Portsmouth finished?

[Chazza]

Pompey owners into administration
Portsmouth could face another points deduction

Portsmouth have confirmed that their parent company Convers Sports Initiatives has been placed into administration.

CSI owner Vladimir Antonov has resigned as chairman and director of Portsmouth Football Club with immediate effect.

CSI only took control of Pompey on 1st June, but now the club are again facing a far from certain future.

Pompey only came out of their previous administration little over 12 months ago under the regime of former owner Balram Chainrai who sold the club to Antonov's company.

But Antonov is being investigated by prosecutors in Lithuania over alleged asset stripping at Bankas Snoras, and he is now under arrest and subject to extradition proceedings.

The Lithuanian government claims that about £250million has been misappropriated from the bank's funds.

As a result of Antonov's problems, CSI has been placed into administration, which Portsmouth confirmed in a statement released on Tuesday.

The statement read: "Portsmouth Football Club can today provide the following information regarding recent events as a result of issues relating to Vladimir Antonov and Snoras Bank:

"The club's parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives plc (CSI), has been placed into administration.

"Vladimir Antonov has resigned as chairman and director of Portsmouth Football Club.

"Portsmouth Football Club (2010) Limited - the company that operates PFC is not in administration and continues to trade.

"The club has funding in place for the short term, but will now be seeking alternative investment for its longer-term requirements."

Pompey chief executive David Lampitt said: "After the extraordinary amount of work put in by so many people over the last 18 months to get to this point, it is incredibly disappointing for the club to find itself in this position.

"I want to assure staff and fans that we will continue to do everything possible to safeguard the position of the club and its longer term future."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...administration

The only way things could get any worse for them was if this man put together a consortium and got involved

[lfcred]

What does ridsdale get out of his roles with the clubs he gets involved with? he kills them all!?

[RoadEnd]

I though that the league were supposed to check the credentials of owners. I feel sorry for the portsmouth fans. Their club has been shagged up the arse by successive eastern european criminals.

[Chazza]

And again

Pompey facing winding-up order
Andronikou admits new owners need to be found quickly



Portsmouth are facing a winding-up order from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, according to the administrator of the club's parent company.

Pompey, who have been blighted with financial problems in recent years, reportedly owe HMRC an unpaid PAYE bill of £1.6million, with Andrew Andronikou, administrator of Convers Sports Initiatives, which owns the Championship club, describing the situation as "extremely serious".

"The club effectively ran out of cash at the end of December," Andronikou told The Observer. "We're under extreme pressure to find a buyer and time is against us.

"The issuing of the petition effectively means the club loses its ability to use its bank accounts. But we've made other provisions. We're not fazed or worried by it. The club's debts are not significant, we haven't got millions and millions of liabilities.

"We pretty much have two months' PAYE outstanding. We're waiting to see what the Revenue will do. They will probably advertise the petition [in the London Gazette] next week. I think there is a hearing date at the end of February.

"We need to focus on finding a buyer to completing a transaction to raise cash. In terms of working capital and cash it's only going to come from two sources: a buyer or player sales. We're working on both."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...nding-up-order

[Chazza]

Not looking good for them

Portsmouth fail to pay players' wages

Portsmouth have failed to pay their players' wages for January, the club have announced in a statement.

The club were issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs on 3 January and will appear at the Royal Courts of Justice on 20 February.

Portsmouth have had their bank accounts frozen as a result of the petition.

Pompey's parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives, entered administration in November, forcing the Championship club to search for new owners.

Administrator Andrew Andronikou revealed that Pompey have missed two tax payments of £800,000 to HMRC.

There is an urgency to complete a deal with fresh backers, as investment is needed if Portsmouth are to meet ongoing running costs.

BBC South understands that any purchaser would need to provide £12m as proof of funds, and assurances they could meet another £20m in repayments to former creditors, Balram Chainrai and Alexandre Gaydamak.

The Portsmouth Supporters' Trust met with local businesses last Thursday in an attempt to form a consortium to help save the Championship club.

"Further to our recent update that a winding-up petition has been issued and publicised to Portsmouth Football Club, the club's bank accounts have been frozen, which is the normal process in these circumstances," read the statement.

"The club is now seeking a validation order from the court in order to have its bank accounts unfrozen so that staff wages and suppliers can be paid.

"This is expected to take a few days and once obtained this will allow our bank accounts to be reactivated.

"Based on our current information we expect this process to be completed by the end of the week and would like to thank all our staff, fans and suppliers for their ongoing support."

In order for Portsmouth to gain that validation order they need to prove that their creditors will not lose out by allowing it, and that the club's position will be improved by allowing it to continue to trade.

[Exiled_red]

These situations are always bad, I feel sorry for the fans.

[Fivex]

****ing who's fault is it? Fit and proper persons test my arse.

[baitman]

****ing who's fault is it? Fit and proper persons test my arse.

quite nright. the FA are bent as fook, as we have all seen recently

the fit and proper test just means someone has assets to the value, and "could" liquidate thoise assests to free up cash should it be needed. it does not prove that the person has spare available cash to put into a bank for the sole use of running the football club, as should be the case. ******s...

[Kenneth]

Nothing will prove that (finances change) and ultimately is the responsibility of clubs not to **** themselves up, the FA can only be partially reaponsible. If a club goes that way it's harsh on the fans, but it's inevitable that some clubs will go to the wall.

[Le Chef]

£32m just to see them through to summer - In fairness they aren't worth £3.2m at this time. The playing staff is worthless, and the ground is owned by the creditors, which is probably the only thing worth anything. Sounds harsh, but unless omens take it on with very deep pockets, they are on a hiding to nothing and will probably go under.

[spud_gun]

Karma for inflicting the ****er with the tats and the bell on football fans throughout the country

[Le Chef]

Karma for inflicting the ****er with the tats and the bell on football fans throughout the country

Quite true , plus it a ****er to get to

[Chazza]

Got to feel for the supporters been through it so many times in the last few years, this time might finish them off

Pompey may not finish season
Parachute payments to go straight to former owner Gaydamak

Portsmouth's financial plight means they may not be able to complete the current season, according to club administrator Trevor Birch.

Birch says Pompey, who entered administration in February, will not receive parachute payments from the Premier League as they will go straight to former owner Sacha Gaydamak.

In a statement on the club's official website Birch said: "Following our discussions with the Premier League and Football League over the past few days, it has emerged that Portsmouth football club is unlikely to receive any further parachute payments or other league funding.

"We had previously stated that there was a real danger of the club running out of cash before the end of the season.

"The risk of this happening increases substantially without the money from the football authorities.

"Unless something significant happens, there is a real possibility that we may not be able to fulfil the season's fixtures.

"One potential issue appears to come from the assignment of £2.2million of parachute payments that was made by the old company to a previous owner.

"We have instructed lawyers to challenge this, but the process may take time."

Birch remains committed to saving the cash-strapped club, but admits "the clock is ticking" to find new owners.

He added: "As you'd expect, several people have got in touch with us since our appointment as administrators and made enquiries about buying the club.

"We are assessing every case and will make contact with anyone that we believe could be a serious bidder over the next few days.

"Any potential bidders will need to be prepared to make a major investment in the club because the outlook for next season looks challenging unless we can sell some players in the summer."

Pompey were deducted 10 points in February after going into administration for the second time in two years.

Birch was forced to loan top scorer Erik Huseklepp to Birmingham to trim the wage bill and also announced 30 redundancies at the club.

They are currently second from bottom, five points from safety, and face Middlesbrough at Fratton Park on Saturday.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...-finish-season

[ChesterDave]

So Gaydamak buys the club, lends the money to someone else to buy it off him, it goes tits up and he calls in the asset and is still owed the money. They he buys the asset from himself leaving other creditors in the **** and despite coming out of administration is still draining money for himself

What the **** is a fit and proper person test. The FA are useless spineless tosspots.

[Buzzo]

I wonder how Harry Redknapp feels about this. It was he (and Mandaric) who brought in the big players on the big wages. Scandalous really.