rallyboy

my understanding was that on that date they're still being judged on what state the business is in next Wednesday, the seven day deadline - is that right? The rest is just down to finding time to hear the case meaning further promises of phantom owners will count for nowt. Maybe the court hopes they just go pop in the meantime - the wages day will tell us much...and let's not imagine that date when accounts are due is a coincidence, the taxman is a clever bloke and he's offering them much rope.... Storrie will take this as a reprieve and won't bother about it until that morning. Panic ye not my pretties, they're still fatally wounded, they are just struggling to find a free slot at the Crem now.

the Prem's lawyers will be going barmy - the league complicit in shoring up a company that they knew was trading while insolvent? The court has suggested that, and the Prem had their own copy of the accounts so there will be no defence. Also it only needs a couple of the relegation rivals to say, 'okay you do that but if they finish above us we will sue' - a nervous few months for Scudamore and the worms could be all over the show. Pompey were quiet about the £2M advance - is that because one of their creditors was expecting it when it appeared later? BUT if they get £11M the taxman will want the lot - if Chanrai or Gaydamak don't have it away, and what's stopping that happening? If I was owed their amounts and the Prem was stupid enough to cough up a load thinking it was going to clear tax.... So if the league pay the tax direct the judge will then ask for proof of funding for the rest of the season - and the problem remains. They are fatally wounded, someone just offered them a plaster. Nice touch with the 6R4! - at least you now know my user name is not about extremism and steam events. If a Metro has room in the boot for shopping, you have the wrong model.

is this where they are now? £7.4M Vat £4.7M Paye £18M Chanrai £28M Armsboy £3M listed creditors £1.7M Good old Sol £5M Transfers £1M legal/accountancy/shredding? Lets look at the next six months for stability with some very 'back-of-an-envelope' maths..... £14M for wages and paye which I think they will ought to keep on top of! They must have some transfer money due in soon, let's guess that and some match income will account for Sol and their huge legal bills - though they will stall on these and run up further legal bills. I would say they could restructure the two big debts to hold onto the stadium but they are going to come in at £1.5M a month repayments? The others will need maybe half up front now and the rest a bit sharpish to keep them quiet. Plucking figures out of the air in the way that Storrie does business, I would say a new owner needs to put about £12M (half to taxman, rest to satisfy others) on the table next week and PROVE that he has £38M to put in before August. If he can invest more than £50M to get them to the relative sanctuary of Sky payment and season ticket sales - is that about £10M + £3M? he would then be approx £37M down and the proud owner of a struggling championship club facing charges of financial irregularities, and still with £30M debt to clear. With some creditors cleared and wage bill trimmed as the dive down the leagues gathers pace, the running costs would then drop to only £3.5M a month, income would be maybe half of that, and he would then need to file for administration at Christmas once he has lost approx £50M, Chanrai would then reclaim the stadium for the balance of his debt, and there would be nothing to sell. If we want to look really long term and make the business profitable you need a new squad and stadium as well so an ambitious owner would need to have £250M and a five year plan - a bit like putting a WRC spoiler on your Metro. Mmmmm - I wonder how that big bidding war is going between the two interested parties. Someone might scrape together £6M-£8M to cover an initial payment in the hope of seeing that Sky money but I don't see much proof of progress beyond that. And as for the league paying Pompey in advance to sign loan players to get them past their fellow league members….? Avram Grant charged with improper conduct? – No, he gets a lot more improper than that down at Unit One.

you have to think that HMRC are looking at the big legal picture regarding Redknapp, Mandaric, Storrie, Azougy etc... They must have several investigative teams liasing and sharing info around the winding up and the rest of it, the current delve into the books should assist all ongoing cases. If this is the tip of a dodgy iceberg I suggest we will need to launch a new thread. To try and cover a further year of investigation into Pompey's illegal trading and tax evasion on here could break the internet itself. Anyway, have we now established that they traded their entire history for a 1-0 win over a bankrupt mid-table championship side?

interesting note in the fa rules re a club that goes into liquidation - 'their results would be declared void'. Not just league results. So if we win, great, if they win and then lose it court - result scrubbed from the records. And does this all mean that Maradona isn't coming anymore?

so they have a week to organise a bidding war between these two massive consortiums looking to pump millions into the sleeping giant, and they also need to overturn the way that VAT is calculated in the UK. They still don't get it do they? It's over, let it go... But do pop round and say goodbye at the weekend, Ted's still waving.

to roll up with Azougy in tow is madness! He may be there to look after the arms dealer's interests but the presence of a convicted fraudster could annoy the court and HMRC, thus escalating the hearing into a speedy liquidation. Very odd tactics, right from day one.

if all goes well tomorrow, not only can they get the open top bus out to celebrate the point against Sunderland but they could afford to put some diesel in it to drive about a bit and look for the missing 200,000. Best fans in the world? I think they're in for a shock on Saturday if they think they are coming to a friendly little place like Wigan or Bolton. We might not have a Premiership side but St Marys will be a new experience for some of their guys, let's wind it up a few notches from tonight's great showing and give them a proper welcome.

looks like we are heading for a day in court tomorrow and a sweating Storrie coming out celebrating a four week stay of execution or some equally disappointing result, oh well. And calling him a fat Rupert is about as bad as it gets! Well all this excitement has to go on a back burner for a few hours, I'm about to hop on a train to Wembley town, calling at St Marys Central!!

They have had ample opportunities to pay and also to sell, in January they made no effort to do either. There has been no sign of the company addressing debt issues, until the court date looms... They have also left it to the last 24 hours to negotiate - these are all self-created problems and I see no reason for the authorities to grant much at all. Unpaid wages, unpaid creditors, but taking on new staff? And yes it is personal, because we tried to get by with youth team players to reduce costs, our form suffered as a result and we were hit with a double whammy. Other clubs have cut costs and been relegated on the back of money issues, Portsmouth has just continued to trade illegally. Hang them high Mr Taxman.

That article says he is willing to make an offer, BUT doesn't make any mention of the taxman recieving one let alone accepting it. I thought Chanrai initially loaned £18.5M and then a wage bill payment which plus the interest (Palace were borrowing at 18%) must make his debt £25M already, meaning he would personally want at least £30M payback if he sold. With many other debts and costs the club is starting to get very expensive. If HMRC do accept a new payment plan from him, the Pompey debt would just increase making them less attractive to a buyer. They need donations not loans. Even with a payoff tomorrow I see no progress beyond postponing implosion for another few weeks.

it's taken a few of us 230 pages but I reckon a couple of you have just thrown a shaft of sunlight onto a good theory that might make sense of some of the madness....listen up and consider this as a purely fictional version of events that couldn't possibly be true.....concentrate.... The whole Chanrai legal case against the arms dealer was a sham supported by dodgy contracts agreed between the two. They created backdated paperwork that would lead the unsuspecting court to the obvious conclusion of awarding a massive payout against Gaydamak - the only scenario that could release money from those frozen accounts. Chanrai then whacked 'his' payout of those unfrozen funds, into a vehicle that Gaydamak knew he could utilise for further laundering, and to pay off agreed fees to his partner for the 'unfreezing' work. All they needed was a mystery figure at the helm taking the pressure as they quietly removed those funds from said company - enter arab answer to Lord Lucan stage left. And if anyone found out and tried to halt it? 'There's £500K, look the other way', or the buck stops at the top, and how can you charge an owner who doesn't exist? Chanrai makes a few quid, looks like a big businessman who has generously assisted the club, gets some shares in a Sky TV cash generator/laundering business, and Gaydamak regains access to a huge chunk of his money that otherwise would be out of his reach. And when the fun and games fizzle out they end up owning adjoining pieces of land for a development project. This of course is a ludicrous story borne out of watching too many Bond films and no one would believe it to be true, though it oddly ticks most boxes. Everyone's a winner. Well, nearly everyone.

Very funny Mr CrabLungs - you obviously have far too much time on your hands, but you are using it wisely! Storrie moans the media have 'had the knife in all season' - no Pete, they have always printed the league tables, it's nothing personal. Though they may be preparing a new template for use later this week.

well it could be an interesting week! I do hope we can finish off MKD and that Carlisle do the same to Leeds. It would be nice if Kenwyne Jones scored a last minute winner at Fratton. I do hope the taxman and the judge are impatient on Wednesday. It would be understandable if Avram chucked it all in Thursday morning. And a few of their players decided to go the free agent route that afternoon. And Ricky Lambert crashed in a 98th minute winner on saturday. Don't the weeks fly by when you're enjoying yourself.

more like - Pompey make up fairytale about potential buyer to try and fool the taxman into extending their club history beyond Wednesday. Try again Mr Storrie, you have misled everyone too many times for us to believe you now.

if Chanrai has really recouped the majority of his loan already then he is quids in and the ground will do him nicely, the only thing keeping them afloat is his need to protect his loan. The administrator could then be selling a championship club on minus 15pts, with no ground, and financial irregularities pending - which as Storyteller was saying would be a bargain..... Then again he insists they got a draw at Old Trafford, and luckily the rest of the results went for them too.

I think that is correct, the process started when they issued the petition, their activity since then should have been seriously restricted - but it hasn't been! Taking on new staff and missing further payments can't go down well with the court. the arms dealer's land isn't relevant to the winding up, it's a done deal and just a complication for a new owner with aspirations to blow £100M on redevelopment - though they might want to sweep for landmines if it's been used for storage. There isn't an access issue either as the stadium has a towbar at one end and apart from knocking a few horse brass off the walls, the whole thing can be hitched up and moved a bit. I guess we will discover on Wednesday how lucky that heather really is.

are they going to let potential new owners consider the Luton Town scenario before they look through the books or after?... Let's presume a good result for them at the court and creditors accepting restructured payments over the next two or three years. So all of the debt is sorted, but new running costs would have to be in the region of £5/6M a month to cover repayments, which would be - In the Champions League - break even? In the Prem - Unsustainable. In the Championship - Insane. Even at a squeeze these costs might only come down to £4M a month - and that's without buying players or any progress on stadium or training facility. They really need either Chanrai or Landmine boy to write off their debts to make the club viable - good luck with that one. The main players may have swapped seats but the figures still don't add up. They are trying to sell a business that even in the best case scenario appears to be losing money. And that's without the mention of financial irregularities - whoops, I mentioned it.

interesting slip by Jacobs on that South Today piece when he said that Gaydamak senior used to be the owner, then corrected himself. Whoops. And nice to see that someone has obviously read all the detail on this thread and then gone and put that proper report together, I hope the Prem and HMRC have viewed it and are now up to speed on the obvious criminality that has surrounded the business. If you want to know how Pompey fell apart there is only one thread to read. I think four Pompey stories in the Sun was enough yesterday - brothel, debts, Chav Botaeng and one other....oh yeah, another defeat. This is a golden era - and still it goes on!

let's try and cut through all the delaying spin and rumour and look at facts (and some guesses!). Chanrai has claimed the security of his loan today - and I would wager that he has no intention of paying anything else unless it buys him time to an even bigger payday, and that is months and another £20M investment away. He wants control of the club but not the debt responsibility that goes with that. Is his claim to the whole club legal? Possibly not if the later assets were secured after the petition was launched. Is a petty internal dispute over ownership a reason for the taxman to be lenient? No. Is it legal under the winding up order for him to assume control and deny responsibility for the debt? No. Will he pay it? No. Will he deliver a new owner by Wednesday? No. Will the taxman give him more time? Only if he demonstrates some ability or enthusiasm for paying them. Will he do that? No. Has anything changed today? It's become more complex and made it more unlikely that they can avoid the chop next week. Does the taxman care about anything other than payment? In a word, no. Have they changed deckchairs on the Titanic? Yes.

if Tony Soprano went round to my local pizza shop to collect debts, shot the bloke in the legs before chucking him out on the street I wouldn't think, 'mmm, new owner, that's the rosy future of the place secured'. 1.Chanrai needs to prove his legal claim to the whole set up. 2.He then needs to start clearing debts. 3.He also has to satisfy HMRC that he can clear their debt, by paying a significant sum next week. If he fails to do any of these then he will look not like an owner but a loan shark who just wants his money back as soon as possible. His priorities are obviously - his money, satisfying the other creditors (purely to make the club attractive), the welfare of the club - in that order. If we follow that line of vague ifs and buts, one could suggest that rather than securing their future, he may have just taken the first step in pulling the plug on Pompey.

if the arms dealer and Chanrai are in it together there isn't enough money to go round, if they are against each other Chanria has left himself exposed to a massive legal battle. how do we define 'seized' control? Has he taken the security (the ground, and if he can persuade the court that his later claim is valid, all of the assets) against his debt that they have defaulted on? Or passed a fit and proper person test and taken ownership of the club with the full approval of the Prem? He can't just stand up one day and declare himself the new owner. He is either the mother of all baillifs OR a new owner.

if Carlsberg did local rivals they would come to your place when ten points from safety and insolvent, in the very week that you book your Wembley tickets! - but let's not get ahead of ourselves...it's a long shot, they might be only eight points adrift by then.

those in charge seem to have given up even pretending to run a legal business - no attempt at clearing debt, delayed wages, one big sneeze and the whole farce will fall over. Someone needs to ask them if they are still trading - that could be the first question in court next week. Ridiculous and criminal. The thread covering the legal cases and convictions that MUST follow might even threaten the length of this one.....and yet they continue to bring in players who will never get paid, but could still relegate rivals who are not running their clubs illegally.

the fog is lifting and the plot is a little clearer. So they don't intend to pay off debt (didn't fool us on that one), they will go into admin (ditto), but the club and ground will be protected as one item, IF the latest agreement isn't thrown out by the winding up order. The only thing to decide will be the size of penalties for the offences that will be committed - there will be tax and football creditors unsatisfied, so no cva. For a Pompey fan who just wants survival, I think (!) this is good news, in fact it might make everyone happy because if they do survive and Chanrai actually wants a football club and not a leisure/industrial development, they will be starting next season with little chance of promotion from whatever division they are shuffled down to. Best scenario - Championship with minus 15? More likely - Championship with minus 30/League One with minus 10....which would be an interesting place to start a rebuild.