Clubs in trouble

[maidstonevillain]

I doubt the Prem league will allow it to happen though. They will expect administration before meltdown. It is going to the wire because Portsmouth want to try and avoid the 10 point deduction, for obvious reasons.

Surely they are better taking the 10pt reduction now, otherwise they will start with it next season.

[hawkeye]

I doubt the Prem league will allow it to happen though. They will expect administration before meltdown. It is going to the wire because Portsmouth want to try and avoid the 10 point deduction, for obvious reasons.

Surely they are better taking the 10pt reduction now, otherwise they will start with it next season.

Pompey know they are going down, the 10 point deduction is irrelevant, it is the ability to fund the Admin and the avoidance of liquidation that is the problem

[hawkeye]

I doubt the Prem league will allow it to happen though. They will expect administration before meltdown. It is going to the wire because Portsmouth want to try and avoid the 10 point deduction, for obvious reasons.

I don't undersatnd that myself?

They're pretty much fucked in terms of being certainties for the drop anyway, so if I was them I'd rather take the 10 points now when it won't have any effect than have it wreck any promotion hopes next season!

if they go into adminstration then Chanrai and Gaydamk lose probably 90% of the money they are owed as the IR has preferred creditor gets first dibs.
that is the last thing they want and the IR know this, hence their action because the last thing they want is for the sky money at the end of the season to go into these crooks hands.

This is incorrect since the Enterprise act, The HMRC only get 20% of floating charge assets capped at £600k

[villasjf]

So Portsmouths chairman is to hand over his 10% to the supporters trust, errr what is 10% of nothing or is it 10%of a 60 million pound debt?

[BannedUserIAT]

From Soccernet:

PORTSMOUTH IN CRISIS
Storrie reveals Pompey's massive £131m wage bill

By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

February 22, 2010

Peter Storrie has blown wide open the inside story of where the money has gone at Portsmouth, with Soccernet able to reveal that £131 million has been paid to the players in wages over the past three years.


Storrie is trying to find a buyer

• Chainrai: Pompey will not die
• Pompey in dark over Al Fahim claim
• South African consortium interested
• Portsmouth owner takes Fratton Park
• Portsmouth nine days from going bust

The under siege Pompey chief executive is angry that insinuations are flying around that the club's cash has been misappropriated in some way.

Soccernet can now reveal that the players have taken the biggest chunk of the money, the banks have recalled £40 million of loans and the rest has gone in transfer fees.

All the figures have been declared to the courts and to the potential South African buyers, with a deal anticipated in the next 48 hours to try to save the club from oblivion.

Storrie gave a frank and revealing interview in the light of veiled allegations that something untoward has occurred at Fratton Park, with fans demanding to know there the money has gone and TV coverage over the weekend raising questions of what has happened to the money generated by a club that won the FA Cup two years ago.

Storrie said: "If you want to know where the money has gone, look at the accounts. It's no secret, we've had the report submitted to the courts, and we have presented these accountants to prospective new owners. It's there for all to see.

"The bulk of the money has gone to the players in wages. The cost of the players' wages this year is £37 million. Last season, when it was running at its height, it was £52 million, and the year before it was £42 million. The vast majority of the money over the last two to three years has gone on players' wages, and also on their transfer fees.

"It's all very well for Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson to look perplexed about where the money has gone by showing a chart of the players we've bought and looking at that £75 million and adding that to £70 million of debt and asking 'where's the £150 million gone?'

"In that period we bought £50 million-plus worth of players and paid out their salaries. The list showed one player sold for £18 million, but they never took off the £4 million sell-on fee to Arsenal or the fact that we paid £4 million for him, so in reality we were paid £10 million not the £18 million shown, and that is just one example.

"It is all so misleading and it leads to one thing: animosity from the supporters who keep asking us where the money has gone. So, it's time they were told. It's gone on the players' wages, on their transfer fees and the bank recalling their loans. That is why we have been forced to keep on selling players over the last 15 months - to keep this club alive."

Portsmouth's highest earner is David James, who is paid £50,000 a week. Apart from the England goalkeeper few players earn a similar salary as so many of the big earners have now been sold off. John Utaka has been widely reported as earning £80,000 a week, but Storrie made a point of telling Soccernet last week that the real figure is about a third of that. He does, however, boost his earnings with bonus payments.

Storrie also poses an interesting question for all those clubs currently running on much larger debts than Portsmouth, with his club having been declared insolvent by their own accountants' report to the courts.

Storrie says: "Yes, we have enormous debts. But don't some other Premier League clubs? Aren't their debts much bigger, in some cases, than ours? The biggest debts are to owners, and they are not calling in their loans.

"When you look at Chelsea, for example, their owner Roman Abramovich wrote off all their massive debts, wrote it all off, and that says it all."

The TV analysts over the weekend also posed the question of why South Africans, or anyone else for that matter, would want to take over a club in such financial turmoil. Storrie has a simple answer to that: "I am fed up with everyone highlighting the debts without ever bothering to look at the assets of this football club.

"The assets of this club are its players, their value in the transfer market, and there are some players whom we would value very highly. There is then the potential for 100,000 square foot of supermarket. You can imagine what that would be worth."

It has long been suspected that Portsmouth has attracted so many investors because of the lucrative real estate. For now the big battle is over the survival of the very club itself, rather than the potential further down the line to build a new stadium, cash in on the supermarket and realise the huge profits.

For now it's a tightening of belts, as Storrie added: "We are continuing to cut our overheads dramatically and that means the wage bill. There will be a lot more players out of contract at the end of the season and that will be our opportunity to cut the wage bill to make it more realistic to operate within a 20,000 stadium, until such time that we can move on.

"In the past the owners have funded the difference between the income from our limited stadium and the huge wage bill, but once that stopped, when Sasha [Gaydamak] sold, is when the trouble started."

D-day is March 1 and time is running out as Storrie said: "It's going to be a hectic few days. I am heavily in discussions and not been off the phone all day today again. The next couple of days could prove crucial, its going to be a very busy next 48 hours."

As a detailed accountants' report has been lodged with the courts, due diligence for a new owner can be shortened, and the lawyers are trying to fast-track the fourth takeover of the season. The South African consortium, spearheaded by a sports-orientated investor, has lodged proof of finances with the lawyers and will, on Monday, lodge those proof of funds with the banks.

Storrie concluded: "Yes, I am hopeful. the club has no price, but the new owners will take over the debts and will be going into this aware of all the financial facts. They will have to come to some kind of arrangement with the Revenue, it will be up to them to reach agreement with the Revenue."

If that fails on Monday, March 1, then Portsmouth's best option to stay alive would be administration and the faintest of hope Avram Grant has of staying in the Premier League will disappear.

The argument is growing that with chances of survival on the pitch almost over, administration is the sensible solution. The Premier League will want to avoid that scenario, but are rapidly running out of options to save them.

[Willie Anderson]

£131M over 3 years isn't a lot is it? a player on £20k a week gets £3m in that time so a 40 player squad averaging £20k a week sounds about right

[pauliewalnuts]

£131M over 3 years isn't a lot is it? a player on £20k a week gets £3m in that time so a 40 player squad averaging £20k a week sounds about right

A 20k a week player will also have bonuses, signing on fees etc etc on top, not to mention 11 percent (or whatever it is) NI contribs from the club whacked on top.

Also, in a 40 player squad (which would be a very large squad), I suspect the average would be much less than 20k a week (at a sensibly run club) as 15 plus of those players would be youth team players who will be on relative peanuts.

[richardhubbard]

£131M over 3 years isn't a lot is it? a player on £20k a week gets £3m in that time so a 40 player squad averaging £20k a week sounds about right

When 93% of your income is players wages BEFORE bonuses, your heading for oblivion

[pdiddybaby]

£131M over 3 years isn't a lot is it? a player on £20k a week gets £3m in that time so a 40 player squad averaging £20k a week sounds about right

When 93% of your income is players wages BEFORE bonuses, your heading for oblivion

and Storrie trying to defend himself by saying it had nothing to do with is just so funny.

On a yearly salary on £1.5m a year exactly what was he doing anyway ?

twiddling his thumbs ?

[Percy McCarthy]

Pompey are going into administration, so they won't be wound up any time soon. So we'll keep our points, and they might yet knock the filth out of the cup.

[N'Rexy]

lloks like they are going into Administration this week to avoid winding up.  Does anyone know how many points ouor 4th place rivals have garnered from them? In the event of winding up they will all be expunged which is why that orrible man Gold offered to lend them $10m, so as to save the 4 points the Ammers have won from them

[JUAN PABLO]

Liverpool would have been the better off, arse not too good...

[richard moore]

Pompey are going into administration, so they won't be wound up any time soon. So we'll keep our points, and they might yet knock the filth out of the cup.

And I had £20 on them at the start of the season to get relegated...

[JUAN PABLO]

Pompey are going into administration, so they won't be wound up any time soon. So we'll keep our points, and they might yet knock the filth out of the cup.

And I had £20 on them at the start of the season to get relegated...

I did christmas 2008..  ;-))     good bloody odds too

[JJ-AV]

On Football Weekly podcast pre-season Sean Ingle said certain bookies were giving as high as 20/1 for Pompey to finish 20th.

I never did get round to putting it on.