stevegrant

Must admit I couldn't find that bit in the FL rules when I had a quick look just now. Must be buried somewhere if it's in there at all.

It's mine as well, and I'd prefer to do a more thorough job

This could be another loophole to exploit as they were in the Premier League when they entered administration (i.e. "suffered an insolvency event", as the rules would probably say). However, the courts may determine that "Newco" is in breach of its CVA because its 100% owner has gone into administration itself and initiate liquidation proceedings. I do think jumping to that sort of conclusion will have to wait until the end of this week to determine whether the players get paid on time.

Unfortunately there is a fundamental difference between the two circumstances. While Southampton Leisure Holdings plc was essentially the football club, CSI does own a pretty diverse range of companies with absolutely no connection to Pompey, so I can't see them being penalised on that rule. The only thing, IMO, that can get them is if PFC is heavily reliant on CSI's cash to prop up its own cashflow. As I said just now, it's difficult to tell just how reliant they are.

It depends what Chainrai's security is held over. If it's CSI's shareholding in PFC, I wouldn't expect him to get his hands on anything for some time, as CSI entering administration (as seems pretty much nailed-on now) would protect them from creditors.

Because they've chosen to pay that money, simple as that.

Not necessarily. Depends entirely on how reliant the club is on CSI's money on a month-to-month basis. Without direct access to the books, it's pretty much impossible to know for sure.

And there it is... @JohnSinnott Portsmouth's parent company Convers Sports Initiatives are the subject of insolvency proceedings #bbcfootball #pompey

Interesting, as it's a rumour I also heard yesterday

There are a few factors involved here, IMO. Firstly, the current system, as you rightly say, has been in use for years. I don't think there's been any functionality changes since it was first installed when we moved to St Mary's in 2001. I know for a fact that AudienceView, the company who provided the software, have continued to evolve their products over that period of time, but presumably we didn't believe it to be worthwhile either from a functionality perspective or from a cost perspective to keep the software updated. My assumption is that the club paid a (fairly hefty) fee up front and then an annual service contract to ensure it's maintained, but they clearly don't go as far as to keep the functionality updated. As far as they're concerned, it seems to serve the purpose on the limited budget they want to operate within. Secondly, a custom-built solution would be VERY expensive, both in terms of development time and cost. That is why many clubs are going down the route of using existing providers such as eticketing and Ticketmaster - they have tried and tested systems in place to cope with the likely demand, so for the clubs it's pretty much an off-the-shelf solution that they can "skin" to look like their own system. To develop a new system from scratch with all the functionality most of us would like (e.g. pick an individual seat, apply for away ballots, view full order history even when you're not the lead purchaser, etc) would, at a very conservative estimate, take a team of 4 developers a year to design, develop and test, and the cost would be well into six figures (the salaries alone would do that). Given the choice of three options, i.e. 1. Purchase a new off-the-shelf product from a third party, e.g. Ticketmaster, eticketing, etc, at substantial setup costs and see them take a percentage of all revenue; 2. Contract a software/web development agency to develop a bespoke system at very substantial cost and with at least a year's lead time before it's installed; 3. Persevere with the current system that can handle the basics but annoys the hell out of anyone who wants any sort of half-decent user experience, at very little cost; It's not hard to see why option 3 is the one they continue to choose.

To be honest, I get that very tram every day and you simply can't tell what sort of people are stood there on the periphery, so I don't really blame anyone for not wading in. While my experience of Croydon in the year or so I've been living here is that (August 8th aside) it's not as bad as its reputation would have you believe, there are clearly plenty of unsavoury characters who live in the area - as with most parts of London, to be fair - so in situations like that I'd be inclined just to keep my head down. Confrontation in an environment where there's no escape route if things go pear-shaped is asking for trouble, IMO.

Must Be Eejit?

Apparently the police have rubbished suggestions of a 12.15 departure. They might want to tell Saints that, rather than the Echo, though...

Shambles

Just think of the interest at 2562% APR

I doubt anyone will receive the email until next week.

I'm not entirely sure that's accurate anyway, Luton have been in admin three times and weren't booted out of the league.

3:10 Comment From Warburtons I'm starting to get a bit browned off about the whole thing.. How much of a grilling is Vladimir getting ?

Subtle one from "CorpHo", who was that?

Brighton have by far the worst disciplinary record in the Championship, with 40 yellow and 2 red cards so far. Leicester are closest to them with 32 yellows and 3 reds. Pompey have committed the most fouls (208), with 31 yellows and 2 reds. We've had 20 bookings (3 - Fonte, de Ridder, Cork; 2 - Hammond; 1 - Connolly, Schneiderlin, Richardson, Hooiveld, Lambert, Seaborne, Chaplow, Guly, Fox) and 2 reds (Chaplow and Hammond)

It'll be a collection of incidents. They had 6 players booked, so that will have automatically brought a charge anyway, and the collective harrassing of the referee on both penalty awards will have added to it. Barnes should have been sent off for barging into the referee, but as he was given a yellow card during that incident, I don't think he can be punished further.

Entirely justified charge, but I'd like to think that Peter Walton won't get away scot-free with what I would regard as the worst refereeing performance I've ever seen.

I would imagine the Premier League has covered its arse there, so if the club went bankrupt, they would simply keep the money.

That should be done now, you might need to clear out your cache for it to take effect.

Most clubs who get forced into bubble trips don't sell out their allocation. Bristol City rarely take more than 300 to Cardiff these days because of it, they just can't be arsed with the hassle.