trousers

Couldn't you have put them in touch with someone connected with the club who does have the requisite experience? Given these billionaires didn't turn your invitation down unconditionally seems a bit of a missed opportunity?! Who knows, you could have become the next middleman we all praise to the hills on here...!!

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=622093&&cc=5739 Vega is believed to have offered to buy the club for debt, thereby wiping out Pompey's £40m liability, which is primarily held with the South African Standard Bank. However, two sticking points have emerged. The first being that Gaydamak, who has pumped in around £25m of his own money since taking over in 2006, wants more than the small amount for his shares than Vega has offered; and secondly reports suggest that Vega failed to prove the existence of the necessary finances when asked to do so and suggested the club's cash should be used to pay back money owed to Gaydamak. Ah...

Well, they were rich enough to be interested in a certain Premier League club earlier in the year.... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article5793121.ece Ramon Vega, the former Tottenham Hotspur defender, will push ahead with his plans to take over Portsmouth despite having an offer rejected by the South Coast club. The Swiss is confident of clinching a deal while determined not to increase his bid (Tony Evans writes). The Times has learnt that the offer to buy the struggling Barclays Premier League club was made by VS Investment Group, which Vega heads. VS has been in negotiations with Portsmouth for a number of months. Alexandre Gaydamak, the Portsmouth owner, is thought to have become disillusioned over losses that are believed to amount to about £60 million since he took over in 2006. Portsmouth are believed to owe about £40 million to their bankers and Gaydamak has put more than £25 million of his own cash into Fratton Park.

Indeed

Trousers: Chuckled out loud

Ramon Vega was suggested on one of the other Swiss threads

Unless the Swiss are further forward than people imagine? Their interest was first 'revealed' before Pinnacle entered exclusivity. I doubt they would have sat around twiddling thumbs during the last month if they were genuinely interested

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13667&highlight=swiss

Aye, makes sense.

Damn...was trying to keep that quiet....

Who torte you that?

Hmmm.....that's been mentioned before....

What time does The Farmer usually post his reassuring daily message?

Especially on the players' breakfast plates?

Cheers Derry. Nycomed would seem to fit the bill given that their joint owner, Nordic Capital, invest in sectors other than pharmaceuticals. I seem to recall a few fingers in 'leisure' pies when I last looked.

No. (IMHO of course)

By the way, why are the technicalities here subject to NDAs and shrouded in secrecy? Surely the process that the FL are asking SFC/SLH to follow is a publically published process so what's stopping the FL and/or Pinnacle issuing a statement about the principles and mechanics involved rather than us trying to guess what they are trying to achieve? Obviously I'm not suggesting they reveal anything confidential. I just can't see how the process they are being asked to follow is confidential.

Best post on here in a long while IMO. The Football League are using rules that were created to stop blatant attempts at "cheating" for other scenarios.

Any idea why not? Cheers

Why would Fry be talking to other bidders this week if there wasn't any time to engage them?

So, like last month, doesn't this put the Football Club subsidiary on the brink of Administration too? (it is afterall the Football Club company's name on the payslips, not SLH.) Perhaps this is part of the sub-plot I've been alluding to about getting SFC Ltd into admin so we can come up with the CVA(s) that the FL need sight of? Not paying wages is probably the easiest/quickest route to going into admin? All in my opinion of course.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/86289/Reid-lined-up-at-Saints/ Jackson said: “We have met with the administrator. “It is a real shame the staff are not going to be paid but that confirms in my mind we are going to go forward with our bid.”

You're not the first and won;t be the last....

I know I keep putting this forward, but what's stopping us putting the Football Club into administration too as a 'means to an end' exercise to close this catch-22 situation? That of course assumes Pinnacle are fighting the cause not to get more than -10 deduction rather than fighting the -10 itself...

Couldn't agree more. How many calls have they made to the Football League?