Post by QPR Report on Mar 30, 2010 6:56:43 GMT
Guardian/Owen Gibson
Football League to be sent Pompey dossier following their relegation
• Premier League to pass on information once Pompey go down
• Richard Scudamore defends lack of regulation
The Premier League has promised to pass on its hefty dossier on Portsmouth's tortured ownership structure and financial affairs to the Football League when the stricken south coast club are relegated.
The club's owner, Balram Chainrai, who could remain in control through a Company Voluntary Arrangement to clear the club's debts if the administrator does not secure a buyer, has never been subjected to the Premier League's fit and proper persons test.
As such, it would fall to the Football League to apply its own test next season. Under the Football League's new chairman Greg Clarke, who has declared that "transparency is a wonderful thing", it would also have to decide if Chainrai or a new owner complied with the rest of its rulebook.
The Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, who has been criticised by some Portsmouth fans for allowing the club to rack up unsustainable debts under a string of unsuitable owners, launched a robust defence of its model but admitted the League's image had been damaged by the episode.
"Has it done some damage? Yes it has. When a footballer gets caught misbehaving in a nightclub it has a similar effect. I can't sit here and deny its not good for the Premier League. But it is a very compelling, enduring thing we do, this football."
But he said that, ultimately, clubs must be left to make their own investment decisions, repeating his assertion that only "rank-bad management" could lead to administration given the level of central funding poured into clubs from TV contracts.
"The only guarantee would be if you regulated them to the last degree and the fans don't want that, no one wants that," he said. "Every club has to be allowed to speculate and only the directors of that club can assess, ultimately, the risk they are prepared to take."
The Premier League brought in new rules in March that require clubs to provide forward-looking financial information but they were too late to prevent Portsmouth becoming the first club since the league was formed in 1992 to tip into administration, with debts of £78m, and incur a nine-point penalty.
Scudamore said the new rules had reduced the risk of it happening again "down to a minimum". But pointing to Fulham's victory over Juventus in the Europa League, he said that removing the ability of owners to speculate would prevent smaller clubs from being able to compete.
"It's the same rule book and the same model that gave you Portsmouth that has also given you Fulham and the fact is Mr Platini and his people would not want an owner to put in 'x amount' of his own money in a year to sustain a loss-making club," he said. "I will protect to the nth degree the ability of a Mohamed Al Fayed to do what he has done at Fulham"
Michel Platini's Uefa is seeking to bring in new Financial Fair Play rules that would force clubs to break even, aside from investment in stadia and facilities, but the Premier League is arguing that proportionate benefactor funding should be allowed.
Portsmouth, currently in administration, have had four owners during a turbulent season when they have broken a string of rules by not meeting transfer payments and failing to operate with "goodwill" towards their fellow clubs and the League.
Scudamore said that the Premier League had sought reassurance that the club's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, would be able to see the club through to the end of the season and had a long-term plan. He said it was "in a much more stable place than it has been for some considerable time".
It now appears the Premier League may have been misled on several occasions during the tortuous recent ownership saga. Last season, it sought reassurance that Sacha Gaydamak, and not his convicted gun-runner father Arkady, was the ultimate beneficial owner of the club.
But Pompey's former chief executive Peter Storrie last week admitted that the money may have been his father's after all. The club was also listed by Gaydamak senior in an Israeli court as being among his assets.
Last week an Israeli judge ruled that Gaydamak Sr, currently exiled in Moscow after being convicted of arms trafficking by a French court, would be made bankrupt if he didn't pay the US$46m (£31m) he owes to Chainrai and his business partner, Levi Kushnir.
He was originally ordered to pay the money in September 2009 after reneging on an agreement to buy shares in Ameris Holding Company. The court heard that he systematically bought companies and put them in the names of his children.
The consortium, fronted by property and horse racing businessman Rob Lloyd, and backed by a mystery UK-based investor, is believed to be confident of this week making progress in its bid to take over the club.
But Andronikou said this weekend there had been "no progress" in his efforts to find a buyer. He said last week that if a buyer could not be found in the next four weeks, Chainrai would retain control through a CVA..
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/29/football-league-premier-league-portsmouth-dossier
Football League to be sent Pompey dossier following their relegation
• Premier League to pass on information once Pompey go down
• Richard Scudamore defends lack of regulation
The Premier League has promised to pass on its hefty dossier on Portsmouth's tortured ownership structure and financial affairs to the Football League when the stricken south coast club are relegated.
The club's owner, Balram Chainrai, who could remain in control through a Company Voluntary Arrangement to clear the club's debts if the administrator does not secure a buyer, has never been subjected to the Premier League's fit and proper persons test.
As such, it would fall to the Football League to apply its own test next season. Under the Football League's new chairman Greg Clarke, who has declared that "transparency is a wonderful thing", it would also have to decide if Chainrai or a new owner complied with the rest of its rulebook.
The Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, who has been criticised by some Portsmouth fans for allowing the club to rack up unsustainable debts under a string of unsuitable owners, launched a robust defence of its model but admitted the League's image had been damaged by the episode.
"Has it done some damage? Yes it has. When a footballer gets caught misbehaving in a nightclub it has a similar effect. I can't sit here and deny its not good for the Premier League. But it is a very compelling, enduring thing we do, this football."
But he said that, ultimately, clubs must be left to make their own investment decisions, repeating his assertion that only "rank-bad management" could lead to administration given the level of central funding poured into clubs from TV contracts.
"The only guarantee would be if you regulated them to the last degree and the fans don't want that, no one wants that," he said. "Every club has to be allowed to speculate and only the directors of that club can assess, ultimately, the risk they are prepared to take."
The Premier League brought in new rules in March that require clubs to provide forward-looking financial information but they were too late to prevent Portsmouth becoming the first club since the league was formed in 1992 to tip into administration, with debts of £78m, and incur a nine-point penalty.
Scudamore said the new rules had reduced the risk of it happening again "down to a minimum". But pointing to Fulham's victory over Juventus in the Europa League, he said that removing the ability of owners to speculate would prevent smaller clubs from being able to compete.
"It's the same rule book and the same model that gave you Portsmouth that has also given you Fulham and the fact is Mr Platini and his people would not want an owner to put in 'x amount' of his own money in a year to sustain a loss-making club," he said. "I will protect to the nth degree the ability of a Mohamed Al Fayed to do what he has done at Fulham"
Michel Platini's Uefa is seeking to bring in new Financial Fair Play rules that would force clubs to break even, aside from investment in stadia and facilities, but the Premier League is arguing that proportionate benefactor funding should be allowed.
Portsmouth, currently in administration, have had four owners during a turbulent season when they have broken a string of rules by not meeting transfer payments and failing to operate with "goodwill" towards their fellow clubs and the League.
Scudamore said that the Premier League had sought reassurance that the club's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, would be able to see the club through to the end of the season and had a long-term plan. He said it was "in a much more stable place than it has been for some considerable time".
It now appears the Premier League may have been misled on several occasions during the tortuous recent ownership saga. Last season, it sought reassurance that Sacha Gaydamak, and not his convicted gun-runner father Arkady, was the ultimate beneficial owner of the club.
But Pompey's former chief executive Peter Storrie last week admitted that the money may have been his father's after all. The club was also listed by Gaydamak senior in an Israeli court as being among his assets.
Last week an Israeli judge ruled that Gaydamak Sr, currently exiled in Moscow after being convicted of arms trafficking by a French court, would be made bankrupt if he didn't pay the US$46m (£31m) he owes to Chainrai and his business partner, Levi Kushnir.
He was originally ordered to pay the money in September 2009 after reneging on an agreement to buy shares in Ameris Holding Company. The court heard that he systematically bought companies and put them in the names of his children.
The consortium, fronted by property and horse racing businessman Rob Lloyd, and backed by a mystery UK-based investor, is believed to be confident of this week making progress in its bid to take over the club.
But Andronikou said this weekend there had been "no progress" in his efforts to find a buyer. He said last week that if a buyer could not be found in the next four weeks, Chainrai would retain control through a CVA..
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/29/football-league-premier-league-portsmouth-dossier
