Post by QPR Report on Dec 27, 2009 8:27:48 GMT
Makes you wonder about QPR should we ever go up...
Mail
No Christmas pay for Portsmouth: Debts mean Pompey must sell their stars just to keep going
By Daniel King, Mail on Sunday Sports News Correspondent
Portsmouth's players and staff will be forgiven for being short on the Christmas spirit when they check their bank accounts on Thursday. At the end of the last three months, either those struggling on the pitch to keep the club in the Premier League or those firefighting off the field to stop them slipping into administration - or both groups - have neither been paid on time nor in full.
And even if their wages are paid by New Year's Eve, there is not much sign of 2010 being a new start. Over the past few months and years, a succession of businessmen of varying reputation and competence have passed the fit and proper person test of the richest league in the world to take ownership at Fratton Park. Yet one of the Premier League's oldest clubs continue to teeter on the brink of financial meltdown.
Yesterday, Portsmouth slumped to a 2-0 defeat against relegation rivals West Ham, a result which leaves them rooted to the foot of the table. Only once have the club who were bottom at Christmas survived, and the odds are firmly stacked against a happy ending for manager Avram Grant and his team.
Because if everyone does receive their December wages on Thursday, it will be the result of Portsmouth striking deals to sell key players such as French defender Younes Kaboul and England goalkeeper David James, who will move to new clubs as soon as the transfer window officially opens.
And even though the Premier League have given the club special dispensation to receive transfer fees before the window opens, unless they see evidence that the overall financial situation at Fratton Park has significantly improved and proof that outstanding debts to clubs have been paid, they will not lift the transfer embargo in place since October.
Grant, who as a former manager of Chelsea admits he is more used to dealing at the higher end of the table and the transfer market, was already facing a tough task to fill holes in his squad.
Without the ability to bring in players to replace the departing stars and to cover for the clutch of key men leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations, that now looks virtually impossible. Among those going to his continent's flagship event in Angola will be John Utaka, the Nigeria striker whose cross for countryman Kanu set up the only goal of the 2008 FA Cup final.
That triumph under Harry Redknapp, the club's first major trophy for 58 years, is the on-field highlight with which some of those involved seek to justify the current off-field crisis, but Utaka epitomises the reckless overspending that has brought the club to the brink.
Well-placed sources claim his contract costs Portsmouth a staggering £80,000 a week gross. Club officials deny his package is so generous, but admit a company with one of the lowest turnovers in the Premier League are paying some employees Champions League-level wages. Since signing from French club Rennes two years ago, Utaka has made 69 appearances and scored six goals, hardly the return you would expect from a striker who cost £7m and earns such high wages.
Portsmouth hope to sell him in January, possibly back to the Middle East where he spent four seasons earlier in his career. But the Utaka problem would not end even if they did find someone to take him off their hands.
Portsmouth have failed to keep to the payment schedule agreed with Rennes on the original transfer, and Rennes general manager Pierre Dreossi confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that his club are pursuing every avenue, including legal action and a complaint to FIFA, in order to recover their money.
How much do Portsmouth still owe? 'That is between us and them,' said Dreossi. Portsmouth say they have proposed a new timetable of instalments but are yet to receive a response. Rennes are just one of the football creditors Portsmouth will have to satisfy if they want the Premier League to lift the transfer embargo.
Chelsea are owed money from Glen Johnson's £18m move to Liverpool as part of a sell-on clause, Tottenham are due payments related to Kaboul and other players signed permanently or on loan, and cash-strapped Watford are expecting instalments on the transfers of Tommy Smith and Mike Williamson next month.
Football clubs, especially English ones, are unlikely to force the issue with Portsmouth unless it is absolutely necessary, thanks to the 'There but for the grace of God go I' mentality. But other parties may not be so tolerant.
As well as meeting a monthly payroll reported to total £1.8m, Portsmouth must find not only £1.5m to cover December's tax and National Insurance contributions but also about £2m as the latest instalment in clearing their £10m debts to HMRC.
If the decision to charge chief executive Peter Storrie, former manager Harry Redknapp and exowner Milan Mandaric with tax offences is any indication - all three deny any wrongdoing - the taxman is no longer in the mood to treat football with kid gloves.
The Mail On Sunday can reveal that French agent Jacques Perais met his London-based solicitor last week to discuss the £2m he is owed for his work on the £20m sale of Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid last January. Portsmouth, having already defaulted on the original contract, have missed the first two instalments of a revised payment schedule, the latest on December 20, and under a deal signed by Storrie and fellow director Tanya Robins on October 22, Perais can now claim the full sum of 2.25m euros.
Through a club spokesman, Storrie said Portsmouth were presented with a 'fantastic' deal for Diarra and it was standard practice to pay 10 per cent commission to the agent who facilitated it. The club's new owners are reviewing the Perais contract and a number of other deals as part of their efforts to get a grip on the debts, but the contract seen by The Mail On Sunday does not appear to leave much room for manoeuvre.
It is the ability of Perais, Rennes, the taxman and a number of other creditors to force Portsmouth to a new level of crisis that is focusing minds at the Premier League. They have already made it clear they will use all or part of the £7m television rights payment due to Portsmouth on January 10 to pay football creditors such as Chelsea if the club are unable to raise enough from transfers and other sources. But even if all those debts are cleared, those running the richest league in the world want to prevent a situation in which they lift the transfer embargo and Portsmouth bring in new players, only to fail to pay wages or meet debt repayments soon afterwards.
A Premier League spokesman said: 'The player registration embargo remains in place. We are in regular contact with Portsmouth and they are making us aware of any changes to their financial situation.'
The Premier League have also asked for clarification of the role of Daniel Azougy, the lawyer convicted of fraud and barred from practising in his native Israel. Portsmouth insist Azougy is acting as a short-term financial troubleshooter on behalf of owner Ali Al Faraj, not a shadow director or person of influence who would have to pass the fit and proper person test.
Ali Al Faraj's intervention in October saved the club from administration, unseating the laughable 'Dr' Sulaiman Al Fahim as owner after only weeks in charge, but since then Portsmouth have had to borrow £15m from Hong Kongbased businessman Balram Chainrai to stay afloat.
Research has revealed that Al Faraj is not listed as a director or shareholder of any company registered in Saudi Arabia. But there are suggestions that he may have connections with the Saudi Ministry of Defence. If that is the case, it might explain why he is shrouded in such mystery and companies might be held in other names. Sources have also told The Mail On Sunday that Al Faraj trades in commodities, including oil and gold, and that his property portfolio includes a building in the City of London with a value of £48m.
A number of issues remain to be resolved regarding property around Fratton Park owned by another previous owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, not to mention the multi-million pound loans he is said to have given the club. The fact that Chainrai, business partner Levi Kushnir, Azougy and others who have been linked to the club all have links to Gaydamak's father, fugitive from justice Arkadi, only adds to the confusion over Fratton Park. What is clear is that Chainrai, another financial backer or yet another new owner needs to come forward to refinance the club and secure their short and long-term future. And quickly.
On December 18, Companies House registered that Portsmouth had cleared a long-term debt, secured against Fratton Park, to finance house Singer and Friedlander. Despite the short-term cashflow problems, the Al Faraj regime remain upbeat, citing repayments to long-term creditors Standard Bank and Barclays as evidence that the club are in increasingly healthy shape.
Director Mark Jacob, a close associate of Al Faraj, said: 'We are confident that, both on and off the pitch, the start of the year will bring more positive news.'
The first test of that optimism will come on Thursday, when everyone from John Utaka to a part-time steward checks their bank balance.
www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1238589/No-Christmas-pay-Portsmouth-Debts-mean-Pompey-sell-stars-just-going.html#ixzz0asLzG2QY
No Christmas pay for Portsmouth: Debts mean Pompey must sell their stars just to keep going
By Daniel King, Mail on Sunday Sports News Correspondent
Portsmouth's players and staff will be forgiven for being short on the Christmas spirit when they check their bank accounts on Thursday. At the end of the last three months, either those struggling on the pitch to keep the club in the Premier League or those firefighting off the field to stop them slipping into administration - or both groups - have neither been paid on time nor in full.
And even if their wages are paid by New Year's Eve, there is not much sign of 2010 being a new start. Over the past few months and years, a succession of businessmen of varying reputation and competence have passed the fit and proper person test of the richest league in the world to take ownership at Fratton Park. Yet one of the Premier League's oldest clubs continue to teeter on the brink of financial meltdown.
Yesterday, Portsmouth slumped to a 2-0 defeat against relegation rivals West Ham, a result which leaves them rooted to the foot of the table. Only once have the club who were bottom at Christmas survived, and the odds are firmly stacked against a happy ending for manager Avram Grant and his team.
Because if everyone does receive their December wages on Thursday, it will be the result of Portsmouth striking deals to sell key players such as French defender Younes Kaboul and England goalkeeper David James, who will move to new clubs as soon as the transfer window officially opens.
And even though the Premier League have given the club special dispensation to receive transfer fees before the window opens, unless they see evidence that the overall financial situation at Fratton Park has significantly improved and proof that outstanding debts to clubs have been paid, they will not lift the transfer embargo in place since October.
Grant, who as a former manager of Chelsea admits he is more used to dealing at the higher end of the table and the transfer market, was already facing a tough task to fill holes in his squad.
Without the ability to bring in players to replace the departing stars and to cover for the clutch of key men leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations, that now looks virtually impossible. Among those going to his continent's flagship event in Angola will be John Utaka, the Nigeria striker whose cross for countryman Kanu set up the only goal of the 2008 FA Cup final.
That triumph under Harry Redknapp, the club's first major trophy for 58 years, is the on-field highlight with which some of those involved seek to justify the current off-field crisis, but Utaka epitomises the reckless overspending that has brought the club to the brink.
Well-placed sources claim his contract costs Portsmouth a staggering £80,000 a week gross. Club officials deny his package is so generous, but admit a company with one of the lowest turnovers in the Premier League are paying some employees Champions League-level wages. Since signing from French club Rennes two years ago, Utaka has made 69 appearances and scored six goals, hardly the return you would expect from a striker who cost £7m and earns such high wages.
Portsmouth hope to sell him in January, possibly back to the Middle East where he spent four seasons earlier in his career. But the Utaka problem would not end even if they did find someone to take him off their hands.
Portsmouth have failed to keep to the payment schedule agreed with Rennes on the original transfer, and Rennes general manager Pierre Dreossi confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that his club are pursuing every avenue, including legal action and a complaint to FIFA, in order to recover their money.
How much do Portsmouth still owe? 'That is between us and them,' said Dreossi. Portsmouth say they have proposed a new timetable of instalments but are yet to receive a response. Rennes are just one of the football creditors Portsmouth will have to satisfy if they want the Premier League to lift the transfer embargo.
Chelsea are owed money from Glen Johnson's £18m move to Liverpool as part of a sell-on clause, Tottenham are due payments related to Kaboul and other players signed permanently or on loan, and cash-strapped Watford are expecting instalments on the transfers of Tommy Smith and Mike Williamson next month.
Football clubs, especially English ones, are unlikely to force the issue with Portsmouth unless it is absolutely necessary, thanks to the 'There but for the grace of God go I' mentality. But other parties may not be so tolerant.
As well as meeting a monthly payroll reported to total £1.8m, Portsmouth must find not only £1.5m to cover December's tax and National Insurance contributions but also about £2m as the latest instalment in clearing their £10m debts to HMRC.
If the decision to charge chief executive Peter Storrie, former manager Harry Redknapp and exowner Milan Mandaric with tax offences is any indication - all three deny any wrongdoing - the taxman is no longer in the mood to treat football with kid gloves.
The Mail On Sunday can reveal that French agent Jacques Perais met his London-based solicitor last week to discuss the £2m he is owed for his work on the £20m sale of Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid last January. Portsmouth, having already defaulted on the original contract, have missed the first two instalments of a revised payment schedule, the latest on December 20, and under a deal signed by Storrie and fellow director Tanya Robins on October 22, Perais can now claim the full sum of 2.25m euros.
Through a club spokesman, Storrie said Portsmouth were presented with a 'fantastic' deal for Diarra and it was standard practice to pay 10 per cent commission to the agent who facilitated it. The club's new owners are reviewing the Perais contract and a number of other deals as part of their efforts to get a grip on the debts, but the contract seen by The Mail On Sunday does not appear to leave much room for manoeuvre.
It is the ability of Perais, Rennes, the taxman and a number of other creditors to force Portsmouth to a new level of crisis that is focusing minds at the Premier League. They have already made it clear they will use all or part of the £7m television rights payment due to Portsmouth on January 10 to pay football creditors such as Chelsea if the club are unable to raise enough from transfers and other sources. But even if all those debts are cleared, those running the richest league in the world want to prevent a situation in which they lift the transfer embargo and Portsmouth bring in new players, only to fail to pay wages or meet debt repayments soon afterwards.
A Premier League spokesman said: 'The player registration embargo remains in place. We are in regular contact with Portsmouth and they are making us aware of any changes to their financial situation.'
The Premier League have also asked for clarification of the role of Daniel Azougy, the lawyer convicted of fraud and barred from practising in his native Israel. Portsmouth insist Azougy is acting as a short-term financial troubleshooter on behalf of owner Ali Al Faraj, not a shadow director or person of influence who would have to pass the fit and proper person test.
Ali Al Faraj's intervention in October saved the club from administration, unseating the laughable 'Dr' Sulaiman Al Fahim as owner after only weeks in charge, but since then Portsmouth have had to borrow £15m from Hong Kongbased businessman Balram Chainrai to stay afloat.
Research has revealed that Al Faraj is not listed as a director or shareholder of any company registered in Saudi Arabia. But there are suggestions that he may have connections with the Saudi Ministry of Defence. If that is the case, it might explain why he is shrouded in such mystery and companies might be held in other names. Sources have also told The Mail On Sunday that Al Faraj trades in commodities, including oil and gold, and that his property portfolio includes a building in the City of London with a value of £48m.
A number of issues remain to be resolved regarding property around Fratton Park owned by another previous owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, not to mention the multi-million pound loans he is said to have given the club. The fact that Chainrai, business partner Levi Kushnir, Azougy and others who have been linked to the club all have links to Gaydamak's father, fugitive from justice Arkadi, only adds to the confusion over Fratton Park. What is clear is that Chainrai, another financial backer or yet another new owner needs to come forward to refinance the club and secure their short and long-term future. And quickly.
On December 18, Companies House registered that Portsmouth had cleared a long-term debt, secured against Fratton Park, to finance house Singer and Friedlander. Despite the short-term cashflow problems, the Al Faraj regime remain upbeat, citing repayments to long-term creditors Standard Bank and Barclays as evidence that the club are in increasingly healthy shape.
Director Mark Jacob, a close associate of Al Faraj, said: 'We are confident that, both on and off the pitch, the start of the year will bring more positive news.'
The first test of that optimism will come on Thursday, when everyone from John Utaka to a part-time steward checks their bank balance.
www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1238589/No-Christmas-pay-Portsmouth-Debts-mean-Pompey-sell-stars-just-going.html#ixzz0asLzG2QY