stevegrant

If he's not learned now, he never will

Pretty much Alternatively, you could spend £50m and probably buy us (with all the assets and infrastructure in place) debt-free. Tough choice.

All sounds feasible, but I can't see Ward coming here.

A fair point, you would certainly expect them to be able to move on some of the higher earners in the summer, even if it meant them subsidising the wages to the tune of a few thousand pounds a week. However, there's no guarantee they will be able to do that, and at this stage they have contractual obligations to pay that money so the prudent approach is to take the worst-case scenario. Their matchday income is pretty low (around £6-7m), and their broadcasting revenue's going to be reduced next season regardless of which division they're in as the new Sky deal for the Football League kicks in, which is a 25% reduction on the current deal. In the Championship, they get around £4m for this season's broadcasting rights, but next season that'll be reduced to around £3m, so another £1m that needs covering. If they go down to League One, they'd be getting about £700k, so they'd need to find another £3.3m from somewhere to cover that shortfall. Also, while most of their parachute payments since relegation will have gone to football creditors, not all of it will have done. They were due to receive £16m per year for the first two years and then £8m a year for the next two. We're in the middle of that four-year period now, so the revenue drops by another £8m, and of course we now know that they're not going to see a great deal of the money that's still outstanding there.

Liam Lawrence loaned to Cardiff until the end of the season.

Assuming Birch's comments that you'd need £11m just to satisfy next season's wage bill are correct, then automatically the answer is "no, it's not worth the cost or hassle". There are £14m of parachute payments outstanding, of which at least half are already set aside for football creditors, which only leaves (at the most) £7m to play with. If they're seriously considering chucking in £11m to get £7m out, they're in the wrong business, I suspect.

Seems that way

I can't find the article now but they changed their policy earlier this season so you couldn't buy tickets on general sale in that stand - obviously season ticket holders are already there, but any other tickets are only available to members, I think. Something along those lines anyway, but the consensus among a few Leeds fans I spoke to at the time was that it would basically ensure they'd rarely sell that end out and that the motivation behind it was so the club could identify people who were singing songs against Bates. The fact that every member of the supporters' trust board has had their account on the club's database frozen today probably backs that up: http://lufctrust.squarespace.com/blog/2012/3/2/lust-board-members-ticket-purchasing-accounts-blocked-by-lee.html

Another statement by Birch, which doesn't actually clarify anything - if anything it confuses matters even more: http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/LatestNews/news/Portsmouth-Football-Club-Statement-3174.aspx

Worth bearing in mind that the North Stand is "limited availability" because Leeds have brought in loads of restrictions on who can buy tickets there.

Except that land already has such a covenant. If there is no football club, the council has the option of either letting the existing stadium rot like Plough Lane in Wimbledon did for years or removing the covenant and allowing development and regeneration of the area. Tough choice.

#packthebags is probably more appropriate

I believe the (old) CVA total is around £16m. Add that to £10.8m owed to CSI, £1.6m to HMRC and around the same to staff from January's wages, Baker Tilly hold most of the aces if a CVA's going to be agreed.

Neil Allen ‏ @pn_neil_allen #Pompey have currently sold 13,925 tickets for what could be one of the last-ever matches at Fratton Park. #packthepark The world's best fans

Hayling Island, eh?

Nope, they've got absolutely no say in how/when the PL distributes parachute payments.

It's not up to the Football League.

Those that were immediately due at the time have been paid from previous parachute payments, but such is the nature of some transfers that many aren't due until 2-3 years down the line. The transfer fee itself is often paid in instalments, and then there are potential add-ons like a sell-on fee, extra payments if the player plays a certain number of games, scores a certain number of goals, the team wins the league, etc. It's *those* legacy commitments (or even "potential" commitments) that he's referring to there, I think.

His "love for Pompey"?! I'm intrigued as to how he expects Pompey fans to ruin Chainrai as well...

"Who the **** is laughing now?", I guess!

They wouldn't have made very much from that deal anyway, perhaps around £150k. If the club survives, that deal collapsing will probably have been a blessing in disguise.

There's no Football Creditors Rule in Scotland.

Ah, ok, I was under the impression they'd managed to negotiate a 75% deferral in order to make it through the season, otherwise I don't see where the money's coming from. I guess the article on the News site today has shown where they expected it to come from...

The wage situation is probably not an "immediate" problem because they've agreed a 75% wage deferral until the end of the season, although clearly all that does is delay the payment of wages rather than avoid them, and if the club ends up being liquidated, the players join the queue along with everyone else for a slice of the proceeds of the sale of whatever assets remain.