pedg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/feb/28/portsmouth-investigation-administration The most insidious deceit to invade English football's phrase book in this age of boom and bust is still Leeds United's post-implosion claim to have been "living the dream". They were not. They were living the lie: the one that now stinks like a barrel of old skate at Portsmouth. It was a feature of Britain's suicidal recklessness in banking, the housing market and Premier League football that problem gambling was recast as entrepreneurship.

Having watched it I was wondering when Bridge took the free kick who it was that it hit? If Terry was in the wall would have been very tempting to kick it at him as hard as possible!

Started to watch that but got distracted by his odd eyebrows which appear to abruptly go from thick to thin half way across.

He's not likely to try and annoy the natives is he? What with an election coming up.

Think for a long time was no obvious rival. Rivals obviously tended to be teams that are either very local, i.e. derby rivals, or those with whom a team might often find themselves competing with for trophies etc, e.g. Man U and Chelsea. At the time the former was not really an issue and for the latter to become a real rivalry it needs several years to mature and I don't think we reached that stage. So till pompey came back up I don't think there was one clear rival in the way that other teams have them.

I always had Barcelona down as our main rival. Just shows how wrong you can be....

If he can read 17000 posts in half an hour I will be impressed!!

Fairly clear that the PL want shot of pompey so would have thought it unlikely they would make an exception. Lots of "We would like to let them off the -9 points but it would not be fair to the other teams" type comments.

No we don't know the complete facts but I don't think Milan or Arry have actually claimed the transfer to arrys offshore account didn't happen. Going to be hard to claim he should not have paid tax on it I would suspect. Anyway my point was that paying off HMRC and assuming your home free is as much of an assumption as that there will be points penalties. IF I was going to pay money to clear HMRC I would want to know fairly clearly what the chances are of there being further deductions that I can't buyoff in the pipeline.

Going to look a bit foolish paying 18M to get clear of the CVA only to be hit with points deductions when the various court cases are over (I don't think the "it was nothing to do with the club honest" defence will work).

I think it was probably removed by the new c*ckney bullsh*t filter.

How many administrators does it take to try and sort out the mess at pompey? http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/topic/tax/portsmouth-fc-slides-administration/408713 3 Apparently... UHY Hacker Young’s Andrew Andronikou, Peter Kubik and Michael Kiely have been appointed joint administrators

Agreed. It would be nice to think that a descent to division 1 would shake off the more disreputable elements before they eventually climb back to mid table in the CCC which is almost certainly their more natural level. However past experience indicates this may not happen.

So is there anything HMRC can do now besides veto any CVA? Surely if they were trading whilst insolvent and doing so for long enough that the directors must have known its not really fair if that can't be acted on because of the club going into admin. Is there anyway they can say like: "Looking at the SoA we are now certain that the club was knowingly trading whilst insolvent and we will be starting legal proceedings against the directors to recover tax revenue's not paid during that period".

I believe he has resigned to spend more time counting his money in the extension he has especially built for it.

Bet they are waiting for spurs to miss one tax payment....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8527495.stm Debt-laden Portsmouth have been called "completely dysfunctional" as they prepare to become the first Premier League club to enter administration. Accountant Nick O'Reilly of Vantis, who recently examined the club's books, said Pompey's business methods had gone "against all good governance". "I came away not knowing who controlled what," O'Reilly told BBC Sport.

Shouldn't that be a local club for local people, like these...

So I guess the question is what are the options open to HMRC today? Can they legally stop the administration from happening? If so how? If they can't what can they do besides vote against any resultant CVA?

Would they still pay out if pompey are liquidated? Might be a bit premature??

Hopefully hear from them sometime tomorrow (which is Friday isn't is?)

Two somewhat different view on their likely administrator: From the news: Bob Holt, director of Swindon between 2001 and 2007, told The News: 'He's a first class operator. If the club stands a chance of surviving, this is the man you want at the helm. 'I think this is probably one of the best things to happen to Portsmouth, he'll probably end up saving the club.' From a fan: Interesting view on him from a Swindon fan - we'll have to wait and see I guess..... "Andrew Andronikou was our administrator at Swindon. If he’s appointed, God help Portsmouth and their creditors. You’re right that administrators are bound to act in the best interest of creditors but he showed no sign whatever of doing that at Swindon, or in the best interests of the club. Instead his overseeing of both our administration and subsquent CVA seemed suspiciously aligned with the interests of his mate Mike Diamandis who’d taken the club to the brink of ruin in the first place. But then, it’s not often in the insolvency trade that you get a customer who brings you as much repeat business as Diamandis has brought Andronikou over the years....."

I think you are confusing wishful thinking with realism. A common problem with pompey fans.

Think it has been said that Chainrai has guaranteed they will all get paid tomorrow. One assumes that includes paying the taxman his share as well?

Depends if they can get out of admin with a CVA, if not they will get up to -20. Not forgetting the results of the court cases. Could easily find themselves on -35 points or so next season.