Pompey Takeover Saga

[aintforever]

How long can a club not bother to pay their players before something is done about it?

[NickG]

as long as the players put up with it

[sidthesquid]

Someone from Guardian was on talksport this afternoon saying the following:

 

Admin = 27th January

Gaydamak will purchase the club

He will then put land and club in same company

Then put club back on the market.

 

One interesting little problem he might come up against is the good old Fit and Proper test. Is there any way the PL or even the FL could allow him to re-purchase the club after the fiasco that is going on now. Surely even the PL would want to retain some little bit of credibility..... Wouldn't they?

[sidthesquid]

An interesting post from an almost articulate Skate on f365 forum, put on the parallell thread on main site by Instinct:

 

 

The theory is that Sasha Gaydamak is still indirectly in charge of the club (using it for money laundering) and is basically withdrawing the vast majority of income from player sales, TV revenue, gate receipts etc into his own accounts, whilst using loans to pay for day-to-day expenses, thus building up the debt. This will go on until the club inevitably enters administration and in most likelihood folds completely.

 

A few things to consider –

 

- Despite all the player sales over the past year or so (Diarra, Muntari, Johnson, Defoe, Crouch, Distin, Kranjcar, Mendes) bringing in around £80m in income, plus the Sky money, ticket sales and other revenues, which must total around £150m, there is still no sign that the debt situation has changed – we’re still struggling to pay basic expenses such as the player salaries, this despite now having one of the lowest wage bills in the league. Were our debts really that big to begin with? Unlikely.

 

- Pretty much every business Sasha Gaydamak has ever owned has gone into liquidation.

 

- Ali Al-Faraj is still a complete unknown. He was a supposed “billionaire”, yet no-one had ever heard of him, even in his homeland of Saudi Arabia. He is yet to turn up to any games (not even Man Utd at home, despite word going around that he would attend) which was originally put down to permit issues, yet his “brother” has attended some games. No-one is quite sure who he is or where he got his money from, and all that has been released of him is this one photo:

 

 

 

Is this man in the photo Ali Al-Faraj, or just some random Arab being used as a smokescreen for Gaydamak’s cash cow scheme? Is Ali Al-Faraj even a real person, or is he completely made-up? And if he isn’t a real person, how the f**k did he pass the FA’s Fit and Proper Person Test?! Keep in mind that Al-Faraj reportedly didn’t spend a penny on buying the club; all he did was take over the clubs debts. In theory I could have done that – all I’d need to do is fool the FA into thinking that I had the financial clout required to run a football club. And as we all know, the FA are useless bunch of tossers anyway.

 

- Two men called Balram Chainrai and Levi Kushnir loaned us £15m in September to help with costs. These two men co-founded a company called Ameris Holdings, who sold 65% of shares to Sasha Gaydamak’s father Arcadi (who has an arrest warrant out for him in France for arms dealing during the Angolan civil war. He’s been sentenced to six years but is now hiding back in Russia as they have no extradition treaty with France) Anyway, Arcadi used to be owner of Beitar Jerusalem *****il July this year) but ran into some problems with Israeli law and had his account frozen. His business partners Chainrai and Kushnir sued Arcadi for failing to buy the rest of the shares of their company Ameris Holdings as was apparently agreed, and were awarded £16m from Arcadi’s frozen accounts. They then lend Pompey £15m for apparently no reason at all…. seems like a good way of transferring cash from one frozen bank account to another active one, no?

 

- Another face currently hanging around the club is someone called Danny Azougy, who has been brought in as a financial advisor. He is an Israeli lawyer/accountant and multi-time convicted fraudster you used to work for, yep, Arcadi Gaydamak.

 

Quote:

“Disgraced lawyer Daniel Azougy is controlling the club’s finances, despite a string of convictions for fraud dating back eight years. He was found guilty of FOUR counts of embezzling client funds in Israel in 2002. He was sentenced to five months in prison – but did not spend any time behind bars as he was allowed to do his time in community service instead. Azougy was also banned from practising law by the Israeli Bar Association for FOURTEEN YEARS. Then in March this year, Fratton Park’s new finance man was sentenced to two months’ community service and a year’s probation – and fined £25,000 – for a securities fraud resulting from a dodgy share transfer back in 1999.Azougy was found to have lied to the Israeli Stock Exchange bosses over the deal. He got off with a light sentence because the offence happened 10 years earlier.”

 

Azougy specialises in liquidation and was appointed by Arcadi to deal with the asset stripping of Beitar Jerusalem towards the end of his reign. And here he is again, no doubt appointed by the same person to do a similar job.

 

- Two other names, Roni Mana and Yoram Yosepov, have been linked as potential investors to the club. They denied it, but admitted on record that they are acting as “business advisors” to Ali Al-Faraj and claimed they persuaded him to appoint Avram Grant as manager. Type the name ‘Roni Mana’ into Google along with Gaydamak and you’ll see, unsurprisingly, they have quite a history of dealings too. The first result says Mana “has been the middleman in all of Gaydamak's recent business transactions”. It’s clear that the people being deployed by the club are Gaydamak’s people, not Al-Faraj’s, if he even exists.

 

- Where does Al-Fahim fit into this? Well, my theory is that he intended to buy the club back in May and had a serious backer lined up (probably Thaksin Shinawatra as reported) but that went down the pan. Once it became clear Al Fahim didn’t have anywhere near the required financial means on his own, and after he failed to attract other investors to pay off the remainder of Sasha’s demands, Sasha went with Plan B – Al-Faraj the mirage – and decided to rape the club for everything he could. He clearly doesn’t give a sh*t whether the club survives or goes bust, and why should he? Al-Fahim is left sat there as a non-executive chairman, owning 10% of a worthless company, with no money and no decision making authority like the useless fat ***** that he is.

 

 

So there you have it. Clearly there’s a lot of dodgy stuff going on. I’m 100% sure the Gaydamak’s are still in charge, and as they have no invested interest in keeping the club afloat, I really can’t see a happy ending to it all. No investors are going to want to buy the club – not when you consider the current league placing, shocking infrastructure and (somehow still) massive level of debt. Now the winding up order has been set, the end seems to be nigh. The club is getting f**ked up the arse and I honestly reckon we’ll be out of business in the coming months. Possibly administration as early as next month.

 

 

 

Bottom line is, Pompey look fooked.

[Thedelldays]

if they do go into admin...that would be relegation nailed on..

 

they would suffer next season as the squad they have would be horrific

[S-Clarke]

they've failed to pay their players AGAIN today

 

news on the BBC Sport ticker

 

''ortsmouth fail to pay players' delayed December wages on Wednesday''

[TopGun]

An interesting post from an almost articulate Skate on f365 forum, put on the parallell thread on main site by Instinct:

 

 

The theory is that Sasha Gaydamak is still indirectly in charge of the club (using it for money laundering) and is basically withdrawing the vast majority of income from player sales, TV revenue, gate receipts etc into his own accounts, whilst using loans to pay for day-to-day expenses, thus building up the debt. This will go on until the club inevitably enters administration and in most likelihood folds completely.

 

A few things to consider –

 

- Despite all the player sales over the past year or so (Diarra, Muntari, Johnson, Defoe, Crouch, Distin, Kranjcar, Mendes) bringing in around £80m in income, plus the Sky money, ticket sales and other revenues, which must total around £150m, there is still no sign that the debt situation has changed – we’re still struggling to pay basic expenses such as the player salaries, this despite now having one of the lowest wage bills in the league. Were our debts really that big to begin with? Unlikely.

 

- Pretty much every business Sasha Gaydamak has ever owned has gone into liquidation.

 

- Ali Al-Faraj is still a complete unknown. He was a supposed “billionaire”, yet no-one had ever heard of him, even in his homeland of Saudi Arabia. He is yet to turn up to any games (not even Man Utd at home, despite word going around that he would attend) which was originally put down to permit issues, yet his “brother” has attended some games. No-one is quite sure who he is or where he got his money from, and all that has been released of him is this one photo:

 

 

 

Is this man in the photo Ali Al-Faraj, or just some random Arab being used as a smokescreen for Gaydamak’s cash cow scheme? Is Ali Al-Faraj even a real person, or is he completely made-up? And if he isn’t a real person, how the f**k did he pass the FA’s Fit and Proper Person Test?! Keep in mind that Al-Faraj reportedly didn’t spend a penny on buying the club; all he did was take over the clubs debts. In theory I could have done that – all I’d need to do is fool the FA into thinking that I had the financial clout required to run a football club. And as we all know, the FA are useless bunch of tossers anyway.

 

- Two men called Balram Chainrai and Levi Kushnir loaned us £15m in September to help with costs. These two men co-founded a company called Ameris Holdings, who sold 65% of shares to Sasha Gaydamak’s father Arcadi (who has an arrest warrant out for him in France for arms dealing during the Angolan civil war. He’s been sentenced to six years but is now hiding back in Russia as they have no extradition treaty with France) Anyway, Arcadi used to be owner of Beitar Jerusalem *****il July this year) but ran into some problems with Israeli law and had his account frozen. His business partners Chainrai and Kushnir sued Arcadi for failing to buy the rest of the shares of their company Ameris Holdings as was apparently agreed, and were awarded £16m from Arcadi’s frozen accounts. They then lend Pompey £15m for apparently no reason at all…. seems like a good way of transferring cash from one frozen bank account to another active one, no?

 

- Another face currently hanging around the club is someone called Danny Azougy, who has been brought in as a financial advisor. He is an Israeli lawyer/accountant and multi-time convicted fraudster you used to work for, yep, Arcadi Gaydamak.

 

Quote:

“Disgraced lawyer Daniel Azougy is controlling the club’s finances, despite a string of convictions for fraud dating back eight years. He was found guilty of FOUR counts of embezzling client funds in Israel in 2002. He was sentenced to five months in prison – but did not spend any time behind bars as he was allowed to do his time in community service instead. Azougy was also banned from practising law by the Israeli Bar Association for FOURTEEN YEARS. Then in March this year, Fratton Park’s new finance man was sentenced to two months’ community service and a year’s probation – and fined £25,000 – for a securities fraud resulting from a dodgy share transfer back in 1999.Azougy was found to have lied to the Israeli Stock Exchange bosses over the deal. He got off with a light sentence because the offence happened 10 years earlier.”

 

Azougy specialises in liquidation and was appointed by Arcadi to deal with the asset stripping of Beitar Jerusalem towards the end of his reign. And here he is again, no doubt appointed by the same person to do a similar job.

 

- Two other names, Roni Mana and Yoram Yosepov, have been linked as potential investors to the club. They denied it, but admitted on record that they are acting as “business advisors” to Ali Al-Faraj and claimed they persuaded him to appoint Avram Grant as manager. Type the name ‘Roni Mana’ into Google along with Gaydamak and you’ll see, unsurprisingly, they have quite a history of dealings too. The first result says Mana “has been the middleman in all of Gaydamak's recent business transactions”. It’s clear that the people being deployed by the club are Gaydamak’s people, not Al-Faraj’s, if he even exists.

 

- Where does Al-Fahim fit into this? Well, my theory is that he intended to buy the club back in May and had a serious backer lined up (probably Thaksin Shinawatra as reported) but that went down the pan. Once it became clear Al Fahim didn’t have anywhere near the required financial means on his own, and after he failed to attract other investors to pay off the remainder of Sasha’s demands, Sasha went with Plan B – Al-Faraj the mirage – and decided to rape the club for everything he could. He clearly doesn’t give a sh*t whether the club survives or goes bust, and why should he? Al-Fahim is left sat there as a non-executive chairman, owning 10% of a worthless company, with no money and no decision making authority like the useless fat ***** that he is.

 

 

So there you have it. Clearly there’s a lot of dodgy stuff going on. I’m 100% sure the Gaydamak’s are still in charge, and as they have no invested interest in keeping the club afloat, I really can’t see a happy ending to it all. No investors are going to want to buy the club – not when you consider the current league placing, shocking infrastructure and (somehow still) massive level of debt. Now the winding up order has been set, the end seems to be nigh. The club is getting f**ked up the arse and I honestly reckon we’ll be out of business in the coming months. Possibly administration as early as next month.

 

 

 

Bottom line is, Pompey look fooked.

 

That's a good piece of detective work by the Pompey fan.

[Sheaf Saint]

if they do go into admin...that would be relegation nailed on..

 

they would suffer next season as the squad they have would be horrific

 

Indeed.

 

At least we had an academy full of decent/half decent players to fall back on when we fell out of the prem and had all our best 1st team players poached from us.

 

What have they got?

[Vershinin]

Tossers won't b paying players today either. They hope to some time this week. ****ing brilliant, those ****s are screwed. Serves the players right for playing for such a **** tinpot little club.

[pfc123]

Aha, but if you were to peruse Pompey messageboards during our plight last year you'd no doubt find hundreds, if not thousands of Pompey fans crowing over our impending demise and I'd hazard a guess that there would be more of them than of ours right now. More than likely it would be because we've come through it and wouldn't wish it on anyone, even you, but don't walk around thinking that your less reasonable fellow skates weren't loving our plight last year.

 

Likewise, I may smirk but i wouldn't wish Pompey would go out of business at all....

 

Doubt that we'd be more inclined to have a go at you when you were in the poo last year- remember we went through it ourselves a few years earlier, so we know how painful it can be. The way things appear to be going I'm more and more thinking that administration would be just as good a bet for us as it was for you.

 

Someone is gonna lose a shyteload of money if we go into admin, and it's such a tangled web of contracts, loans and broken promises all round that no-one seems to know WHO will lose most. However, if it means that new investors start sniffing around and we start again with something near to a clean slate, I'll take the 9 point penalty, the ignomy of probably the record lowest points total, relegation, 12k crowds next season and you lot crowing forever more if it means the club survives in some form.....

[Andy_Porter]

if they do go into admin...that would be relegation nailed on..

 

they would suffer next season as the squad they have would be horrific

 

If they go into admin, I really doubt they would have a rosie outcome like we did.

 

I hope they don't go out of business, would be boring with them. A good 5-10 years of dropping down the football leagues while they suffer for their cup final win would be great.

[bridge too far]

If they go into admin, I really doubt they would have a rosie outcome like we did.

 

I hope they don't go out of business, would be boring with them. A good 5-10 years of dropping down the football leagues while they suffer for their cup final win would be great.

 

I think that such an intricate web has been woven that any serious investor would run away scheming.

 

It's the sort of thing that could drag through the courts for donkey's years.

[sidthesquid]

..... I'll take the 9 point penalty, the ignomy of probably the record lowest points total, relegation, 12k crowds next season and you lot crowing forever more if it means the club survives in some form.....

 

Done! I'm a fair & generous chap and it sounds a fair deal alround to me

[Gemmel]

Two men called Balram Chainrai and Levi Kushnir loaned us £15m in September to help with costs. These two men co-founded a company called Ameris Holdings, who sold 65% of shares to Sasha Gaydamak’s father Arcadi (who has an arrest warrant out for him in France for arms dealing during the Angolan civil war. He’s been sentenced to six years but is now hiding back in Russia as they have no extradition treaty with France) Anyway, Arcadi used to be owner of Beitar Jerusalem *****il July this year) but ran into some problems with Israeli law and had his account frozen. His business partners Chainrai and Kushnir sued Arcadi for failing to buy the rest of the shares of their company Ameris Holdings as was apparently agreed, and were awarded £16m from Arcadi’s frozen accounts. They then lend Pompey £15m for apparently no reason at all…. seems like a good way of transferring cash from one frozen bank account to another active one, no?

 

That is the first explanation that makes any sense with regard to Sacha and Arcadi still owning the club.

 

Still seems a little far fetched, but this is the blue few we are talking about

[St Marco]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article6978206.ece

 

Wages won't be paid now until end of the week

 

****ing disgrace of a club and PL bending rules to suit them.

 

There is no point reporting on the wages anymore as it means nothing, PL won't enforce anything. Hopefully the PFA will come out saying how bad it is etc..

[Gemmel]

,the ignomy of probably the record lowest points total, relegation, 12k crowds next season and you lot crowing forever more if it means the club survives in some form.....

 

Guess again, or ask the audience

[Thedelldays]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article6978206.ece

 

Wages won't be paid now until end of the week

 

****ing disgrace of a club and PL bending rules to suit them.

 

There is no point reporting on the wages anymore as it means nothing, PL won't enforce anything. Hopefully the PFA will come out saying how bad it is etc..

what are the rules they are not enforcing..?

[S-Clarke]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article6978206.ece

 

Wages won't be paid now until end of the week

 

****ing disgrace of a club and PL bending rules to suit them.

 

There is no point reporting on the wages anymore as it means nothing, PL won't enforce anything. Hopefully the PFA will come out saying how bad it is etc..

 

The PL just want to get rid of them, if they stay up though it will open up a can of worms similar to the Tevez/Sheffield United scenario.

[St Marco]

what are the rules they are not enforcing..?

 

The rule that states if you owe money to staff/people you pay them. In business if you can't do that you go into admin and then liquidation. If they cannot pay the bills and are clearly not paying the bills then they have to go into admin. The PL has rules which say's "a club in admin will be docked -9 points". If Portsmouth were a normal business they would be in admin now. The reason they are not is because groups like PL are trying to make it sound not as bad as it is, they are trying to protect the "premiership brand" by not pushing them harder. As the guy in the Telegraph say's a business that can't pay it's bills is dead.

[Chin Strain]

An interesting post from an almost articulate Skate on f365 forum, put on the parallell thread on main site by Instinct:

 

 

The theory is that Sasha Gaydamak is still indirectly in charge of the club (using it for money laundering) and is basically withdrawing the vast majority of income from player sales, TV revenue, gate receipts etc into his own accounts, whilst using loans to pay for day-to-day expenses, thus building up the debt. This will go on until the club inevitably enters administration and in most likelihood folds completely.

 

A few things to consider –

 

- Despite all the player sales over the past year or so (Diarra, Muntari, Johnson, Defoe, Crouch, Distin, Kranjcar, Mendes) bringing in around £80m in income, plus the Sky money, ticket sales and other revenues, which must total around £150m, there is still no sign that the debt situation has changed – we’re still struggling to pay basic expenses such as the player salaries, this despite now having one of the lowest wage bills in the league. Were our debts really that big to begin with? Unlikely.

 

- Pretty much every business Sasha Gaydamak has ever owned has gone into liquidation.

 

- Ali Al-Faraj is still a complete unknown. He was a supposed “billionaire”, yet no-one had ever heard of him, even in his homeland of Saudi Arabia. He is yet to turn up to any games (not even Man Utd at home, despite word going around that he would attend) which was originally put down to permit issues, yet his “brother” has attended some games. No-one is quite sure who he is or where he got his money from, and all that has been released of him is this one photo:

 

 

 

Is this man in the photo Ali Al-Faraj, or just some random Arab being used as a smokescreen for Gaydamak’s cash cow scheme? Is Ali Al-Faraj even a real person, or is he completely made-up? And if he isn’t a real person, how the f**k did he pass the FA’s Fit and Proper Person Test?! Keep in mind that Al-Faraj reportedly didn’t spend a penny on buying the club; all he did was take over the clubs debts. In theory I could have done that – all I’d need to do is fool the FA into thinking that I had the financial clout required to run a football club. And as we all know, the FA are useless bunch of tossers anyway.

 

- Two men called Balram Chainrai and Levi Kushnir loaned us £15m in September to help with costs. These two men co-founded a company called Ameris Holdings, who sold 65% of shares to Sasha Gaydamak’s father Arcadi (who has an arrest warrant out for him in France for arms dealing during the Angolan civil war. He’s been sentenced to six years but is now hiding back in Russia as they have no extradition treaty with France) Anyway, Arcadi used to be owner of Beitar Jerusalem *****il July this year) but ran into some problems with Israeli law and had his account frozen. His business partners Chainrai and Kushnir sued Arcadi for failing to buy the rest of the shares of their company Ameris Holdings as was apparently agreed, and were awarded £16m from Arcadi’s frozen accounts. They then lend Pompey £15m for apparently no reason at all…. seems like a good way of transferring cash from one frozen bank account to another active one, no?

 

- Another face currently hanging around the club is someone called Danny Azougy, who has been brought in as a financial advisor. He is an Israeli lawyer/accountant and multi-time convicted fraudster you used to work for, yep, Arcadi Gaydamak.

 

Quote:

“Disgraced lawyer Daniel Azougy is controlling the club’s finances, despite a string of convictions for fraud dating back eight years. He was found guilty of FOUR counts of embezzling client funds in Israel in 2002. He was sentenced to five months in prison – but did not spend any time behind bars as he was allowed to do his time in community service instead. Azougy was also banned from practising law by the Israeli Bar Association for FOURTEEN YEARS. Then in March this year, Fratton Park’s new finance man was sentenced to two months’ community service and a year’s probation – and fined £25,000 – for a securities fraud resulting from a dodgy share transfer back in 1999.Azougy was found to have lied to the Israeli Stock Exchange bosses over the deal. He got off with a light sentence because the offence happened 10 years earlier.”

 

Azougy specialises in liquidation and was appointed by Arcadi to deal with the asset stripping of Beitar Jerusalem towards the end of his reign. And here he is again, no doubt appointed by the same person to do a similar job.

 

- Two other names, Roni Mana and Yoram Yosepov, have been linked as potential investors to the club. They denied it, but admitted on record that they are acting as “business advisors” to Ali Al-Faraj and claimed they persuaded him to appoint Avram Grant as manager. Type the name ‘Roni Mana’ into Google along with Gaydamak and you’ll see, unsurprisingly, they have quite a history of dealings too. The first result says Mana “has been the middleman in all of Gaydamak's recent business transactions”. It’s clear that the people being deployed by the club are Gaydamak’s people, not Al-Faraj’s, if he even exists.

 

- Where does Al-Fahim fit into this? Well, my theory is that he intended to buy the club back in May and had a serious backer lined up (probably Thaksin Shinawatra as reported) but that went down the pan. Once it became clear Al Fahim didn’t have anywhere near the required financial means on his own, and after he failed to attract other investors to pay off the remainder of Sasha’s demands, Sasha went with Plan B – Al-Faraj the mirage – and decided to rape the club for everything he could. He clearly doesn’t give a sh*t whether the club survives or goes bust, and why should he? Al-Fahim is left sat there as a non-executive chairman, owning 10% of a worthless company, with no money and no decision making authority like the useless fat ***** that he is.

 

 

So there you have it. Clearly there’s a lot of dodgy stuff going on. I’m 100% sure the Gaydamak’s are still in charge, and as they have no invested interest in keeping the club afloat, I really can’t see a happy ending to it all. No investors are going to want to buy the club – not when you consider the current league placing, shocking infrastructure and (somehow still) massive level of debt. Now the winding up order has been set, the end seems to be nigh. The club is getting f**ked up the arse and I honestly reckon we’ll be out of business in the coming months. Possibly administration as early as next month.

 

 

 

Bottom line is, Pompey look fooked.

 

Yep, that's the theory I've been running with for a couple of months.

[Thedelldays]

The rule that states if you owe money to staff/people you pay them. In business if you can't do that you go into admin and then liquidation. If they cannot pay the bills and are clearly not paying the bills then they have to go into admin. The PL has rules which say's "a club in admin will be docked -9 points". If Portsmouth were a normal business they would be in admin now. The reason they are not is because groups like PL are trying to make it sound not as bad as it is, they are trying to protect the "premiership brand" by not pushing them harder. As the guy in the Telegraph say's a business that can't pay it's bills is dead.

come on mate

 

I want them gone more than most...but just be patient..

we hated the football league for seemingly NOT doing all WE thought they could to help...that is a fact

 

the PL are seemingly trying to help one of its members as much as their powers allow and you get the huff..

 

maybe, the prem should be applauded for doing what the FL dont do...try and keep out the dreaded admin for as long as possible, whilst being fair to others...obviously a tough balance...

 

they will go into admin..if they had sense for their long term future, they should take hit now with relegation and try and start again in the CCC....

[pedg]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article6978206.ece

 

Wages won't be paid now until end of the week

 

****ing disgrace of a club and PL bending rules to suit them.

 

There is no point reporting on the wages anymore as it means nothing, PL won't enforce anything. Hopefully the PFA will come out saying how bad it is etc..

 

What are the odds on 'end of the week' becoming 'sometime this month'?

[bridge too far]

I think the PFA, on behalf of the players, could issue a winding-up petition of their own (or join the HMRC one).

 

It was certainly an option my solicitor offered when I was being paid late consistently.

[View From The Top]

Yep, that's the theory I've been running with for a couple of months.

 

Agreed. Ever since the link between Hong Kong and Israel was established.

[pedg]

the PL are seemingly trying to help one of its members as much as their powers allow and you get the huff..

 

If they were trying to help pompey they would not have withheld their TV money to pay their football debts.

[Chin Strain]

Interesting to see Avram Grant talking about bringing Nugent back into the fold in January. So, you end up with a scenario where you can't pay your current playing staff, so decide to bring back another high earner (he's got to be on at least £25k a week...ok, not that high by Pompey's standards). Granted that they're probably paying a percentage of his wages whilst he's at Burnley, but it's hardly likely that the owners would sanction it.

 

Makes you wonder why Grant is making all these comments in the press - is he completely ignorant to their situation, or just trying to stir things up?

[NickG]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article6978206.ece

 

Wages won't be paid now until end of the week

 

****ing disgrace of a club and PL bending rules to suit them.

 

There is no point reporting on the wages anymore as it means nothing, PL won't enforce anything. Hopefully the PFA will come out saying how bad it is etc..

 

not sure what rules you are referring to?

 

if the players want to put it with it its up to them. THe embargo and withoholding of tv money both stand

[Thedelldays]

If they were trying to help pompey they would not have withheld their TV money to pay their football debts.

they also have a duty to other clubs....

 

when I say help, I mean extend deadlines, help them behind the scene explore avenues..offer assistance etc...

 

something that could be afforded to very other prem club

[INFLUENCED.COM]

I think the PFA, on behalf of the players, could issue a winding-up petition of their own (or join the HMRC one)

 

They could of course but what will they achieve ultimately ? the first team squad could simply evoke the cause re 14 days notice and fudge off to another club and pocket any signing on fee or negotiate salary based on no signing on fee, that would be more productive for the individual than the PFA pontification(sp)

[rallyboy]

I seem to recall fans and senior figures from other clubs shouting that we were in admin when Southampton Football Club was clearly not.

 

If the authorities were happy to decide that our club was in admin when it wasn't, with no right of appeal, I see no reason for suggesting now that Portsmouth are anything but totally bankrupt.

[NickG]

The rule that states if you owe money to staff/people you pay them. In business if you can't do that you go into admin and then liquidation. If they cannot pay the bills and are clearly not paying the bills then they have to go into admin. The PL has rules which say's "a club in admin will be docked -9 points". If Portsmouth were a normal business they would be in admin now. The reason they are not is because groups like PL are trying to make it sound not as bad as it is, they are trying to protect the "premiership brand" by not pushing them harder. As the guy in the Telegraph say's a business that can't pay it's bills is dead.

 

its up to those owed money to chase it - or administration, not the FA.

[Chin Strain]

Agreed. Ever since the link between Hong Kong and Israel was established.

 

My theory is that Chainrai is getting the land around the stadium from Gaydamak as part of the settlement of the lawsuit. So, he would then own the ground, and the land around the ground.....and he likes a bit of property development.....

[Thedelldays]

I wonder if the prem have a cut off point to carry over points deductions to the FL next season..?

[INFLUENCED.COM]

Makes you wonder why Grant is making all these comments in the press - is he completely ignorant to their situation, or just trying to stir things up?

 

Or just trying to get on with HIS job of managing a team oppose to a club, I feel for him ever so slightly and glad he is able to get his stress relieved by local outlets

[aintforever]

Also if they go into admin now would they still get their parachute payments or would the PL just give to their football creditors?

[Pugwash]

its up to those owed money to chase it - or administration, not the FA.

 

Like Lens? Have they appealed to UEFA and FIFA because the PL and FA are ignoring them?

[JonnyLove]

I couldn't care if the players ever get paid. Pompey go into Admin which opens Pandora's box. What will be the worst to come out of all of this is that the back office staff will suffer the most. Peoples who's working to keep a roof over their heads and will once again in a couple of weeks not be paid again. And in the end it will be inevitable that that will loose their jobs.

[Chin Strain]

Or just trying to get on with HIS job of managing a team oppose to a club, I feel for him ever so slightly and glad he is able to get his stress relieved by local outlets

 

But whatever happens behiond the scenes, any business needs a united front to the outside world.

[pedg]

they also have a duty to other clubs....

 

when I say help, I mean extend deadlines, help them behind the scene explore avenues..offer assistance etc...

 

something that could be afforded to very other prem club

 

What deadlines have the PL extended?

[Clapham Saint]

Is there any club that Harry Red***** has managed that hasn't (with varying periods of separation) subsequently gone into administration?

[St Marco]

come on mate

 

I want them gone more than most...but just be patient..

we hated the football league for seemingly NOT doing all WE thought they could to help...that is a fact

 

the PL are seemingly trying to help one of its members as much as their powers allow and you get the huff..

 

maybe, the prem should be applauded for doing what the FL dont do...try and keep out the dreaded admin for as long as possible, whilst being fair to others...obviously a tough balance...

 

they will go into admin..if they had sense for their long term future, they should take hit now with relegation and try and start again in the CCC....

 

Look at it this way.

 

The wages for december were supposed to be paid on xmas eve right.

That was 2 weeks ago.

In that time we have had 2 excuses that were obviously bull**** i.e file not opening and the one why they were not initially paid etc..

 

So let's say the wages are paid on friday. 16 days after they were supposed to be paid. Does that amount of time not make you think something is slightly wrong?

 

So where you say i have the hump i think you misunderstand the point. The point is they haven't a clue what they are doing and haven't a clue when things will be sorted. They are bumbling along hoping things will improve and the PL are going along with it. The PL are not helping Portsmouth contrary to your belief they are actually only helping themselves by trying to limit damage to the brand. One they are trying hard to maintain.

 

By doing what the PL are doing then they are taking a very serious precident. One that could come back to bite them on the ass. In the future when Pompey go into admin (most likely when the HRMC court case starts) and that landmark 1st team in the PL go into admin then how will the PL behave? If then say another club i.e Hull struggle to pay their wages will the PL adopt the same attitude they have now or will they come down hard on that team? Chances are they will not treat them the same as the landscape will have changed.

 

That Gordon guy of the PFA makes a really great point about you can understand clubs needing protecting in the lower leagues as they don't have the financial income a PL team get's. But not paying your players in the PL with all the money they make is very worrying.

 

I for one don't want Pompey to go under. But what i do want is for the rules that apply to all other companies to apply to every PL team. Thus far that is obviously not the case.

[Thedelldays]

What deadlines have the PL extended?

dont know...but to say they should throw the book at them whilst we complained the FL never helped us..is a tad hypocritical..

 

everything possible should be done for pompey (sadly) as well as stockport.....

 

I have no worries, they will be in admin by the end of the season

[JonnyLove]

So I wonder if their going to use this as an excuse

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2797229/Bank-manager-stole-1m-cash.html

[bridge too far]

dont know...but to say they should throw the book at them whilst we complained the FL never helped us..is a tad hypocritical..

 

everything possible should be done for pompey (sadly) as well as stockport.....

 

I have no worries, they will be in admin by the end of the season

 

But that's where money talks. The PL is, as someone else has said, a huge worldwide brand. The TV revenue is massive and that's why the PL gets such a good cut from Sky. Damage the brand and the audience might drop.

 

The FL is small beer and a dent in its reputation will make no discernable difference to its income.

[Thedelldays]

I was away from last march till past the end of the season..so missed all the going into admin bollix for saints..

 

how did it go for us (I know we were a week too late)..

what I mean, did we miss player wages etc....does pompeys situation look worse than what ours did etc..

[pedg]

dont know...but to say they should throw the book at them whilst we complained the FL never helped us..is a tad hypocritical..

 

everything possible should be done for pompey (sadly) as well as stockport.....

 

I have no worries, they will be in admin by the end of the season

 

I like others I think believe that the PL have only the benefit of the PL in mind at the moment. It they do something that helps pompey its only by coincidence. As with others I think there are many at PL headquarters who have their fingers crossed that the pass the pompey game ends with the football league in charge when the final layers of wrapper are removed.

[dubai_phil]

If things carry on as they are, and if there is even a minute bit of truth in some of the (fairly obvious) deductions, then the penalties will not stop at -9 points.

 

I honestly cannot see how if anything like this is potentially happening then the term "Financial Irregularities" that was used so devastatingly against Luton would have to be used.

 

I am also pretty certain that the if they DO enter admin THIS season, the PL would be a tad more careful in demanding forensic accounts regarding the whole sorry mess BEFORE they granted the playing licence/golden share back to any of the "alleged" "shady characters" associated with their biggest ever embarrassment.

 

They may end up flying straight past us

[JonnyLove]

I was away from last march till past the end of the season..so missed all the going into admin bollix for saints..

 

how did it go for us (I know we were a week too late)..

what I mean, did we miss player wages etc....does pompeys situation look worse than what ours did etc..

 

We only missed them once we went into Admin. It was Barclays who put us in admin for not cashing a cheque for £6000 (yep a lowly /£6K). Then They were paid once people donated some money and then we sold Surman and McGoldick to cover the rest all be it a day or 2 late. Nothing as bad as Pompey have done anyway.

[View From The Top]

I was away from last march till past the end of the season..so missed all the going into admin bollix for saints..

 

how did it go for us (I know we were a week too late)..

what I mean, did we miss player wages etc....does pompeys situation look worse than what ours did etc..

 

Way, way, way, way, way, way, way worse.

[Gemmel]

I was away from last march till past the end of the season..so missed all the going into admin bollix for saints..

 

how did it go for us (I know we were a week too late)..

what I mean, did we miss player wages etc....does pompeys situation look worse than what ours did etc..

 

For an administrator to take them on they have to be confident that there are suffiecient assets, to make some sort of payments to creditors and their own costs. I THINK i read that even with staplewood, ST Mary's and some half decent talent in the squad we were turned down by our first choice and Bagbies were are second option....... Don't take that as red, it might have come from the forum