football Portsmouth Football Club back in administration

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Portsmouth Football Club back in administration

Portsmouth Football Club has entered administration for the second time in three seasons.

The Championship club faces being penalised at least ten points, dropping them to 21st in the division.

Portsmouth had been issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs on 3 January, freezing the club's bank accounts.

The administration order enables them to access those accounts and continue trading while searching for new owners.

During the hearing, it was revealed that Portsmouth currently owe around ?2m to business creditors, as well as a similar sum to the Inland Revenue in unpaid tax.

It also emerged electricity and gas suppliers have been threatening to cut off power to the club's Fratton Park stadium for non-payment.

Pompey became the first Premier League side to enter administration in February 2010, following which they were relegated to the Championship.

Earlier this week it emerged Portsmouth had received their parachute payment from the Premier League early, however,chief executive David Lampitt told BBC Radio Solent it would be up to the administrator how money in Pompey's bank account - understood to be around ?2.5m - is spent.

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

CSI administrator Andrew Andronikou then revealed that Pompey had missed two tax payments of ?800,000 to HMRC.

It later emerged they currently owe HMRC ?1.9m in unpaid tax as well as between ?4m to ?7m from the previous regime.

The club announced in January that their players and staff had not been paid their wages for that month, as a result of having their bank account frozen.

They later failed to gain a validation order to gain access to their accounts, leaving players and staff at Fratton Park still waiting to be paid.

Former owner Balram Chainrai last week said he was flying to the UK to sort out the stricken club's future.

The Hong Kong-based businessman, who owned the club with Israeli Levi Kushnir through a company called Portpin, is still owed ?17m.

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

However, the Portsmouth Supporters' Trust have claimed that Andronikou is asking them to provide ?100m in proof of funds before any meeting between them could take place.

Source: BBC Sport

[Lingwo]

I can see Pompey folding. How many more times can they go into administration?

As a Southampton fan it would be sad to see them go as we'll have no rivalry.

[mikebiacsi]

I'm in two minds about this, as a saints fan I always like to see pompey in bad times. but on the other hand, like Lingwo said, there is a very real chance that we could lose one of the biggest rivalries in the game which would be very sad.

[Shibby]

I have nothing to say :cry:

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

More bad news:

Portsmouth may not have enough money to finish season

Portsmouth administrator Trevor Birch has admitted the club may not have enough money to see out the season.

Birch addressed fans for an hour at Fratton Park on Wednesday, a day when 33 members of staff were made redundant.

However, he says he was left with little choice but to make cuts as he tries to ensure the club's remaining money lasts as long as possible.

"We are struggling to make the end of the season," Birch told BBC Solent.

Portsmouth entered administration last week for the second time in three years, for which they were docked 10 points by the Football League to leave them in the Championship relegation zone.

Players and staff have not been paid since December, and chief executive David Lampitt was made redundant on Wednesday along with other senior members of staff.

Birch also revealed that he will meet with a players' representative on Thursday and the squad will be asked to defer some of their wages until the end of the season.

Birch also told fans Pompey's administrator also told fans he will make the decision over whom the club is sold to - rather than major creditor Balram Chainrai, who is owed ?17m.

He hopes Wednesday's redundancies will be the last at the club.

"It was a purely economic decision that we had to make," Birch said.

"We have a very small amount of money that we have to stretch out for the rest of the season and David and his fellow directors have joined with other redundancies that we have had to make.

"I feel sorry for them as they have all worked so hard over the past few months in difficult circumstances, but we have to try and get to the end of the season.

"That's it now in terms of the redundancies. We don't expect any more; we do it in one foul swoop and hopefully that will take us through to the end of the season."

Pompey's squad is thinning by the week with injuries also limiting manager Michael Appleton's options, and Birch revealed that the Football League will not allow them to bring new players in.

"The cash available is worse than we first feared," said Birch.

"Some of the bits of assumptions that were made in terms of income to take us forward we've now taken a more conservative view on that. We've got to conserve the cash to make sure it takes us through to the end of the season.

"The Football League will not let us bring any players in and they don't want us to have a competitive advantage when we still owe clubs money.

"If we have less than 14 fit players then they will allow us to bring someone in."

Birch is open to the idea of a fans consortium buying the stricken club, adding: "We won't rule out at all a supporters trust buying the club if that is the best game in town and certainly we will look at it. They can bid on their own or along with another interested party."

Source: BBC Sport

[sila]

As much as I hate to say it and see any team collapse, I wish Pompey would hurry up and fold already. They have absolutely nothing left to offer professional sports except running up more and more and more debt and getting other people into situations (such as the utility companies) whereby they are supplying something they just will not pay.

I could understand if this was the first time and they just needed some time and help, but they have been running themselves into the ground for some years now, entering administration numerous times and should never have been allowed to get into the position.

Given the frankly ridiculous wages footballers demand for very little actual work Portsmouth will be far from the last team to collapse.

[Arachno 1D]

Too many clubs owe too much in debt but blaming the wages bill is not the reason for their demise just a scape goat.As in any buisness there comes a point when its unviable to continue trading and aside from that no buyer is going to sink 20 million into a bottomless pit.Supporter buy out is just a whimsicle idea nothing more so close the club and start afresh if you want to but at this time its just dragging out the end result.

[sila]

At a football club the wages bill is always one of the highest, if not the highest bill they have to pay. IMO it's entirely unjustified, but there are many many clubs paying more out in wages than their turnover in a year, from the premiership down.

Granted there should been a lot better management so that it was never an issue in the first place. But it's a pretty bad situation when the s*** hits the fan instead of clubs saying "Hey, how about taking a reduction from ?50,000 a WEEK down to say, ?30,000 for a while to help out the club?" they keep paying them these extortionate amounts at the expense of utility companies, HMRC, even down to office staff. The clerks and office admin who earn half of the amount in a year some of the players do in a week have several times had pay witheld at Pompey over the payment of the players.

This has to stop. There are many reasons Pompey are failing that is just one small part, but they need to do the right thing and just roll over already.