trousers

Fair points. Like everyone else, in the absence of any specific details, I'm clutching at straws.

@jordansibley: Surprised to see a mountain being made out of a molehill regarding the pause in work at Staplewood. SFC and Leabitter have agreed to pause process whilst details of a specific aspect of the specification is confirmed. Project will be resuming very soon and both parties are looking forward to the project being completed ahead of the 2013-14 season. Nothing to be concerned about at all!

Isn't there some new rule from this season onwards (Financial Fair Play?) whereby owners can only inject their personal cash up to a percentage of turnover? Maybe they've hit that limit and this is the only legit way to provide the short term injection of funds we needed to hit the ground running this season? I've no idea but might this have something to do with it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2212445/Gary-Glitter-sex-underage-girl-Jimmy-Saviles-BBC-dressing-room.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline

@frankieboyle: Ed Miliband wants to turn us into one nation. Unfortunately it’s Greece.

Have they started highlighting the number of charities and tax payers we've ripped off yet? One assumes they're comparing like for like...? They'll be comparing our respective administrations next and coming to the conclusion the circumstance were identical

I'll concede that one - I did take a leap of faith there somewhat! :-)

Given we have a guaranteed income from being in the Premier League for the next 5 years, I'm not sure I agree with the word "gambling". These loans have to be approved by the Premier League so they are obviously "OK" with it. I have a small degree of discomfort about it but that's more down to the fact that we don't know the details. It might be "ok", it might not be. We shall see.

Have they mentioned how many charities and taxpayers we've ripped off yet?

So, a summary of the first two pages... This might be a bad thing or it might be ok.

Ok...own up....who rattled the cage....? @SOSPompey: It looks like Barcelona of the South are following in our footsteps. The Liebharr Estate are no longer covering the losses so guess what???? @SOSPompey: @mattslaterbbc have you heard the latest for Soton?? @SOSPompey: That silly ****er Cortese has borrowed money from a company listed in the British Virgin Islands in return for a controlling 'charge' !!!!!! @pn_Emma_Judd: @SOSPompey It's not Portpin, is it????

@SOSPompey: It looks like Barcelona of the South are following in our footsteps. The Liebharr Estate are no longer covering the losses so guess what???? @SOSPompey: @mattslaterbbc have you heard the latest for Soton?? @SOSPompey: That silly ****er Cortese has borrowed money from a company listed in the British Virgin Islands in return for a controlling 'charge' !!!!!!

Yeah...but you should have foreseen the future young man. You're slacking McFly!

Cheers for posting the companies house summary. Interesting stuff.

http://www.toffeetalk.com/index.php?/topic/23096-new-mortgage-taken-out-by-efc/page__st__40

Our nett position could well be 'debt free'. We won't know until 2014. I'm sure this thread will still be guessing what the situation is until then...

They don't do 'bad' debt. We don't know yet whether this is good or bad debt. As Steve G says - we won't know for a year and a half. I'll reserve judgement until I know the facts. Call me old fashioned...

Source?

I'm clutching at hypothetical straws here but maybe Markus made the availability of his 'rainy day' funds conditional on Cortese running the business on its own two feet (and as with any decent business that usually involves taking out loans to manage cash flow etc in the most efficient fashion) I've no idea if there is still a Markus fund to dip into or not but if there was I'd be surprised if he'd approve of it being used to prop up a club that couldn't run within its own means. Maybe the fund (if it exists) is earmarked for infrastructure projects only? Who knows...

The club (according to companies house)

I see this as a potentially good thing. It indicates that Cortese is trying to run the club as a self sufficient business rather than dipping into a fund that Markus may or may not have left for a rainy day or whatever. The fact that we may have leveraged guaranteed income via a bridging loan to aid cash flow (if indeed that is what has happened) is 'business as usual' in my book and nothing to be alarmed about. Probably...

You can only come to that conclusion once we know the sums involved, surely?

That is indeed the difference between us and Pompey fans. We'll investigate and question this to the hilt whereas Pompey fans would, as ever, stick their heads in the sand.

http://www.nsno.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=14461.0 Guardian Report on Everton Loan « on: September 19, 2011, 10:29:25 PM » A report on the deal for a loan against future Sky money. Everton's successful start to the season might make you wonder what all the fuss was about. After demonstrations at Goodison Park at the direction the club have been heading in under the chairman, Bill Kenwright, the Toffees have picked up more points per game than anyone outside the Premier League top four. However, off the pitch matters are indeed far less rosy: Digger can reveal that Everton have forward-sold their central Premier League broadcast income not only for this season but for the 2012-13 campaign as well. As Kenwright has privately admitted, Everton's prior lenders, Barclays Bank and Investec, are not prepared to extend their credit lines to his club. But that has not prevented Everton from accessing credit. Last month a mortgage deed was signed with Vibrac Corporation, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. As such it is impossible to determine who the lender is and whether it has any links in football – although it must be stressed that in common with all such assignments of central funds, it has been approved by the Premier League. The loan is a one-year facility for £14m, replacing a mortgage agreed with Investec 12 months previously, in which this season's central funds were signed over to the bank. That Investec loan was a departure from the terms of the 2009 agreement with Barclays, in which only the same season's Premier League funds were borrowed against to assist with cashflow. To sell future seasons' income is intrinsically more risky, both for the lender and the mortgager. There can be no guarantees that Everton will even be in the Premier League next season, and although there has been no disclosure of the interest-rate terms, that risk is normally priced into what yield the creditor must pay, making the rate more expensive. Everton are insouciant about the deal, insisting that even if the worst happens they could cover it from the bumper parachute payments from the Premier League. But that income is meant as a relegation cushion, not to cover cashflow difficulties

Have they started a Saints Takeover Saga thread on Pompey OnLine yet?