pedg

Saw the thumbnail of the front page of the portsmouth news on their website and had to chuckle. Do you think the person who wrote the headline for the bottom story knew what was going to be above it???

Agree as no point them risking going to court if they can't prove andy android correctly appointed and risk everything on the day. I guess it depends on whether asking to have the court appoint an administrator will be a straight yes/no question or could it go through several rounds of negotiation before one is appointed? (how about this?, no, how about this then?, ... etc) as if that's the latter case then the sooner they ask the more chance they have of reaching a deal before the court case. But then that might be the sensible option and so probably not allowed under the perverse 'pompey rules' they appear to be working to.

Indeed, notice that part of his defence is 'they only had to ask us' where as in court HMRC said they had asked and did not get even the smallest of replies until the evening before the court case.

He's now whining about being picked on by HMRC http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Pompey-administrator-slams-HMRC.6122599.jp 'It took me by complete surprise. I was busy getting on with the job in hand then come 4pm on Monday and Mr Revenue man and his briefcase wants his five minutes in court. 'Well, he got more than five minutes - their submissions lasted an hour-and-a-half, ours lasted a fraction of that. Enough said.' Yes, they had lots of evidence and questions and you had one dubious promise. Enough said indeed.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Meeting-with-Premier-League-chief.6122600.jp Pompey's administrator announced last week that he plans to challenge the league's rules on deducting teams nine points for going in to administration. Speaking to The News yesterday, Mr Andronikou said: 'I still stand by that. Their position is that we must take it but it's never been tested so I'm saying "show me why". ... The administrator said he plans to ask Mr Scudamore to allow Pompey to count future TV and commercial payments due from the Premier League as part of the club's assets when they begin negotiating with creditors. 'It makes logical sense. This is our money, we just haven't received it yet,' he said. The club is also seeking to include the £20m-plus 'parachute payments' paid out to relegated teams if the point deduction does go ahead this season. So wants the PL to turn a blind eye to blatant cheating and let them count as assets stuff they don't have.

and this one has the fullest reporting of the judges remarks.. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Pompey-to-go-back-before.6115398.jp

Embarrassed about possibly going out of business... There's a sub for that.

Well as things stand at the moment with the -9 points they would have to go through a play off match to get into the Champions League.

Me thinks Chainrai must be an imposter. Just look at the photo on this page and tell me it does not look suspiciously like a dodgy NZ businessman... http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/161513/Portsmouth-court-in-replay

It will be interesting to see if Chainrai still stands by his 15M promise if the court decide that he has to join the rabble of unsecured creditors.

I think people, especially the administrator, are taking that 'we agree admin is the correct way' a bit too literally. I take it more like when someone says "We would love to help you, but..." you don't go away thinking all is fine because they have said they would love to help you.

But its all about consistency. They have been playing on sloped pitch for so long that, to maintain the 'integrity' of the competition, they need to be allowed to cheat for the whole season to keep things fair.

IF the PL gave them this money it would bring the difference between their debts and their assets from 60 odd million to 30 odd million. So even with this bail out and with comparably minimal future income (CCC TV money & gate money) they would still be insolvent. Also if they do finally pay off HMRC does it actually stop the return court date or do the wheels of justice move on regardless now?

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Portsmouth-to-be-offered-32million-balloon-payment-rescue-deal-by-Premier-League-exclusive-article342121.html Crisis club Portsmouth will be offered a staggering £32million rescue deal from the Premier League to pay their tax bill and avoid going bust this season. Pompey were rocked to find out that HMRC want a full settlement of a debt worth around £14million in the next few weeks - money that they simply do not have. And now the Premier League are poised to step in and advance them their parachute payments plus TV cash to give them the funds to stop the taxman from shutting them down.

I think someone has caught a bad case of baseless optimism disease. http://fansonline.net/portsmouth/article.php?id=1338 Andronikou said: ‘The positive thing that came out today was that HMRC said administration was the best route, so they have now come on record which is great for everyone at the club. Everything is going according to plan and falling into place. The most important thing is now is to sell the club.

Talking of domain names I understand pompey's plan to escape their current predicament is to hope someone will register WeBuyAnyClub.com

So by his logic they should be docked points when something is the fan's fault.. so TCWTB must be worth at least -30.

From the news article http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Taxman-questions-39validity39-of-Pompey.6115398.jp What the Judge said in a bit more detail.... Mr Justice Norris said: 'It will be necessary for it to be established that new money was given for the charges when granted. 'Unless that can be established the charges will be voided. The Revenue are concerned that no new money was given. The basis for that concern lies in evidence filed by the company in answer to the winding-up petition. 'The company is owned as to 90 per cent by a company called Falcondrone Ltd. The ownership of Falcondrone itself has changed hands on a number of occasions. 'The grantee of the charges on October 6, 2009 and the January 7, 2010, is a British Virgin Islands company called Portpin Ltd, in the ownership of a Mr Balram Chainrai, a welathy Hong Kong businessman. 'In evidence which the company itself filed in response to the winding-up petition, the company's head of finance (Tanya Robins) said Portpin Ltd, Mr Chainrai's company, had provided "initial short-term funding to Falcondrone". 'Although Portpin is a grantee of the two charges, on the evidence it would appear that it advanced no new money to the company but instead advanced money to the owners of the company. 'If that is right, then the charges would not be valid and would not support the appointment of the administrators. 'It might therefore be said that a shadow is cast over the existing appointments of the administrators and it is clear that that shadow should be removed as quickly and as cheaply as possible. 'There is not time nor money to enter into an extended examination of the validity of the appointment.'

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=749475&sec=england&cc=5739 Because of the enormous sensitivity of the case, Soccernet's Fratton Park insider wishes to remain anonymous, but said: "The Revenue are out to break the rule which puts football creditors to the head of the queue and the Revenue down the pecking order. "The Revenue are unhappy with this arrangement and want to use a big stick to get the government to intervene and impose regulations on football that the Revenue must be the number one creditor. "The worry is that they have an agenda and are using a big stick against Portsmouth." I wonder who Harry Harris's secret squirrel insider at pompey could be

two quotes Mr Mitchell said the statement of affairs shows the club owe Portpin LTD £13.5m and the HMRC want evidence of that. 'We haven't so far had an answer to that,' he said. Mr Mitchell said there are issues about money lent to the club. He said Tanya Robins had said Portpin LTD had lent money to Falcondrone, not the club. He said: 'We say that the evidence of Miss Robins is that Portpin provided money to Falcondrone not to the club so its all very mysterious.'

My guess is that there is no documents that prove that Chainrai was a secured creditor of PCFC so unless they get someone with a record of forging documents in court cases in they are probably going to come back fairly quickly and ask for the court to put them into admin instead.

The judge said the promise of money should give the administrators confidence. But he has ordered there will be a hearing in the week commencing March 8 to look at the payments Portpin LTD has lent to the club and money paid to Portpin LTD or Chainrai.

Not from whats coming off the news feed at the moment!

Judge Alastair Norris said there is a shadow over the administration that must be removed.

Michell back on the attack Mr Mitchell for HMRC says the evidence of money available for administration is not good enough. He said: 'It doesn't really go very far. It's only a promise, it isn't the provision of funding. Whether or not funding will be provided remains to be seen.'