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Pompey Takeover Saga


Fitzhugh Fella

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What's all that about the contempt of court act 1981? A cursory glance shows that it is to do with information being leaked about the deliberations or discussions of the jury. Anybody know what this is all about?

Think you'll find that that's a warning to the casual googler that there's a gagging order in place. Well, media blackout anyway.

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Found this on Google, but you'd need to log in to gain further info on it. This suggests that the hearing was finished, although on 21st or 24th is unclear. But as I asked, why no press coverage of the outcome?

 

21 Jun 2011 – T20107431 T20097808 T20107415, milan mandaric peter storrie andrew mehmet, For Hearing - Hearing finished - 09:58. 24-06-2011, Southwark, 9, T20097751 ...

http://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/crown-court-lists-results.php

 

Could it be that the judge is now deliberating?

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Think you'll find that that's a warning to the casual googler that there's a gagging order in place. Well, media blackout anyway.

 

I had links to the Owls' forum and they assessed it as meaning that there had been a court order placed on the defendents to pay something or other and having reneged on the payment, their actions were a contempt of court.

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I believe the case is still going on.

It didn't start today until 13:55 today http://twitter.com/#!/cSouthwark

 

The latest on Lawpages is at 16:12 today

Details:Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 10:00 - 16:12

And the case is scheduled for Court 7 again tomorrow

http://www.courtserve.net/courtlists/current/crown/sthwk_T110628.01.htm

 

The previous note about "Case Closed" was there from Friday afternoon and could mean

"Prosecution Case Closed" (??) which would be about right - 4 weeks (start 31/May) into a 8 week case.

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Think you'll find that that's a warning to the casual googler that there's a gagging order in place. Well, media blackout anyway.

 

Defo a reporting ban on this case. I asked BBC Matt if he knew if the case was closed and all he said was it was news to him but if there was anything to report he wouldn't be allowed to anyway.

 

Not sure if reporting on it can resume when this case is over or when a connected case later is over and done with.

 

Just have to wait and see

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For me the prize for the worst/best fish-based gag today goes to Adminnowstration!

 

Or am I talking pollocks?

 

So we started the day thinking Storrie was dancing off down the high street without a care in the world but do we now think he's still shackled in orange overalls like a crack whore at a Max Mosley marshal briefing?

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Well personally I think it's a load of pollacks, a witch hunt since it was launced, it's been a trial full of bassless arguments, gurnard from cod knows where.

 

Like a bream of light, an electric ray even, any topknot defence barrister would be a dab hand at defending this.

 

And when it's opah, it'll be brill, and we'll all be doing the conger with a satisfied pout and freshly combed mullet. Feeling megrim you wont all be so goby, and maybe then think twice before acting like a bull huss in a china shop.

 

I'll get me tope...

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Well personally I think it's a load of pollacks, a witch hunt since it was launced, it's been a trial full of bassless arguments, gurnard from cod knows where.

 

Like a bream of light, an electric ray even, any topknot defence barrister would be a dab hand at defending this.

 

And when it's opah, it'll be brill, and we'll all be doing the conger with a satisfied pout and freshly combed mullet. Feeling megrim you wont all be so goby, and maybe then think twice before acting like a bull huss in a china shop.

 

I'll get me tope...

 

Bloody hell! Are you quoting from a Portsmouth sex manual? :D

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For me the prize for the worst/best fish-based gag today goes to Adminnowstration!

 

Or am I talking pollocks?

 

So we started the day thinking Storrie was dancing off down the high street without a care in the world but do we now think he's still shackled in orange overalls like a crack whore at a Max Mosley marshal briefing?

 

Hate to say it, but first prize has to go to Mack.

 

"Bass 'tards."

 

I'll happily use that on a regular basis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DFCSBass'tards

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http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/great-matches/pompey_line_up_swoop_for_cardiff_star_1_2811276

 

Now being linked to Whittingham from Cardiff ..... certainly a player that could do a turn at St Mary's

They are being linked /buying some very useful players. Frustrating that I can see them making a real fist of it this season. having bought 2 good players already and searching for more.
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These rumours are just Lampitt and Cotterill reacting to West Ham trying to take their crown for the most insane transfer policy whilst heavily in debt.

Hopefully the two maddest clubs in the division will soon engage in a bidding war for Viera.

 

Nice to see the court case appears to be trundling along still, while it cannot be reported, some people will know the result prior to the next one so I would hope there will be a clue pop up here or there.

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They are being linked /buying some very useful players. Frustrating that I can see them making a real fist of it this season. having bought 2 good players already and searching for more.

 

I don't think 'linked' players are allowed in their squad though (not even Pompey could get away with that).

 

Anyway, they're only a few signings away from having 11 players. Not bad.....

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http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/great-matches/pompey_line_up_swoop_for_cardiff_star_1_2811276

 

Now being linked to Whittingham from Cardiff ..... certainly a player that could do a turn at St Mary's

 

Forest tried to sign him last summer and they offered silly money and still got nowhere. Is he a year away from the end of his contract, if not he will be expensive?

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I think we missed this news story... http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/06/16/premier-league-clubs-clear-tax-arrears-as-football-governance-report-looms-160602/

Premier League clubs clear tax arrears as football governance report looms By Steve Menary

 

16 June 2011

 

The Premier League’s clubs have cleared their entire backlog of tax debts to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), a well-timed development ahead of a government report into the governance of football that could pose difficult questions over the financial affairs of clubs in the world’s richest club competition.

 

At the end of the last tax year, as this website previously reported, the Premier League collectively owed £14.4m in PAYE, National Insurance contributions and VAT. That figure rose to £27.4m a few months later as the full scale of Portsmouth’s tax liabilities were uncovered by HMRC.

 

Two of the key questions that the Select Committee’s investigation into football have sought to address are:

 

‘Are football governance rules in England and Wales, and the governing bodies which set and apply them, fit for purpose?’; and

‘Is there too much debt in the professional game?’

A Freedom of Information enquiry by sportingintelligence shows the Premier League is the only one of the UK’s 14 senior leagues to have no tax outstanding at the end of the 2011 tax year.

 

PL=0

FL=237K

SPL&SCOT=161K

BSP=257K

BS N&S=142K

WELSH=76K

N.IRELAND=225K

The Premier League’s head of communications, Dan Johnson said: “The previous issue was entirely related to Portsmouth. The financial and governance regulations our clubs now operate under mean [that] it is very hard for them to get into arrears.

 

“Our clubs are run on very sound accountancy practices that make it very difficult to. When combined with our HMRC reporting provision and the welcome new stance of HMRC in ceasing to indulge football, mainly smaller Football League clubs, we think that it is an issue that is sufficiently mitigated.”

 

Sources close to HMRC insist that Portsmouth was not the only tax-indebted club and that a number of smaller Premier League clubs apart from Pompey also had outstanding tax liabilities last year.

 

HMRC also points out that the debts are a snapshot taken on a single day and expects that football’s current tax debts of £900,000 to rise over the course of the year. The latest FOI figure does not include debts liabilities of clubs that cannot pay the full sum up front and have agreed a payment plan spread over a period of time.

 

In a note with the FOI, HMRC said: “Extreme care should be taken not to attribute the level of debt shown in the accompanying figures to a resolution of the bulk of football debts owed to HMRC.”

 

HMRC’s continued crack-down on tax avoidance among the UK’s football clubs has seen special units set up in Solihull and Worthing.

 

Last year, 40 winding up petitions were sought against the companies that own clubs in the Premier League, the Football League, the three divisions of the Conference and the Welsh Premier League and sportingintelligence identified 19 clubs in the top seven tiers of the English football pyramid that were subject to winding up orders during 2010.

 

So far this year, HMRC has succeeded in winding up non-league side Windsor & Eton and sought winding up petitions against Plymouth Argyle and two former Football League sides Rushden & Diamonds and Kidderminster Harriers.

 

That purge against tax debts has reaped rewards with the total monies owed to HMRC by the clubs in Championship, League One and League Two down to £236,782 at the end of the latest tax year. That compares with a liability of £7.4m according to an earlier FOI request by sportingintelligence.

 

The reduction at the Football League comes after the competition agreed in 2009 to allow HMRC to directly monitor the PAYE of its clubs and impose transfer embargoes on sides that fail to meet their tax debts promptly. At the end of the last tax year, the Championship clubs alone owed £5.3m in indirect tax, i.e. PAYE and National Insurance contributions.

 

“Whilst this is only a snapshot of a particular date, and the amount owed will undoubtedly fluctuate significantly during the year, payment performance in respect of PAYE and VAT in the Football League is significantly better now than in previous years,” said the HMRC.

 

“We have worked closely with the Football League over the past 18 months which has contributed to that improved performance but we have where appropriate taken firm and effective action to ensure Club’s pay their liabilities on time.”

 

The Premier League subsequently adopted the system pioneered by the Football League, while the Blue Square Conference also monitors tax liabilities but these have still risen according to the latest HMRC figures.

 

At the three Blue Square divisions, indirect and direct tax debts totalled £399,782 at the end of the last tax year – up from £344,955 a year ago. Those debts are understood to relate to two clubs, one unnamed clun that that the Conference insists has subsequently settled with HMRC and another – Rushden & Diamonds – that has since been expelled from the competition.

Conference director Colin Peake said: “It is impossible to assess at anyone time what the figure is for monies owed to HMRC for a variety of factors. We have the largest turnover of member clubs each season, 8 in and 8 out. Sometimes we therefore inherit figures, which we have no control over until they become members.

“We are proactive in the terms of quarterly financial reporting, with clubs being deducted points for misleading submissions etc. This is being made harder, as all member clubs have now agreed this year that their personal details held by HMRC are shared with the Conference. This means we have the ability to check information is accurate and take action where it is not. The figure may also be somewhat inflated by the payment methods which HMRC has with clubs on a personal and local office basis.

“Our club affairs are improving all the time. Two clubs may also be the main contributors to the figures you have been supplied but we cannot comment with certainty on that. However if that is the case, then one has settled and the other has been expelled from our competition.”

There was also a rise in liabilities at the Welsh Premier League, where the licensing criteria put in place by the League of Wales (LoW) are supposed to prevent any clubs piling up tax debts. The LoW tax burden has leaped by two thirds over the last year with £71,733 in direct tax due and £4.482 in indirect tax.

 

That compares to a £42,583 direct tax debt at the end of the 2010 tax year and the Football Association of Wales declined to comment on the rise but on June 9, HMRC sought a winding up petition against the parent company Neath FC. The debt would preclude Neath from playing in the LoW next season. Neath, which has qualified to play in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League, dispute the liability but did not respond to a request for an explanation from sportingintelligence.

 

In Scotland, Falkirk was also subjected to a disputed winding up petition from HMRC in February this year but that order was quickly rescinded as the club had already agreed to staged payments. Total tax debts at the four main leagues in Scotland are just £161,962 but the dozen clubs in Northern Ireland’s Carling Premiership owe nearly as much in tax as the entire English Football League.

 

The Irish dozen owed a total of £191,204 in PAYE and National Insurance at the end of the last financial year plus another £34,144 in VAT. HMRC sought to wind up Distillery early last year and in Autumn 2010 tax liabilities at Glentoran were reportedly nearly £300,000. A rescue package for Glentoran was subsequently agreed and a winding up petition dismissed but the club was back before Belfast’s bankruptcy court last month after a petition brought by sportswear maker Umbro. This petition was also dismissed. Glentoran did not respond to a request for a comment from sportingintelligence.

 

The Irish Football Association would not comment on individual clubs but the IFA’s domestic marketing manager, Graeme Beggs, said: “The Irish FA is aware of the financial difficulties in the current economic climate and have introduced a new Salary Cost Protocol for the 2011-12 season to help clubs control and manage their finances more efficiently. Each club has been given a percentage of their allowable income that they are allowed to spend on players and salaries etcetera – 45 per cent to 60 per cent, depending on their situation with HMRC.”

 

HMRC’s purge against football’s tax debts will move forward another stage on 28 November. That is the date that a long-running and much delayed challenge over the Football Creditor’s Rule, which allows football-related bodies and people to be paid before other creditors if a club fails, finally comes to the High Court.

.

Edited by tony13579
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According to the CVA projection the Skates are supposed to raise over £8M in player transfers this summer.

 

I see another excuse for non payment of the CVA on the way . " Sorry , we can't pay the CVA at the mo, due to accidentally spending the £8Million on players"

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All of this is making me wonder just what Cortese has up his sleeve. I can't imagine he will just sit back and watch the rest strengthen, the next few weeks might just get a bit interesting.

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So what should we be laughing at now then? I haven't understood the joy on this thread for months. They got away with fraud, set football back 10 years, laughed in the face of other clubs, the league, HMRC, the taxpayer, local business, school, charities, their own fans, and just splashed more and more cash. Now they're at it again. I see no reason they won't sign 10 or more players and spend £10m+. I wouldn't want Varney, but there's no doubt they'll have a few useful players come August.

 

Course they will,

 

The Russians have no doubt got money to launder so of course they'll be putting in outrageous bids and paying PL rejects absurd wages. It's when the laundered money runs out (again) that the fun will pick up again.

 

At the moment Storrie's tax case is going on behind closed doors so the current lull is in the wait for the outcome of that. If he's found guilty Pompey will no doubt get a 50 quid fine that they'll pay 2p in the pound over 5 years. The case is merely a final hurrah for the man who should be given his own plaque outside St Mary's and whose financial lunacy has given us so much fun in this thread.

 

At the moment we're in a period of them giving themselves more rope to hang themselves with. Regardless of what they think, the debts they have racked up and are continuing to rack up won't just disappear. Their current business model is completely unsustainable. Their finances are so shot they are not going to attract any reputable investors in their current situation, all their going to do is go through a conveyor belt of dodgy owners. Portsmouth FC is a money laundering operation that has a football club as a front, that will passed from hand to hand of any international criminal who has a significant wad of money to get rid of quick. The only slight chance they have is if they get promoted again and some billionaire buys them out and pumps hundreds of millions of pounds in, or if they get rid of the PL rejects and play the kids who are on 100 quid a week for a very long time

 

Sadly I think their operation will only come tumbling down when the PL bubble bursts

Edited by JackFrost
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They don't give a stuff about the CVA. They don't even have to pay it yet. You think they care how it looks splashing money for the 100th time without paying any debts?

 

They're as likely to care as they are to be punished.

the CVA if i recall correctly, was cleverly worded and was left that it could be bypassed or put back without any trouble.
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Possibly one of the few upsides from this (besides the apparently endless comedy aspect) is that it appears that the pompey debacle has meant that other clubs have been forced to stop using HMRC has an overdraft facility.

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If pompey have blown all thier cash pre-season they will run out of wage and tax money september-october. In december , if the tax man wins the football creditors rule, everyone in football will want cash up front for players. The whole game plan will change. Player values will take a hit.

 

In fact, are pompey still buying this seasons players on the never-never. 1 million this season, a bit more if he plays 25 games and a bit more if .... blaa blaa

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If pompey have blown all thier cash pre-season they will run out of wage and tax money september-october. In december , if the tax man wins the football creditors rule, everyone in football will want cash up front for players. The whole game plan will change. Player values will take a hit.

 

In fact, are pompey still buying this seasons players on the never-never. 1 million this season, a bit more if he plays 25 games and a bit more if .... blaa blaa

 

If the club can be bought on the glad and sorry then why not the players?

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Are people trying to kid themselves or others that it is all going to go t1ts up at Pompey?? Once they won their court case last year, they were able to plan to re build. They will be fine and I would say will be easily mid table at least next year. Let's worry about ourselves perhaps?

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Are people trying to kid themselves or others that it is all going to go t1ts up at Pompey?? Once they won their court case last year, they were able to plan to re build. They will be fine and I would say will be easily mid table at least next year. Let's worry about ourselves perhaps?

 

Spoil sport

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While we wait for events a Southwark and whether they get 10 points or not, I found the following document in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.

 

(Imo you will need to read between the lines).

 

Point 1 shows where this all started, and Point 20 shows what the Police were after. (I assume as the warrant was "issued unlawfully" that none of this can be used in court ??).

 

When i read this I was concerned at how "sloppy" the Police were with completing the warrant e.g. Scottish address (point 17); Not showing the Warrant etc.(point 21); Not completing the Warrant correctly (Point 12); not specifying which part of 8(3) has not been met (point 16).

 

 

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2008/1177.html

 

With regard the the Press being there it did cross my mind that since this case (2008 ) that information relating to a certain Newpaper group and mobile phones has come out ??

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Summary of current trouble waiting in the wings, and possible outcomes -

 

1. CVA - likely to be ignored or delayed further, will only be a problem a couple of years from now.

 

2. Tax evasion court cases - recent odd events suggest they are unlikely to cause any hassle even if the club is found guilty via Storrie.

 

3. The current dodgy balance sheet - just needs some more dirty money pumped in to meet shortfall.

 

4. Fratton Park falling down - see 3, to botch it up.

 

5. The annoyed taxman - from his recent court appearances, incapable of sitting the correct way on a toilet let alone mounting a successful legal action.

 

6. Forensic investigation - This is the one that could cause problems, I cannot see how any independent look at the club books is going to give them a clean bill of health.

 

Then again any punishment from the toothless FL is unlikely.

 

Short term, they haven't quite got away with it, but they are on a yacht somewhere in the Med living it up with a couple of tarts.

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When ever a "lock this thread" post appears a whole new angle usually appears.

we still have a number of delayed/gagged court cases to conclude.

News is thin other than PFC blowing all thier season ticket money in a month.

As soon as the cash has gone the fun will start up again... sure as skates are skates

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It'll take another year or so now for this to get going again. Of course they'll have money for a little while, those Russians have a hell of a lot of money to "clean up". But once again it's a short term resolution, they are too thick to even realise or care.

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