Pompey "likely to be closed down and liquidated"

Portsmouth on the brink! Club blame former owner Alexandre Gaydamak for forcing Pompey towards liquidation
By SPORTSMAIL REPORTER

Portsmouth FC face the real prospect of being liquidated after they failed to reach an agreement with creditors, including former owner Alexandre Gaydamak over debts repayments.
The club issued have issued a stark statement this evening claiming 'it appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated' by the administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club.

Crisis club: Fratton Park is under threat once again after failing to exit administration
The Portsmouth statement in full:
Portsmouth Football Club is extremely disappointed to report that it has not yet managed to achieve the exit from Administration, despite the extensive efforts of the Football League, NewCo, the Administrators and their various legal advisors.
The process has been extremely complicated and there has been a team of people working night and day to get the deal done.
The most difficult aspect has been trying to achieve agreement with Alexandre Gaydamak after the remaining parties have agreed the deal and executed the necessary documents, namely the new owners, the Administrators, the Football League and the creditors.
Unfortunately, despite the new owners fulfilling all the requirements of the Football League and the creditors, and agreeing and signing up to the required terms of the purchase of the club, at the 11th hour the goalposts have been moved by Mr Gaydamak and this has now made the deal impossible to complete.
Put simply, despite being offered full payment for the secured part of his debt in accordance with the financial plan approved by the Football League, this morning Mr Gaydamak has demanded a very significant upfront cash payment in order to allow the deal to proceed by releasing his security.
All this is in spite of his lawyers going to Paris this morning specifically for the purpose of witnessing his signature to the document agreed yesterday.
It is neither in the interests of the club nor its unsecured creditors for such a ransom payment to be made, particularly where the payment is being demanded by one of the authors of the club’s current circumstances.
In addition, and equally importantly, all of the business plans submitted and approved by the Football League would be fundamentally damaged by such a requirement placed on the club by Mr Gaydamak.
We will provide further information as soon as possible.
However, it appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated by the Administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club.
We would like to thank the Football League in particular for their support and assistance through this difficult process.
All other parties had managed to reach agreement.
This has now been undermined by the self-interested actions of one individual. Mr Gaydamak has provided confirmation several times that terms were agreed. However, he has continually changed his position in an attempt to exploit the goodwill of the other parties to the transaction.
By now doing this he has shown complete disregard for the supporters, the club and the City of Portsmouth, who had granted him freedom of the city in 2008.
His earlier comments when the club went into Administration about doing everything possible to save the club’s future do not appear to reflect his current actions.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1322967/Portsmouth-brink-Club-blame-owner-Alexandre-Gaydamak-forcing-Pompey-extinction.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz136wnmp3c

Tragic.

One of the authentic & original English Football clubs destroyed by foreigners because they are allowed to.

Dont believe it. I imagine (hope) there will be a Portsmouth 2010 or whatever. Has to be. (I hope)

Blood sucked out of clubs by owners, employees, agents, etc

pompey scum

Sorry to see such a club with a proud history go under, it really saddens me. Whatever rivalry should be put aside even between Southampton. Football is for a lot of people their lives and there's going to be a lot of people on the south coast with out the club they support. It nearly happen to us so all fans should show respect.

If they go under, my names Mohamed.

We dont want that CPR it becomes a nightmare , didnt it happen in the conference last year with chester you have take points away from the teams that have played them very messy !
Hope its resolved but you just dont know!

Cardiff got 3 points at Pompey ! Seeya!

Rules are rules CPR , they broke them or their apparent owners did but i just get a bit sad when i see football clubs destroyed and folding up wheter it s chester , Pompey scum ,!
If they go they go so be it but this proper persons qualification bullshit has anyone failed it yet !
The Krays could have qualified!I dont think they should get any personal preferencial tratment for sure end of the day its black and white !
More and more clubs are just becoming playthings even down to the level of Crawley town whos owner is chucking silly money at it , trying to sigh pires in the conference !
Whwn i say dont want it talking more in the working out all the points system if a team goes halfway thro a season thats all ! Is there an easy to decide this now then re what would happen about the points re pompeys results !would everyones point gained against pompey be wiped out?

Guardian

'Frustrated' Portsmouth are not about to go under, says administrator
• Former owner Sacha Gaydamak demands £2.5m upfront
• Administrator Andronikou says statement was 'premature' (22)
Jamie Jackson guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 October 2010

Portsmouth's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, tonight denied a statement on the club's official website which said the club may be about to go into liquidation due to a claim by the former owner Sacha Gaydamak for an upfront payment of £2.5m.

Andronikou stated that Portsmouth will play at Hull City tomorrow but said Gaydamak's Jewish faith meant he was out of contact until the Sabbath ended on early Saturday evening and so is unavailable to resolve the issue. The article had been published on the website due to "pure frustration".

The statement said: "It appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated by the administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club. Portsmouth Football Club is extremely disappointed to report that it has not yet managed to achieve the exit from administration, despite the extensive efforts of the Football League, NewCo, the administrators and their various legal advisors.

"The most difficult aspect has been trying to achieve agreement with Alexandre [Sacha] Gaydamak after the remaining parties have agreed the deal and executed the necessary documents, namely the new owners, the administrators, the Football League and the creditors.

"Put simply, despite being offered full payment for the secured part of his debt in accordance with the financial plan approved by the Football League, this morning Mr Gaydamak has demanded a very significant upfront cash payment in order to allow the deal to proceed by releasing his security."

Andronikou said Gaydamak's demand to be paid the £2.5m in a single payment was unfeasible, given the club's stretched finances. "The statement is a little premature," he added. "He [Gaydamak] wants more security, which I fully appreciate. He will be repaid in full for his debenture of £2.5m but, like the rest of the creditors, it will have to be in instalments.

"It's not possible [to pay the £2.5m in a single sum]. We've been running the club on a shoestring. We've got to deal with the needs of all creditors and we've got to secure the club going forward. He [Gaydamak] will have to stand in line like everybody else. He [is due] about £2.5m. He'll get that when everybody else gets paid."

The Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai is in the process of buying Portsmouth and Andronikou claimed that only Gaydmak's stance was preventing completion. "All that's been done. All the paperwork with regard to the Football League and the Premier League has all been agreed. We're already to go," the administrator said. "We are ready to sign up the paper[work] and unfortunately Mr Gaydamak decided that he has got religious constraints, [so has] again decided for 24 hours to turn his phone off. I think through pure frustration the press release was released."

It is thought Chainrai may have been behind the statement's publication. Andronikou said he hopes Gaydamak will be available to resolve any issues tomorrow evening. "I think the Sabbath starts at five o'clock [Friday evening] or when the sun goes down, so we can't speak to him until [then]. I'm trying to distance myself from this press release. But it's happened."


www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/oct/22/portsmouth-administrator-claim

MK Pompey - I hope not. I live and work in MK and spend most days having "friendly debates" with MK Dons fans, usually about which team they supported before - that always gets a bite! A second franchaise cub in MK would really confuse them!

The rules need some serious change, if these 'investors' want in then fine, but invest their own money and not the clubs, should not be allowed to burden the club with their debt, the debt should be theirs. Would sort the men from the boys.

Saved again!

BBC

Portsmouth creditor Sacha Gaydamak to sign vital deal

Pompey went into administration in February 2010


Portsmouth look set to avoid going out of business after lawyers representing former owner Sacha Gaydamak reached an agreement with the stricken club.

Pompey had suggested a row over £2.2m owed to Gaydamak was preventing the club coming out of administration.

But Gaydamak's lawyer said: "I will be talking to Sacha tonight [Saturday] and recommending the documents are signed."

Earlier administrator Andrew Andronikou had told BBC Radio 5 live he expected "common sense to prevail".

Gaydamak, Barclays Banks and another former owner, Balram Chainrai, are the Championship club's main secured creditors.

Gaydamak says he has secured debt of more than £2.2m, and Portsmouth claim he asked for an unspecified amount of that to be paid up front and that they were likely to fold as a result.

606: DEBATE
I for one hope that an agreement is made over the weekend and Pompey live, breath and play football for another 112 years. Play Up Pompey

WatP
However, Tim Stocks of Gaydamak's lawyers Taylor Wessing dismissed suggestions the former owner was putting the club's future in danger and added that there were merely some technical details to be agreed before a deal securing the club's future could be signed.

"There was never any demand of £2.5m being paid in cash - there were five or six highly technical points on some of the contracts which I had agreed with the administrator," added Stocks.

"I was baffled and saddened therefore to see announcements saying the club was at the brink, it has caused anxiety for no good reason.

"My instructions are to work towards trying to get an agreement and I hope to do so."

While Gaydamak is owed £2.2m, Pompey's former owner will receive £2.5m in instalments over five years.

Stocks added: "This is a transaction that works for all creditors as well as Sacha so I'm hopeful we will get the paperwork signed. I would like to reassure Portsmouth fans that the club is not on the brink."

Earlier on Saturday Andronikou told BBC Sport that "a very unusual situation" had been "taken to the brink".

I have been monitoring the situation at Portsmouth for several months and trying to do a deal for some weeks

Ex-Hull chief Paul Duffen
But he added: "I think common sense will prevail and all parties will come to the table this weekend - but it has to be this weekend.

"Yesterday evening's activities were really a wake-up call for everybody to say 'look, we just can't sit here whilst everybody else finesses their position. It is about coming to the table and cutting a deal'."

Portsmouth's debt at one point stood at around £120m before they entered administration last season and were ultimately relegated, and Andronikou confirmed a deal worth 20p in the pound to unsecured creditors had been agreed.

Meanwhile, former Hull chairman Paul Duffen has put together a consortium that is interested in taking over Portsmouth.

"I have been monitoring the situation at Portsmouth for several months and trying to do a deal for some weeks," Duffen told Express FM. "I have a fully funded bid ready to go."

Duffen was part of a consortium that bought the Tigers from Adam Pearson in June 2007, the year before they were promoted to the Premier League.

They began the 2008-09 season well but struggled towards the end of the season and only escaped relegation on the last day of the campaign.

Duffen stepped down as executive chairman of the club and Superstadium Management Company Ltd in October 2009, with Pearson returning to the club as chairman.

In February Hull settled a financial dispute with Duffen out of court "on terms satisfactory to the club", after accusing their former chairman of spending company money for his own personal use.

The club had also alleged Duffen's company received payments from agents in return for using those agents to deal with the transfer of players.

Duffen had denied the allegations at a preliminary hearing at the High Court.

newsvote.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/9120575.stm

SO WE WONT GET TOMMY SMITH FOR NOTHING!!!!!! BOLLOX!