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Pompey Takeover Saga


Fitzhugh Fella

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It'll be interesting to see how much he offers the people of pompey for their shares.....

This might be a wake up call for a few who may now finally realise that they paid £1000 for a sheet of A4.

There may be trouble ahead.....

 

From what I was told he would actually pay each "shareholder" their £1000 to take over the club.

 

One would have to ask what a 75 year old American who was previously interested in Everton has in store. What's his motivation? A quick buck? A hobby? Or another yank who thinks they can be successful in English football? Not a great track record for Americans in the English game.

 

One thing is for sure, he'll need to be a big spender to get them into the PL in 5 years.

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They don`t want that anyway they are fan owned and all that

 

With the whiff of hard cash in the air, sit back and watch the tinpot sanctimonious brigade u-turn quicker than you can say "Tory National Insurance Blunder"...

 

popcorn-eating.gif

Edited by trousers
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3 questions...

 

 

1) I find it odd the paper still talks about it being "shares" the fans own, they aren't shares in a legal sense are they? More donations with a certificate printed off on a fans trust printer.

2) The article calls him a "billionaire", but is there any evidence he is a billionaire in pounds sterling rather than USD?

3) If the takeover happens, can we then legitimately call them Mickey Mouse club?

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Meanwhile, in former owner news, perhaps this goes some way to explaining why the forensic examination of the accounts is so overdue.

 

Detectives have unravelled a conspiracy that involved billions of dollars being sent from suspected criminals in Russia via accounts in Latvia and Moldova held at banks notorious for their exposure to money-laundering scams.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/british-banks-handled-vast-sums-of-laundered-russian-money

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Good to see that the Boards statement was signed PCFC!

 

Well, they wouldn't want to be associated with any of the tainted history of the previous football club to play at Fratton Park, would they? (apart from the trophies they didn't win on merit of course)

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3 questions...

 

 

1) I find it odd the paper still talks about it being "shares" the fans own, they aren't shares in a legal sense are they? More donations with a certificate printed off on a fans trust printer.

2) The article calls him a "billionaire", but is there any evidence he is a billionaire in pounds sterling rather than USD?

3) If the takeover happens, can we then legitimately call them Mickey Mouse club?

 

They are shares, but they are shares in the supporters trust, not the football club.

Edited by hutch
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A quick google search suggests his net worth is exactly $1 billion - that works out at £810m

 

So a multi millonaire, yes. A billionaire, no.

 

And, for comparison, Katharina is worth $3 billion

 

I worked for Disney 95-98 as a consultant and met him. he was an asshole

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Anyone got a video they can post of their missed penalty at the weekend? Comedy Gold.

 

Not so much for the bloke who was let down by them in his 'both teams to score' accumulator - Only lost him a small sum of £27,000!!!! Could've bought the club with that!

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Apt that it is Disney as this will be a rollercoaster.

 

Standing back I suppose it would be worth a punt, it wouldnt take too much investment to get out of Division 1, surely they will do Div 2 this season.

 

They have a decent fanbase and so a good income. IMO the 16 presidents will take the money as quick as anything. Im not sure how the payment structure would work out but I assume if the club is worth 5m the stakeholders will/might get their £1k each back and the 16 share the spoils. The problem copmes when they sell the club and the stakeholders go forward with their certificates and see that they are worth as much as The London Ice company shares when the refridgerator went into peoples homes.

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Probably nothing significant in this, and it may have been posted before, but for the nutjob records I note that Mark Catlin was made a director of Portsmouth Community Football Club a couple of months ago. Not sure why he would only recently have become a director. Anyway, as you were gentlemen (and ladies).

 

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07940335/filing-history

 

 

On reflection, perhaps these two events are linked somehow?

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Can't work out if I want this to happen for them or not.

 

Whilst I enjoy laughing at them struggling in L2, it would be nice to have an opportunity to play them again.

 

Don't really see what anyone would see in them however. Yes, they may be cheap to buy with a decent fan base (PL/championship fans base, generally no different to ours) which will generate a steady income, however it will take a sh!t load of money for him to make a real return.

 

At a minimum they need a new stadium and to own their training facilities, that's without considering the amount they would need to spend on players to get them to the PL.

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Can't work out if I want this to happen for them or not.

 

Whilst I enjoy laughing at them struggling in L2, it would be nice to have an opportunity to play them again.

 

Don't really see what anyone would see in them however. Yes, they may be cheap to buy with a decent fan base (PL/championship fans base, generally no different to ours) which will generate a steady income, however it will take a sh!t load of money for him to make a real return.

 

At a minimum they need a new stadium and to own their training facilities, that's without considering the amount they would need to spend on players to get them to the PL.

Why would you want to play that lot, if we never had to cross their path ever it would not worry me.

If they had been properly sanctioned for their cheating and having days out at Wembley I may feel differently.

I still believe they got away with it, they had our EFL final x 4-5 times as well as lifting a trophy on the back of our taxes and their dishonesty.

No let them have generations of lower league football and it would have been justice if they had lost their ground.

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Someone has just taken the table cloth off the elephant that has been sat in the corner these last five years.

They need external funding but they won't want to give anything away.

So they need someone with £50m to spend who is happy to have no control over their own investment. :scared:

 

This could go civil war fairly quickly, especially as we've been hearing for years how most of their fans hate the top two divisions and want proper football with cheap prices at small grounds - a dream not shared by any potential investor.

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Are people genuinely regarding this as an investment possibility?

 

What's the motivation for an aged (dollar) billionaire with no local interest to buy a lower league club with one asset, a crumbling landlocked football ground, when there's nowhere else they can put a ground even if they wanted to move?

 

They're a bottom half Championship team in attendance terms if they fill their ground, but there's barely any financial gain to be made in buying a "big club for L2" and selling a small club for the Championship? Especially if the "£1000 each" thing is true, which is another dent of £2,300,000 if they've still got 2300 members. But as those shares have nothing to do with the club anyway, seems another element of fanciful storytelling at this point.

 

Basically it doesn't add up.

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After all those years of Portsmyths they've now moved on to Fairytales!

 

Still, that story was written by Factless Allen, so when that fella said he wanted to invest in a Mickey Mouse club he was likely referring to a remake of an Annette Funicello movie!

 

They've already had Dumbo and Goofy running their club, so I suppose this is a natural progression. Anyway, come on everybody sing along with me now ... M.I.C.K.E.Y M.O.U.S.E .. Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse (etc).

 

Well that's our song sorted if we ever play them again. :D:D:D

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Are people genuinely regarding this as an investment possibility?

 

What's the motivation for an aged (dollar) billionaire with no local interest to buy a lower league club with one asset, a crumbling landlocked football ground, when there's nowhere else they can put a ground even if they wanted to move?

 

They're a bottom half Championship team in attendance terms if they fill their ground, but there's barely any financial gain to be made in buying a "big club for L2" and selling a small club for the Championship? Especially if the "£1000 each" thing is true, which is another dent of £2,300,000 if they've still got 2300 members. But as those shares have nothing to do with the club anyway, seems another element of fanciful storytelling at this point.

 

Basically it doesn't add up.

 

Exactly. I'd never say never but there is no reason why this guy (or anybody else) should be interested.

 

I did notice that the PCFC board statement didn't actually reference the rumour at all, just said that they would update if they ever actually found any investment.

 

Probably just the board having nowhere else to go for money putting out a rumour as a fishing (boom-tish) exercise.

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Are people genuinely regarding this as an investment possibility?

 

What's the motivation for an aged (dollar) billionaire with no local interest to buy a lower league club with one asset, a crumbling landlocked football ground, when there's nowhere else they can put a ground even if they wanted to move?

 

They're a bottom half Championship team in attendance terms if they fill their ground, but there's barely any financial gain to be made in buying a "big club for L2" and selling a small club for the Championship? Especially if the "£1000 each" thing is true, which is another dent of £2,300,000 if they've still got 2300 members. But as those shares have nothing to do with the club anyway, seems another element of fanciful storytelling at this point.

 

Basically it doesn't add up.

 

This.

 

You have to wonder whose decision it was to make this information public, and why they did so. I'd imagine that the club is behind it, which seems very strange as they have absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.

 

From what I can gather, all that's happened is the bloke has been shown round the stadium and held a few meetings. No formal process has begun whatsoever. It all seems very premature, and exceedingly unlikely to happen.

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This.

 

You have to wonder whose decision it was to make this information public, and why they did so. I'd imagine that the club is behind it, which seems very strange as they have absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.

 

From what I can gather, all that's happened is the bloke has been shown round the stadium and held a few meetings. No formal process has begun whatsoever. It all seems very premature, and exceedingly unlikely to happen.

 

 

From what I can tell and what I've been told, it's quite likely to go ahead. This guy seems to want into English football for some reason. Seems more like a hobby thing for him, his family and friends to enjoy, rather than an investment. My opinion is he thinks it'll be easy.

Only way it won't go ahead is if another club takes his fancy. He's already deemed 2 other clubs too expensive.

 

Any vote by the "shareholders" will have absolutely zero baring on the takeover. I've been told no matter what the outcome, should he wish to takeover they'll make sure he does. The PST doesn't own enough of the club to decide and they'd "make sure the result of any vote was in the favour of the takeover anyway".

 

This is all from someone within the club today so of course, could be complete Portsmyth.

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Any vote by the "shareholders" will have absolutely zero baring on the takeover. I've been told no matter what the outcome, should he wish to takeover they'll make sure he does. The PST doesn't own enough of the club to decide and they'd "make sure the result of any vote was in the favour of the takeover anyway".

 

That does sound rather like a Portsmyth. Any proposed takeover can only go through following a ballot of the fully paid up PST members and only if a majority of the members who vote approve it.

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That does sound rather like a Portsmyth. Any proposed takeover can only go through following a ballot of the fully paid up PST members and only if a majority of the members who vote approve it.

 

You seem to be forgetting that they have, over the years, diluted the PST shareholding which if memory serves currently sits at about 48% with the HNWs controlling the other 52%. I can't see any of the HNWs voting against getting all their money back with a cherry on top!

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You seem to be forgetting that they have, over the years, diluted the PST shareholding which if memory serves currently sits at about 48% with the HNWs controlling the other 52%. I can't see any of the HNWs voting against getting all their money back with a cherry on top!

 

Indeed. However the HNWs won't want to be seen going against the fans (PST) vote, so they will "make sure" the PST vote is over 50% in favour of the takeover. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to how.

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This is why it is so gutting that we haven't played them the past 3 years. The comparison between the strength of the sides was massive. We could have really given them a ****ing good banjoing. If they get this investment they'll still be worse than us, but not as dire as they were.

 

 

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If this take over does happen, FFP will limit how much of an impact the new money will make, right? FFP is based on incomes of a club, so attendance and sponsorships. The best way to increase the income would be to increase the size of the ground (unlikely, there's no more space for FP to grow and I don't expect this guy would want to spend a good chunk of his free cash on land and a stadium in Portsmouth for what had been described as a 'hobby' for him) or increase ticket prices, which won't please the locals.

 

Because of FFP this guy won't suddenly be buying up Sunderland players when they get relegated... Or am I wrong in how FFP works?

 

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You seem to be forgetting that they have, over the years, diluted the PST shareholding which if memory serves currently sits at about 48% with the HNWs controlling the other 52%. I can't see any of the HNWs voting against getting all their money back with a cherry on top!

 

A takeover needs 75% approval though, so PST "shareholders" can block it.

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I had a haircut yesterday at the Barbers near Cobden Bridge. The owner is a skate, so a good opportunity for a bit of gentle joshing about the possibility of their club becoming even more Mickey Mouse than it is currently.

I am assured that the deal will be going through, because Eisner knows Thiery Henry, and was persuaded by him to go for them on the basis that their fans were unrivalled in their passion by any others in World football.

The skate wasn't sure that he would use his two votes (his and his son's) to go for this takeover, as he wouldn't want PL football.

 

Frankly, I fail to be convinced that somebody like Eisner would via his investment group Tornante wish to take over a fourth division football club with a decrepit old ground with no prospects for expansion, poor training facilities, massive investment required to address those shortcomings, when there are many other clubs offering a much better return. The skate reckons that Eisner is attracted by how cheap the Club would be and how amazing their support is. :lol:

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