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Pompey Takeover Saga


Fitzhugh Fella

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Since we were in League 1 the Football League have introduced new rules relating to amount of money that can be spent on wages, we got out just in time.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/footballleaguenews/20110805/footballs-back_2293334_2410453

 

Blimey! IF they survive into L1 they're going to be in big trouble. Ben Haim's wages alone equate to about the whole first team's wages of many L1 sides. What will be their turnover in L1? Maybe £7 million? Ben Haim (£1.8 million a year), plus a few of the expensive 'stars' such as Halford or Mullins returning from loan (another £2million between them?) and they'll only have about £700k (ie about £12k a week) left for the whole of the rest of the squad. Add in a 15 point deduction for exiting admin without a cva, and life next year will not be 'Rosey'.

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Don't forget that parachute payments count as turnover, so they can beat the 65% rule on wages, even though most of the PP's are already owed to football creditors.

 

More opportunities for quality signings !

 

Ah. Saw this just after I posted. If parachute payments are part of turnover, that gives them a much higher wage ceiling. So their only problem will be not being able to afford to pay them.... which has never botherd them before!

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Skate colleague of mine said yesterday that he actually wants them to get relegated as they will be a less expensive club to purchase in league one which makes takeover more likely. Can't see the logic really, as the debt won't disappear over night and it is that which is preventing them from being sold, whichever league they're in. I can't see past liquidation for them truthfully.

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That limit on 65% of turnover being spent on players' wages in League One looks like an absolute killer for Portsmouth.

 

Is the implication (if they survive) that they will just have to pay off lots of contracts before the season begins (e.g. offer Kanu 10 months of his remaining 12 months to sod off straight away?)

 

Its a beautiful wage limit and one which, if they make it to league 1, will be glorious to see for all. Tal Ben Haim @ 36k in League 1 is priceless, £1.9million will gobble up a good 1/3rd of the 65% all on his own shalala. Throw in a bit of Kitson, Mullins and Husklepp and your bang on target already.

 

using a Storrie/Cotteril hybrid, I would go as far as saying they are taking quality over quantity to a level you couldnt quite believe...

 

D_P in another "told you so PTS moment"

 

And there it is boys and girls, in writing, in the Public Domain.

 

Very clear and very specific,

 

Not Football Club, Not Stadium and Club

 

Stadium and related assets are up for sale....

 

 

Oh that'll make our resident Moneyfields advocate Appy

 

Moneyfieldsbigcrowd.jpg

 

Moneyfieldshiddendugout.jpg

 

 

Very appy indeed!

 

Fat in the Pipes

 

65% of Turnover

 

Balram Chainrai

 

PMSL, more fun everyday!

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Skate colleague of mine said yesterday that he actually wants them to get relegated as they will be a less expensive club to purchase in league one which makes takeover more likely. Can't see the logic really, as the debt won't disappear over night and it is that which is preventing them from being sold, whichever league they're in. I can't see past liquidation for them truthfully.

 

The only way for the club to break the big money contracts is to go into liquidation or sell them to another club but the player has still to agree personal terms (a.k.a. wages). I guess their hope is that those getting big wages will be embarrassed to be getting prem wages at a league 1 club that they will leave of their own accord?

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poster on POL sw16girl , palace fan with experience of admin talking a lot of sense

 

 

 

Makka said: ↑

 

How can st money be put in a secure account? If the club is liquidated the money would surely be split between the creditors.

It is actually quite easy legally to do this as long as it is done in advance. In fact in some businesses - letting agents etc it is required that customers money is put in a separate account to protect it in case a company goes bust - ring fencing is not difficult.

 

Up until now the main reason for not doing so has been the fact that it would give no benefit to the club and it would be time consuming and costly to run. In addition as stated it would tie the hands of any prospective buyer as to the cost of the ST and TB probably wants to make as few restrictions on new owners as possible.

 

However there does come a time when not taking any steps will start to hurt the club. People who need to budget to buy STs, people who might be drawn to use the money for something else and people who simply feel the lack of a ST for next year means it is definitely all over and start disingaging from the club are in danger of being lost. That is something that any prospective purchaser of the club will definitely not want.

 

There will come a time when TB should set up a ring fenced fund for ST money to be paid into and if he does not then the feeling is going to grow that he is not prepared to invest resources in it because he sees it as pointless as he considers the club is virtually certain not to be around next season.

 

I do not think that time is quite yet but it is pretty soon - a question - when do your STs normally go on sale?

 

Our go on sale in late November but that is really early - most go on sale around now - if yours normally do then a scheme should be being set up by the end of the season at the latest I would think to ensure that people remain committed and engaged.

 

Of course a lot of people will buy STs whenever they come up for sale but sales wil be lost if it is left too late and the point that a show of support by way of good advance ST sales even knowing the club will be in League 1 cannot be anything but a help in selling the club.

A Supporters Trust is for life and not just for Crisis

 

 

 

applecatcher said: ↑

 

Use the money over the summer, if we get liquidated it gets paid back from the liquidation.

Applecatcher

You simply cannot do that - if the money has been spent over the Summer there will be no money in the liquidation to pay back to the ST holders - that is what liquidation for PFC means - no unsecured creditor (which is what the ST holders would be) will get any money at all - any money that has been spent will be lost - the Administrator cannot do that he will be personally liable to them. And before you suggest again that people pay by credit card that does not work either because the money will only get released on a match by match basis. ST money cannot be used in advance of the games it is being paid for and that is that.

 

There are reasons to sell ST's (sell my post above) but having the money available to use as free credit is not one of them - PFC has had enough credit and it can't survive on it any longer

 

 

DAFC_pompey said: ↑

 

Not sure if there are differences but Rangers administrators set a deadline for bidders to make a formal bid and in next few days are planning to announce preffered bidder. Is this not something TB can do to force the hand of interested parties and weed out the tyre kickers.

Yes he could but if there are only tyre kickers around then he ends up looking a bit stupid - - the people who bought us were fans who said very early on to our Admin - look we really do not want to buy the club (having better things to do with our money) but if there is no one else come back to us and we will see what we can do - he set a deadline knowing that -no one came forward and he went back to them - BUT if you have no fall back buyer (and you clearly do not) then setting deadlines is a pointless exercise. TB would jump at the chance of doing it if he could - a preferred bider is the stuff of his dreams (preferred bidders will put money into the club to keep it going while they carry out due dilegence etc)

 

so to sum up the difference is - Rangers have buyers you don't

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The only way for the club to break the big money contracts is to go into liquidation or sell them to another club but the player has still to agree personal terms (a.k.a. wages). I guess their hope is that those getting big wages will be embarrassed to be getting prem wages at a league 1 club that they will leave of their own accord?

 

Please can you warn me to put my coffee down before asking perfectly reasonable questions about a perfectly unreasonable football club! :-)

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Best case for them is L1, a ten to fifteen point penalty for exiting this Administration without a CVA, and having to build a squad from scratch. Don't think they will see any of the PP money as it will all go to football creditors. And they'll still have a sh1thole for a ground and no training facility. I say again, best case. IMO.

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Would the removal of the football creditors rule help them? If the court says the football creditors rule is illegal can they bale out of the current contracts, thus adding the money they need to pay in compensation to the players to the other creditors and then say pay 0.007p in the pound on the whole lot and still keep their golden share? Or will the change only apply to future administrations not those that are ongoing?

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Would the removal of the football creditors rule help them?

 

In theory if the football creditors rule was removed and football debts weren't paid in full (only possible if every other creditor is aswell) then the Football League would hand out a huge points penalty in order to maintain the "integrity of the competition".

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having just seen a horrific home video shot by Avram Grant in the fratton end toilets, could I just point out that it ain't fat coming out of those pretty little taps....

 

Enjoy your tea. :scared:

 

Sorry Rally boy - as much a sI admire your comic gold, on this occasion, I beat you to 'that' joke several pages ago.... ;)

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In theory if the football creditors rule was removed and football debts weren't paid in full (only possible if every other creditor is aswell) then the Football League would hand out a huge points penalty in order to maintain the "integrity of the competition".

 

I guess from their point of view starting at tier 3 with a strong chance of being in tier 4 the year after is preferable to starting in tier 9?

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sorry Frank, missed that one in all the excitement!

Though you should be worried that your mind even works like that.....

 

Anyway, UnAppy makes a very good point when he says that going down could be a good thing, it gives you the chance to go back up....

Though perhaps staying up, and going up from there, might be a better plan?

 

 

 

Reminds me of when people get sacked and explain later how it was the best move THEY ever made.

 

Fight against relegation and then say it's a blessing when it happens, put on a brave face to the world and pretend it doesn't hurt.:?

 

We can pull the same stunt if we blow our current opportunity - didn't want to go up anyway, tisn't proper football, we'd only lose too much etc.

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Would the removal of the football creditors rule help them? If the court says the football creditors rule is illegal can they bale out of the current contracts, thus adding the money they need to pay in compensation to the players to the other creditors and then say pay 0.007p in the pound on the whole lot and still keep their golden share? Or will the change only apply to future administrations not those that are ongoing?

 

Almost certainly not, I'd have said. Not because of what the Football League might do, but because they'd need to be able to pay off the players' contracts in full without incurring any additional debt. This is a matter of law, not football. They could make staff redundant, and have done so, but any payouts due would have been made in full; so those former staff won't be creditors. But these payments would have been measured in the thousands, not millions, of pounds.

 

MLG is right, I'm sure, that the FL will do their damnedest to make sure that the football creditors rule is honoured in their world, if not the legal world; but there are bigger reason why its continued existence makes no difference to Pompey.

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poster on POL sw16girl , palace fan with experience of admin talking a lot of sense

 

I've snipped the quotes for reasons of post length, but she does make some excellent points - and, not being a Saints fan, maybe she won't get summarily banned from POL for doing so. I bet she gets shed loads of abuse hurled in her direction though...

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Almost certainly not, I'd have said. Not because of what the Football League might do, but because they'd need to be able to pay off the players' contracts in full without incurring any additional debt. This is a matter of law, not football. They could make staff redundant, and have done so, but any payouts due would have been made in full; so those former staff won't be creditors. But these payments would have been measured in the thousands, not millions, of pounds.

 

MLG is right, I'm sure, that the FL will do their damnedest to make sure that the football creditors rule is honoured in their world, if not the legal world; but there are bigger reason why its continued existence makes no difference to Pompey.

 

Why is there a long list of staff as part of the list of creditors in the PKF document then?

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Why is there a long list of staff as part of the list of creditors in the PKF document then?

 

Good question, which I can't answer as I haven't read the thing! Are they owed specific amounts, and were these debts incurred during or before the current administration? If the answer to both of these is yes, then my previous post is wrong and I'll shut up. ;)

 

Now I come to think of it though, is it not likely that these debts date from the non-payment of wages prior to administration? If so, I'll feel nice and warm and vindicated. :D

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Good question, which I can't answer as I haven't read the thing! Are they owed specific amounts, and were these debts incurred during or before the current administration? If the answer to both of these is yes, then my previous post is wrong and I'll shut up. ;)

 

Now I come to think of it though, is it not likely that these debts date from the non-payment of wages prior to administration? If so, I'll feel nice and warm and vindicated. :D

 

I don't think it lists specific amounts for any of them and I also I suspect it must be for wages pre admin as you suggest.

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I don't think it lists specific amounts for any of them and I also I suspect it must be for wages pre admin as you suggest.

 

Alas, I now see that in my previous post I inadvertently implied that an either/or question could have a yes/no answer. Vindication can never be mine, I fear.

 

OK, so my original point still stands. Probably.

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Don't forget that parachute payments count as turnover, so they can beat the 65% rule on wages, even though most of the PP's are already owed to football creditors.

 

More opportunities for quality signings !

I have no idea just seen The Eagles in concert & aving trouble focusing.

Can I answer that 2mro? maybe insh"allah

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I have no idea just seen The Eagles in concert & aving trouble focusing.

Can I answer that 2mro? maybe insh"allah

 

We are living it up at the hotel pompey takeover, you can post any time you like but you can never leave.

Edited by pedg
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Having seen my ban at Pompey Online expired, and without wishing to break my word with the site administrator I will not directly quote from there.... I do however believe that the penny has finally dropped for many of them.

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Having seen my ban at Pompey Online expired, and without wishing to break my word with the site administrator I will not directly quote from there.... I do however believe that the penny has finally dropped for many of them.

 

Would that be the penny or the Penny?

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why can't you quote from there..?

 

I wasn't banned permanantly after agreeing with the site admin not to actively post and not to copy/paste from there to here. I enjoy going on there and reading the delusion so much that I would rather uphold the agreement. ;)

 

Besides, I would have been dead easy to find if they were trying to 'cleanse' it of Saints. (hmmm, Colinjb, doesn't someone by that name do poorly written articles on SaintsWeb?) so I 'outed' myself, declared parley and came to terms.

Edited by Colinjb
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I wasn't banned permanantly after agreeing with the site admin not to actively post and not to copy/paste from there to here. I enjoying going on there and reading the delusion so much that I would rather uphold the agreement. ;)

 

Besides, I would have been dead easy to find if they were trying to 'cleanse' it of Saints. (hmmm, Colinjb, doesn't someone by that name do poorly written articles on SaintsWeb?) so I 'outed' myself, declared parley and came to terms.

really..?

bit precious.....is corp a **** over there too..?

how delusional have they been about the whole situation...?

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I wasn't banned permanantly after agreeing with the site admin not to actively post and not to copy/paste from there to here. I enjoy going on there and reading the delusion so much that I would rather uphold the agreement. ;)

 

Besides, I would have been dead easy to find if they were trying to 'cleanse' it of Saints. (hmmm, Colinjb, doesn't someone by that name do poorly written articles on SaintsWeb?) so I 'outed' myself, declared parley and came to terms.

 

I will happily quote from there. If you need anything quoting then pm me.

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I will happily quote from there.

 

Me too. Think I may have found long lost Corp although he does sound a bit too modest:

 

Regarding a buyer.

I was told by someone who works at the club on Tuesday that there has been talks ongoing between Birch and someone from Germany.

These are now at a stage where this particular person/party are now waiting to make their next move.

I haven't wanted to say this because I don't want to come across as being full of it or getting hopes up but it is what I've heard.

Don't shoot the messenger.

 

And apparently we haven't had our Liebherr debt turned into equity either, glad those skates are so informed to keep us on the ball

 

Well if you believe the ******* idiots I've spoken to on Twitter who're convinced they somehow don't owe 33m to the Liebherr estate in any way, shape or form, they can clearly afford to let our debt slide as it seems to be mere loose change to them.
Edited by anothersaintinsouthsea
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From our point of view, if there is an opportunity to come to some kind of agreement where he doesn’t have to be at the football club next year then I think that is the sensible decision for both parties.'

 

So Voldemort, you call giving up a cushy job doing nothing and getting paid a fortune for a year a sensible decision? I think Mr. Kanu may disagree. :?

 

Well, I suppose it is a bit more sensible than giving up a stable job at WBA to become manager of a sinking, cesspit of a club, which everyone with half a brain knew was hurtling toward liquidation.

 

Kanu aged 35? :lol: PMSL

 

And apparently he's also "back in training" (I wonder which he used, a wheelchair or crutches?)

 

They must really think the clubs in the Middle East are as stupid as they are. :lol:

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From what I saw on Pompey Online most of them are being realistic - they cant stand the crooks who have run the club for the past few years, and the fact that they now owe money to St Johns Ambulance (again) and local schools and businesses. They also owe us money from the 2010 cup match. And there seems to be a general acceptance that they will be starting again. If I was unfortunate enough to be a Pompey supporter, then I would agree. Starting from scratch with a clean slate and properly run club for a change could actually be fun. Think about how much we have enjoyed the past three years.

 

The other stat was that their wage will for the season is £21 million, What planet were the previous owners on?

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Birch will start to get edgy as soon as the money looks very close to running out. There is no way he will risk having to pay the shortfall as an administrator. Reading his words it seems that the transfer window opens as soon as the season ends. Therefore a firesale will happen then. of course he has to wait until after the playoffs and so that is another couple of weeks tagged on

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I see their trust claim to have promises of nearly 1 million now.

 

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/supporters-trust-s-community-share-scheme-edges-towards-million-mark-1-3729797

 

Though you would have thought it would make a more impressive statement if they could say they had over £1 million.

 

Plus of course they are still nowhere near the total they need and one would assume that a second million would take longer than the first, etc?

 

Also some what confusing as it claims they have pledges of nearly £1 million whereas one assumes actually they probably have £100,000 in their escrow account but they are not guarenteed to be able to convert each £100 pound into the full £1000.

Edited by pedg
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Almost certainly not, I'd have said. Not because of what the Football League might do, but because they'd need to be able to pay off the players' contracts in full without incurring any additional debt. This is a matter of law, not football. They could make staff redundant, and have done so, but any payouts due would have been made in full; so those former staff won't be creditors. But these payments would have been measured in the thousands, not millions, of pounds.

 

MLG is right, I'm sure, that the FL will do their damnedest to make sure that the football creditors rule is honoured in their world, if not the legal world; but there are bigger reason why its continued existence makes no difference to Pompey.

 

If it weren't for the football creditors rule, they could offload the high wage earner now, as Rangers have done because the SPL does not have the football creditors rule. The players' contracts are just contracts of employment, so legally they can be made redundant, sacked, etc, in exactly the same way as any other employee. The threat of the FL witholding its golden share is all that makes the players any safer than any of the other poor sods who Birch got rid of when he first arrived. The absurdity of the football creditors rule means that the people who are crippling the club financially are safer than the ones who work for relative peanuts.

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I see their trust claim to have promises of nearly 1 million now.

 

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/supporters-trust-s-community-share-scheme-edges-towards-million-mark-1-3729797

 

Though you would have thought it would make a more impressive statement if they could say they had over £1 million.

 

Plus of course they are still nowhere near the total they need and one would assume that a second million would take longer than the first, etc?

 

Also some what confusing as it claims they have pledges of nearly £1 million whereas one assumes actually they probably have £100,000 in their escrow account but they are not guarenteed to be able to convert each £100 pound into the full £1000.

 

So allowing for a bit of hype, they probably have about £80,000 or £90,000 in their escrow account , equating to £800,000 or £900,000 pledged, and this apparently from fewer than 8/900 people, since some have pledged much more than £1000. The '250,000' on southsea common for the cup parade have really come through for them haven't they?

 

What is more, some of those 8/900 people will be timewasters who will not actually find £1000 if it comes to it, and are just spending £2.50 (the admin fee) to make a gesture. So even if more pledge now, they will never raise more than a million or two --absolute tops -- not enough to give the creditors more than liquidation would, and so not enough to let Birch sell to them rather than liquidate.

 

In short there is absolutely no chance of a fans buy-out, except maybe for buying/setting up a phoenix club after liquidation.

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