St Marco

Also i think we have to assume that no news is bad news. Because if they were close or had done the deal they would naturally be shouting it from the roof tops, they would want everyone to know. The fact it is almost 6pm and nothing has been said either means they failed or are still in there talking. Question then becomes how long will they have to talk before they have to go home?

My boss. Who works for Flemeadia business/media analyst. He heard it from someone else of course and that person i don't know. Now my boss is a big footie fan but as far as i know has zero interest in Portsmouth or Saints etc.. He has in the past been told things which he passed on to me which turned out to be false and that is why when he says things i tend to pass them off instantly. BUT In this instance i think there might be a slight bit of truth in there somewhere and he does have very good connections. What he says makes sense i think and is why it has taken so long and why it is being negotiated still now. The sticking point is how much money they are being asked to pay up front. Some news people put it at £1.8m. That is around 25% of the total bill, a small amount in business terms. You would assume they would have no problem paying that because if they couldn't then why are they even bother negotiating? They cannot be in there saying "we got nothing to pay now but will in xyz", they will not even listen to that. So i think the £3m or so figure seems accurate. I guess we will find out in a hour or so if this one can be filed under the long list of bull**** rumours!

Ok rumour i have just heard and i stress it is a rumour Talks have failed and Revenue walked away. The reason i have been told is because Revenue wanted a up-front payment of £3m. Portsmouth don't have the money to pay that as there is nothing left from the transfer money they received. They had tried to do a deal where they agree to hand over the next installment of Sky money to them. That is rumoured to be a month or so away. Now again that is just a rumour but i tend to believe it. I think it makes sense as fits with what has been said elsewhere. Basically meaning they have to pay the £3m up front in the next hour or two or it is game over. It is like Tax and Revenue are testing the confidence of the potential takeover because if Chinari and Storie are as confident as they make out then he could put that in from his own money and give the club more time. And then get that money back soon as the club has been sold. Again i must stress that is a rumour and 99% of them turn out to be total ********.

Well and hour or so to go then. Interesting that the judge is the same one who has dealt with (and in some cases killed) other football club cases. I wonder if she will be lenient when Storie and his renegades take to the stand. "i see your up for tax evasion Mr Storie" "it was my idea to go up before a judge for tax evasion, i figured why should Harry have all the fun?"

Have to say if they accept that offer then i would be shocked. That is like saying were pay you 10% of what we owe you today and then the rest later on. Personally i hope it happens as i want to go to the derby game and i think we would lose out by not having a rival anymore. But this whole saga has gone on for months and months now. The whole thing needs to be brought to it's conclusion. Like a film everyone wants to know how it will end. Heart says they will accept it, but head say's they will want a lot more.

70% for a fps game is not good. As i said before the only review that should matter is your own. And obviously we both disagree on how good both games are. I have played MAG for a fair few hours, will continue to play it until one of the new fps games come out. But soon as BC2 is released i know i will never play MAG or MW2 again.

I have the game can add me on there "trid-3nt" I have put a nice amount of time into it and have come to the conclusion as others have that numbers mean nothing. Your only fighting around 50 people or so at the same time. In that time everyone is running around like headless chickens not having a clue where to go or what to do. A simple all run to a house where the re-supply is and stand and shoot out the windows. Then get killed by snipers. Run out into the open, get killed by snipers. As for the customization are you for real?! You have 14 heads to choose from....All the same. Then you choose your voice which makes feck all point because the only time you talk is when you bleed out. Weapon customization is poor. You got about 20 weapons in total to choose from and only a handful of those actually do anything different. The addons to them seem next to nothing. And as for the skill tree comment you just gave yourself away as someone who has never played a Battlefield game because it is almost exactly the same......They have ripped off what Dice did. Rank = xyz weapons available. Kill people, complete objectives, hold zones = get exp Earn exp = unlock new rank, which unlocks new abilities,weapons. Having 4 squads on the screen means nothing whatsoever. Because there is zero skill to it and zero tactics to it. You run to a bottle neck and fight for that place. The maps are so small and crowded that you inevitably end up in the same place over and over. So for the entire round time your doing the same thing. Where as in battlefield you have multiple places to go for because the maps are huge. Meaning the small battles all over the map have importance to those fighting it, you know your job and those around you know what to do. In MAG there is none of that at all. It is just a headless chicken race. I play the game and other fps games with a lot of friends who are serious clan gamers. They play on various leagues and cups and at one point when it was alive played in CAL. They all think the game sucks bad. The very 1st suckage thing will happen when you choose Valor and go do the training. When you get to the targets literally 1min into it the game will ask you to shoot with your pistol 2 targets. You will be there for the rest of your life trying to complete that bit because it is bugged. The only way to get the target to register is to throw a nade at it. Now if they fooked up the registery that bad in just the training level how is it going to be with real players?! MAG is a rip off of Battlefield, you might not like me saying that, might not agree with it but it uses the exact same mechanics as the Battlefield series but does it far worse. If i am wrong and your right then explain why the game has done so poorly in both reviews and sales? It had like 400,000 pre-orders that dropped to around 200,000 after the beta became free for all. Even the figures themself from Zipper from the Beta show how bad people thought it was. http://blog.mag.com/blog/2010/01/mag-beta-5-0-statistics/ 1million people downloaded the beta. Of those 1million people 619,000 gained 1 exp point....Where the hell did those 381,000 go? That is like they downloaded it, played the game for a few minutes then un-installed it straight away. If the game is as great as you claim why would they have done that? Of those 619,000 who got 1 exp how many went on to earn a bit more and become a squad leader? 52k.....And how many made it all the way to level 60? 143 people..... Now if that happened when it was free with a million people how many do you think will get there with about 25% of that number? Meaning the game is not very popular at all in both sales and gaiming time. Which might be because i dunno, people hated it?

yeah as i said above you have to go to Portsmouth's section to find it. You would think it would be front page right? At least at same level as "Portsmouth set for 5th owner" which is on front page.

Exactly. And what makes it sound bull**** to me is this line "It is not clear whether Chainrai has injected fresh funds or the proceeds from the transfer-window sales of Younis Kaboul and Begovic have been diverted" If you were talking with the club as they claim then would they not have asked that question? Would the person talking to them (obviously Jacobs) not have said yeah he has put some more money in or it has come from the player sales? It does not make sense because if the report was true and Chainrai had put his own money in he would want people to know he had because it would make him have a better image for it.

So then that report from The Telegraph which was published today at 8pm has magically vanished from the website. Can't see it on the front page, can't see it in the sports section, can't see it on the football section. The only way you can find it is by going to the Portsmouth section on the website. Which is slightly funny because their piece from earlier today about Portsmouth having a 5th owner today is on the front page..... Which would lead me to think they probably are not to confident in it. From that report we get very little information. But we get these lines "Chainrai is ready to offer HMRC a financial settlement rather than appealing for more time to contest the winding-up order. A host of other companies that joined the winding-up order have already been paid off by the club, simplifying the process. It is not clear whether Chainrai has injected fresh funds or the proceeds from the transfer-window sales of Younis Kaboul and Begovic have been diverted. Club sources have indicated that there are at least two interested parties, and there is growing confidence that one may be in a position to begin conducting due diligence." I wonder who that club source could be? Sounds familliar?

This whole payment thing comes from The Telegraph. Everyone basically followed the story. They say "The Daily Telegraph said Chainrai was ready to offer HMRC a financial settlement rather than appealing for more time to contest the winding-up order" But having a look on their website that report seems to have gone. Can anyone else find it? EDIT: This must be it http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7190308/Portsmouth-seek-stay-of-execution-against--winding-up-order.html

I still think they are fooked regardless of what their execs have been saying. The point here which they seem to be forgetting is that they are acting as if it is a court hearing where they will be told to pay what they owe. That time has gone, it was months ago. The harsh reality is only 2 scenarios can happen now to save them 1. They strike a deal with the HMRC which would have to include a vast amount of the money owed being paid instantly and the rest paid in frequent installments. So for example if the bill is £7.5m such as Portsmouth claim then they pay say £4m up front tomorrow and the other £3.5m over the next few weeks. They will not settle on a deal where Portsmouth pay a few hundred grand a month for the next 50 years etc, that is not going to happen. Either way this scenario means someone has to put money into it, again unlikely to happen. 2. The club come clean and admit the total fook up they have made over the years and ask for them to be placed in admin. If they cannot do that then the creditors can apply for that to happen. Once in admin the court case stops and they get the points deduction. So as someone else mentioned pretty much this is the scenario for the current owner. He has already got £17m in the clubs debts. Does he put in another £4m-£7.5m to starve off the court case for now and keep the club going for at least a few more weeks? But could then get put into admin at the next slightest payment due date i.e wages. Meaning he would lose potentially £21m-£24.5m in total. He has already said he will not put any money in. The why they have not gone into admin theory. Because the momment they do every single one of them loses out. The gravey train stops for the likes of Storrie. The owner loses everything. He will hold out to the last possible momment to do that because for him that is the worst case scenario. Make no mistake about it, he could not give a **** about the club, the fans etc.. he cares about his huge amount of money put into it. The momment they are in admin, gone and nothing he can do about it. Right now the HMRC are itching to take a Premiership club down. If it was a big club then i doubt very much they would be as hostile as they appear to be being. But a club like Portsmouth fits the bill. A smallish club living way beyond it's means. They will want to send a message out to English football that you are the same as everyone else and if you don't keep your finances in check or miss payments then you will go the same way. If Portsmouth go under we would notice, their fans would notice, but ultimatly in a year or two everyone would of forgotten about them. It is the Wimbledon effect. So the question is how much do the taxman see this as a moral thing? Are they taking their stance because they think it is time to set an example? A lot of the papers such as the times think this and i tend to agree. The judge in the case will be in there reading how much money little Portsmouth squandered over the past few years and how they ended up in the situation, i cannot see anyone feeling sorry for them in there.

If they go into liquidation then all contracts get ripped up, and then the players become free transfers. If they go into admin then the admin team are there to help the company. The players remain until either they are bought out or go under i.e bankupt.

They should of made a reality tv series from this thread or something like the office.

It has a 95 review from one of the harshest game reviewers there is! They gave the new Aliens vs Predator game a 58% score! That is brutal. They also gave MAG a 70% score. If they give a game a 95% score you can bet the game will probably get a 90% metacritic score. As i said that is my opinion. I would like to think i am pretty experienced when it comes to the fps genre mainly because like most of you i find those games fun. All the way from wolfenstein and doom to todays games. And having played those games i just can't understand, simply cannot comprehend how anyone could rate MAG above this game.

Not sure how you can compare it with MAG mate as MAG sucks bad. I struggle to think of any area where MAG beats this game. Graphics wise BC2 destroys MAG and to even try and claim it doesnt it laughable MAG Thos graphics plain suck. You mention the word "dated" but those graphics looklike something pre source era... BC2 Sound This is MAG sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNMpjsLjedA This is BC2 sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SKH1eHep7c Notice how in BC2 you hear the actual sound of the area i.e echoes, wind, trees, while also hearing people. Where as in MAG you don't at all. As before if you think MAG has better sound then that is laughable. Gameplay BC2 MAG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwgimUW7wHc&feature=related I chose as similar footage as i could get of players running around shooting, hiding, using different weapons, using vehicles etc Again no competition, gameplay wise BC2 blows MAG out of the water. I could go on and on but there is no point. MAG has got dreadful reviews from pretty much everyone while BC2 has currently got a 95% review score. Of course the only review that matters is your own but as i said above to even compare this game with MAG is laughable because it is trying to be battlefield and tries to copy it in every area, and fails with flying colours.

Then you must not see very well The court case on weds is not them appearing and a judge going "you naughty naughty boys, you have not paid your taxes, please pay by the end of the year!". The court case is the last case a company will have. The case is real, it is set for weds and has been so for months. They had the 1st appeal against the case rejected 3 weeks ago. Meaning they WILL have to go to court to face this charge. It is not the same as missing a payment and waiting a few more days to pay it. It is not like dealing with some dodgy person, it is dealing with the law. One that is not bendable and one that has a long list of company deaths to its name. Portsmouth will not be the 1st football club to be shut down. I would love to know how you think they will dodge this? As i said before. If i was a betting man i would bet they will be in administration before weds unless they find some rich guy who will pay the money.

So apparently they are now in talks direct with tax and revenue to come up with a deal. Which leads me to think the appeal to the court if indeed there really was one failed. (although most news sources say it was today) The only chance they have now is for the taxman to agree to a deal but without any money up front i can't see that happening. As i said in my earlier post the best thing they can do now is cut the bull**** out and start telling the truth. Say how much debt there really is, say who is interested if anyone is at all etc etc. The whole mystery behind the finances just makes it seem less appealing to the ML type people out there.

Quality comic strip! Right then prediction time, how do people think today will go? Me personally i think the appeal will be rejected and the PL will allow the new guy to be chairman. Simply because they know it is the end game and if they said no people would use that as an excuse to have a go at the PL and make it out they blocked any chance of them being saved. Firstly people have to remember they have already had an appeal and it was rejected. They then had 7 days from that decison to further appeal and they declined. This is not an official appeal it is to ask for more time. That was way back in january, 3 weeks ago. Since that court case the company has done nothing to secure itself. It relied on TV money and player sales to simply stay alive in those 3 weeks. You have had countless people/companies come out and say they have not been paid or start their own legal proceedings. Only last week did the staff get paid for the previous months work. In short the evidence to deny the appeal is massive. There would be only 1 way that they would be granted time and that is IF someone shows not just proof of funds, but solid proof they intend to pay. The court which is acting on the government's behalf will obviously take a hard line when it comes to tax evasion issues. They will not take the new guy on his word, especially because of his connections to a convicted arms dealer. If he says give him more time to find a buyer they will throw it out simply because without any actual real interest what is the point? A deal could be struck or it could not be struck. Deals take a long time to complete. And with a company in such a complicated mess as Portsmouth then you have to assume that a deal would take far far longer to complete. The new owner is trying to save himself from losing his £17m he put in. He is going to try everything he can to make it sound like he has something lined up. Because that is all he has. If he had something lined up he would of evoked his contract clause long before the court case. This is his last chance, and ultimatly is the clubs ast chance. So i think they will throw it out, without any tight evidence from someone with money agreeing they will pay it un-conditionally then the court has no choice but to decline the appeal. They are not there to get their money back. They are there to judge if the company should be able to continue. With that decision the club will then try to enter administration. If they succesfully do that then the court case ends and they stay alive for now. If it is rejected which it probably will then they have 24hrs to get the money they owed or you will never hear that bell being run on tv again.

He is actually there to determine if the company/club should continue to trade or not. The Taxman has not been paid and thus asked for the club to be wound up. They are not there to claim their money, they are there to argue the company has no intention of paying its debts and due to mismanagement now cannot pay its debts. Which pretty much means they are acting in a criminal way. The judge will hear both sides of the argument and then decide on if the company has the potential to get better but more importantly pay its creditors on the petition. If those on the petition are found to be wrong and not owed what they claim then that obviously makes the situation look far better for the company. But he/she will see all the detailed financial decisions that have happened in the recent past and will see the long history of missed payments, new owners, player sales etc and will naturally come to the conclusion their income is less then their outcome. They have no assets to sell to raise funds and have had a longtime to find a new owner with actual money to put in etc etc. The harsh fact is that the club will be wound up on the basis of a small group of people who ran the club into the ground and left it in its current situation. It is not the fans fault and they will be the ones punished. But history has shown the HMRC will not be lenient in these types of cases. If the facts and figures proove they are insolvent which it obviously will then they have a duty to pull the plug. These stories of princes and what not as others have mentioned are to raise awarness in the media and push other potential buyers into action. But it won't make any difference. If the prince takes over and does not pay before weds, then they are gone. You could have the richest person in the world as your owner, but if he doesnt intend to pay then the same thing will happen. They need someone who is prepared to pay from his own pocket the tax bill and the other debts, without any gurantee that the club will make the money back. Finding someone to basically donate £15m is a hard thing to do.

I am not normally a fan of what The Mail write but i think they raise a very good point on why it is pretty much certain the judge at the HMRC case will go against Portsmouth. Basically what Pompey are asking is a re-writing of the actual law. One which obviously favours them. But let's assume the courts actually did do that, they went against the current law and gave them more time and maybe even ruled in Portsmouth's favour. The ****storm that would come from that would be huge. Clubs and companies all across the land will have the chance to re-look at their own cases and seek damages. Clubs which were delt with harshly like Leeds could sue them for billions in lost potential revenue. It would create a new loophole which could effectivley mean clubs/companies will not feel obliged to pay all their taxes. And if they don't pay and they get called up for it they could use the Portsmouth case and argue you can't have 1 rule for some and another rule for everyone else. For that reason alone they will obviously stick to their guns, and if there is clear evidence to show Portsmouth won't pay because they don't have the ability to generate the revenue then they will hammer them. If the appeal fails tomorrow then that gives them just 48hrs to get their case together to present to the court. Now i have been involved in a lot of business deals over the years, some complicated due to legal wranglings. I am pretty certain that a company leaving their preperation for a court case until the last minute has got a very small chance of succeeding. In fact that could be the biggest blow. They might not have any clue of what is going on or why they are even in court. They might be able to bumble their way through missed payments to the loan sharks or staff but if you adopt that attitude in court or come across sounding like you deserve special treatment to everyone else then they will destroy you. If the appeal fails and it will because this new owner has already said he won't pay, then nobody will want to buy the club at that point.

Lets assume they survive the court cases and can go until the end of the season 14 games left. 8 home and 6 away. Potential points = 42 points. fixtures Sunderland (H) Stoke (H) Burnley (A) Chelsea (H) Birmingham (H) Liverpool (A) Hull (H) Tottenham (A) Blackburn (H) Wigan (A) Villa (H) Bolton (A) Wolves (H) Take away the Chelsea,Liverpool,Spurs and Villa games as they will most likely lose them means they have 10 games to save their lives. They are already 8 behind. Which means of the 10 games they need 3 wins just to get out of the zone. Leaving 7 games. Which you would have to guess they would probably need to win 4-5 of those to stay out of it. Translated they need to win at bare minimum 7 of their 10 games or they will be relegated. Not going to happen.

Serious question Does anyone actually take these guys seriously?

4 days left to find the money. 1 of those days is a sunday so 3 days really. Should be an f5 day on weds then

In today's world it seems as if we always have to have some sort of scapegoat to bring down. BUT The guy did wrong. He picked up the father of the year award while knowing in his head he was having an affair and for me that is what i don't like. He lied to people and he should of come out and dealt with it. Like with most of these types of things he is only sorry that he was caught. He isn't the first and won't be the last. So in my view he should of grown a pair and offered to resign himself. If you are someone in a position in the publics eye then that is your duty. You know the rules and you accept them as part of your position. The England captain has to be someone who is a proper role model to people i.e Bobby Moore etc. If you think you can't be like that then fair enough, be like that, but don't try and lie your something when really your the total opposite. Fabio did the right thing. A lot of the England team are rumoured to not be happy, obviously if it keeps things in order then it will turn out to be the right decision.