angelman

Damn - I'm good!

Can HMRC levy a fine on their bill for PFC submitting an incorrect return and being late? If so the punishment on this is up to 100% of the amount outstanding so this could take their slice up from £17.1m to £34.2m, which puts a different perspective on their importance to the CVA.

Come on guys the sum of debt isn't important to anyone interested in taking over the club. AA said that so it must be true. But I am really confused about the debt and how quickly it is mounting. Has AA come out with any explanation as to why it is now £16m more than it was 2 weeks ago?

Dubai, I don't think halving wages is the answer. Halving £40k+ is still leaves wages far too high even with para payments. It comes back to chairmen not planning for the eventuality of relegation. They should not give big salaries/contracts if they are unsustainable if relegated.

I know that AA has previous for malpractice, and I have a sneaking suspicion that he is walking a very very fine line with this one. If Chainrai does end up buying the club for 10 or 15p having appointed AA, then that would lead to a lot of questions. No doubt it would end up in court. BUT Having said all that, why bother working hard to sell the club? No one in their right mind would pay as much as is needed. Footballing debts (which as we all know have to be paid in full) are what? £38m? Plus Sol Campbell's £2m odd? Plus any others - who knows? So let's say £40m. Then that leaves £80m of debt. HMRC is going to hold out for the full amount, and one of these days they will get the Football Creditors law (quite rightly) over turned. So they will leave admin without a CVA or end up in liquidation. Either situation, without a squad to boot, makes £50m+ look very unappealing. So why bother trying to sell something that is SO overpriced that no one is going to take it?

I might be blind, but I didn't see the £1.8m owing to Sol Campbell anywhere. Has he dropped this? I thought it was just deferred.

What happens if Pompey aren't allowed to play in CCC? I presume that the timings will be too late, for the top 3 of L1 to go up and spots 4-7 to go through play offs for the fourth spot. Anyone know what would happen?

why choose May 6th? Can't he have chosen a better date than that of the General (and local) elections?

I heard that the last time it erupted it went on for 2 years. So potentially we could have disruptions on and off for years!! Make sure your holiday insurance is up to scratch.

the FL have to agree it. And I can't see why it is good for the FL. It means that the relegated teams have a huge advantage over those that are trying to work their way up. If clubs cannot plan for all eventualities that is their fault. Maybe they should not give their players such lucrative and, more importantly, such long contracts in the first place. They should also put in clauses concerning relegation. I realise that that makes things harder to attract players, but tough. it is systematic of the problems with the PL where you have half a dozen teams with sugar daddies or huge TV incomes and then there are the rest who try and compete and live way beyond their means. The PL has no interest in making it a level playing field and want those half dozen to be able to field teams that others cannot compete with. I really do think that they have half an eye on the Champions League as this is an advert on the PL. If teams do well in the CL then it is perfect advertising for them. Therefore to me the PL is fatally flawed. What is the point of having a competition where most of the teams have no chance what so ever of winning it, let alone finishing in the top 6? Not only that, they (the PL) have created a situation where the remaining 14 teams or so can only survive in the competition by sailing seriously close to the wind with a good chance that they will go under. The people who are really to blame are the chairmen. They are all unrealistic about their clubs' abilities to compete. To appease fans, they strive for success at all costs, and those costs really cannot be met. The PL wave this big golden carrot under their noses and the chairmen snap it up as quickly as possible. I am not sure about the situation at Burnley, but as far as I understand, they are more realistic about things (but of course I could be wrong). They seem to realise that the PL is way beyond their means but they refuse to bankrupt themselves in the vain hope of competing. This is at risk of relegation, and the fans who have waited so long to get to the top, seem to accept it. For that reason I hope they survive.

From what he said earlier, he seems to have his head screwed on. He mentioned Theo and Bale making big moves and then warming the bench. He realises that he is still young and that another year at Saints will make a big difference to his footballing career. To be honest, if he was to move at the end of the season, then he should go to the CCC rather than jump up to PL. If that was the case, then he might as well stay in L1.

It's an April Fool's day joke.

For tolls - use http://www.mappy.fr (I think that there is a UK version) as this will give route and costs of tolls. I am not sure how up to date they are. I used to live in the South-West for a few years, and depending where you are crossing, it is relatively easy to get to and not to expensive. For the town, ignore Biarritz and look at Bayonne instead. North of Bayonne, there is about 100 miles of beaches that you can choose from. If you do go this way, I like going from St. Malo which is 435 miles and the link says that the toll costs are eur 22.20. This is because a lot of the way is free dual carriageway rather than autoroute. http://fr.mappy.com/#d=Saint-Malo%2C+France&d=Bayonne%2C+France&lm=r&p=itinerary And then if you want somewhere really quite interesting, you can pop over the border and go to San Sebastian. If you do do this, I will warn you that the tolls for the small bit of autoroute for the main crossing are, in my mind, a rip off. It says eur 3.80 but not sure how accurate. You can google all this. http://fr.mappy.com/#d=Bayonne%2C+France&d=San+Sebasti%C3%A1n%2C+Espagne&lm=r&p=itinerary

Not a top priority is one of the most bogus arguments I have ever heard. It's not like he is going to do it himself as well as trying to do everything else. While it might be expensive to do, it will be impossible for any potential buyer to complete due diligence without having had a full forensic investigation of the books. So that would make the club unsellable until that has been done, which goes against what he is supposed to be doing. OK, getting the wage bill down is of EQUAL importance, but the 2 have to be done. The only reason I can think of for this inaction, is that I presume City of London police and the Fraud Squad are circling. Maybe they can do the forensic investigation and save PCFC from having to pay for it. Having said that, I am very surprised that they (the Fraud Squad) haven't come down already. Maybe with all these off shore accounts, it is hard/impossible/lengthy to do. One thing for sure is that if £xx million has been laundered for, say hypothetically, a gun runner, then the authorities are going to look both rather stupid and inefficient as well as not looking upon PCFC too kindly.

I think that the 73,468 who turned up might disagree. I think we would all swap this for promotion but it's better than nothing. Well done Saints.

I wouldn't be surprised if HMRC get cut out from being a preferred creditor, that they may take this to court to get a landmark ruling. To be honest, it is ridiculous that they aren't a preferred creditor or even a secured creditor, and at some time, I am sure that they will look (again) to change this. http://www.thelawyer.com/opinion-the-ins-and-outs-of-the-football-creditor-rule/1003625.article

Is that going to be SAFs or Mirage's bîatch?

yes

The PL have washed their hands of Pompey. The 9 points all but guarantees relegation and if not more poop hits the fan between now and May, then the problem goes elsewhere and the PL doesn't have to worry.

Am I being overly cynical, but doesn't it seem strange that all these big investors crawl out of the woodwork just before a court case? And then after the court case, they disappear as if by magic?

I was proud that SMS had the 3rd highest crowd in the country yesterday with only Spurs and Chelsea being higher (albeit the two games today were higher).

From the ESPN link: Lloyd hopes to enter into a confidential and exclusive arrangement ahead of putting up the £30 million the administrator wants to help pay off some of the more pressing of the £70 million debts & Lloyd plans to assume the position of club chairman, backed by a consortium including a New York hedge fund and a "major investor", believed to be the South African investment firm Old Mutual. The administrator wants more details. If you were a major investor and/or a hedge fund, you have to ask - why? Therefore I have to think that they are either {1} stupid (which would be a surprise as they are still in business) are {2} crooked or {3} the story is bulls hit.

Although Israel does not extradite it's people, they do try them in absentia. Up to 1977 USA and Israel did have a treaty but no longer. Having said that USA is a little tricky and people are still a bit scared of being done there so they do a bunk back to Israel. Russia won't extradite anyone here. Look at the plutonium poisoning James Bond spy stuff that went on a few years back. Then you have to see where it is possible to turn around loads of money in a short time. The PL has far too much money swilling around, so a £100m or so can disappear for a few months while the perpetrators can do a runner. Which all leaves Peter Storrie in a bit of a tricky spot!

would love it if Chainrai gets his fingers burnt. He seems to have ****ed things up and HMRC are after him as well as PCFC. Not sure why I feel that about Chainrai, possibly because he thought he was more intelligent than everyone else and was going to walk away with a profit.

Are we creditors or did they pay us £120k for their SMS tickets?