attempt to build on the stadium land but planning law might we'll make the counci lose. In any event surely the stadium land isn't worth all that much. Chainrai is owed more than the stadium is worth as land. The neighbouring land is owned by Gaydamak still. K.

What I heard was that Gaydamak kept ownership of the (quite large) areas of ground nearby that would be needed for any redevelopment but that he sold the stadium itself and the club to the joke arab. Chainrai presumably holds the stadum (and the football club as an entity) as security for his loan to al-faraj and is now calling in that security because they've defaulted on the re-payments. His motive now is presumably to protect his loan. If they went into administration as it was, he'd just be another creditor in the queue. He'll want to avoid admin or winding up, cut costs when he can and get out when he can. The real question is what on earth possessed him to lend the money in the first place? Don't think he can even plan to build on the stadium site since I'd have thought gaydamak owns too much of the adjoining land to make that viable fiancially Km

And I've ignored any other on-costs such as any work-based pension scheme too. Not to mention premises costs and the far less expensive wages for non-playing staff. I know -- I can count beans as well! But then I also missed out home cup games, sales of replica shirts, sponsorship, etc from the income side. It was only meant as a very rough indication, that overall we are probably pretty much paying our way with 20 k crowds and (even generous) L1 wages. Herr Liebherr has in effect put £20 mill (again, only roughly) into the club, is getting no return, but is probably spending not much more on a regular basis, and if all goes well the club will eventually be worth rather more than £20 mill. What is an established mid -table premiership club, with own stadium and no major debt, worth? So if he ever intends to sell, he might lose most of his money if we fail, get a profit if we succeed, or maybe just recoup his investment if we succeed only modestly, say by becoming fixed in mid-table CCC. A sort of £20 million each way bet really! No crtitcism of Herr Liebherr intended in all that btw. Really glad he's here. K.

The bit of the article I don't get is >>The Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai, who has links with the Israeli businessmen connected to Faraj, has loaned what the club said amounted to £20m and has two mortgages over the club. One, registered on 6 October, gives Chainrai's company Portpin, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands tax haven, security over Fratton Park. The other, registered on 7 January, secures for Portpin "the whole of [Portmouth's] undertaking and all its property and assets". That means that if the club does fall into administration or liquidation, Chainrai will be able to take possession of the club itself, and Fratton Park, possibly leaving HMRC and the club's mounting list of other creditors unpaid. Why should Chainrai not just be another creditor, in the queue with HMRC ,Gaydamak et al? The tragedy of this and it is becoming a tragedy, is that no one who has the power to put the club into administration will do so ,because it would mean the end of their gravy train. Storre reportedly eanred over £2 million from the lcub last year. The minute an administrator takes over he will be sacked. Why would he put the cub into admin? Ditto the owners. Admin would mean losing their ownership in effect. So we end up with a club sliding inexorably into oblivion, with no one having both a motive and the power to stop it. I , even as a rabid Saints fan, don't want this. I'd rather see them painfully broke spending years gradually declining into L2! K.

Err. We already have the whole Chapel. It's just that hardly anyone chooses to sit there! K.