SaintBobby

If only it were that simple. What seems to be at stake is that the way the takeover happens will have a substantial evidential impact on any appeal over the points penalty. The two matters can't be easily divorced. FWIW, I think we deserve the ten point penalty, but should still fight it. If the legal advice is that the FL are on shaky ground, then sock it to the FL. It's naked self-interest, but so what? We're not here to be fair, but to fight for our interests.

SSN: exclusivity period expired at 5pm. Other bidders can now enter the fray. The bid is in serious jeopardy. FL meets on Monday afternoon, emergency meeting, to resolve the matter. Pinnacle say "extremely frustrated, some legal matters outstanding - not least the FL's position on SLH and SFC." As it stands, MLT may not come to the club at all. Fry will talk with Pinnacle and other bidders over the weekend.

My (optimistic) analysis is that Pinnacle, Mark Fry and SFC are on solid ground here. (This is partly based on the view that the FL are a total shower, so in any dispute are probably in the wrong) The football club has continued to trade - has met its bills etc. SLH is now being liquidated and SFC will continue, this drives a coach and horses through the League's case that SFC are SLH are basically indivisible. I can't see how the League can object to a division of SLH's assets. How can they insist that if you want to buy the football club, you have to buy Jackson's Farm too?

SSN update: New company to be set up by Pinnacle to take on SFC as a "going concern", but not other SLH assets. SLH has gone into liquidation/administration/to the wall. Hold up is Football League who may "end up with egg on their face" over the ten point penalty. "All is not lost for Saints fans"

http://twitter.com/dailyecho

Daily Echo scotch rumour of a 7pm press release. No such schedule exists.

SSN reporter "it's like buying or selling a house...it doesn't happen" !!!! :-( Also reports if deal goes through Pinnacle will launch legal action to try and expunge the 10 point penalty.

hmmm...looking that way.....still a modicum of time left though....

The snag being it was NEVER scheduled. Cretin.

did they tell you that at the 12.30pm press cofnerence or the 2.30pm press conference?

Maybe...but if we don't finish by close of play, why not assume it drags on till Monday. Is today's deadline 5pm/close of business or midnight?

if you believe the ITKs, you are often going to be disappointed....

Mike seemed to assert that Keegan made his name "down here in the 1980s". KK being England captain and European footballer of the year prior to signing for Saints must have passed Mike by....

Football League holding up the deal.

I don't know. But interesting theory. If SLH's assets are being split in different directions, it might help "prove" that SFC and SLH are not as connected as the FL assert,

I can't see how the FL can stop an appeal, but am not sure that's the issue. I don't pretend to understand the technicalties, but would guess that the paperwork we have lodged with the league would aid or assist our appeal if the FL sign it off.

Nice thought, but I think sympathy from others will be thin on the ground. Firstly, a successful appeal may mean we get promoted in place of another team. Secondly, we will be seen to have "got off" on a technicality (not unreasonably so)

Can the FL do this? I would have thought there are certain things they need to check re: fit and proper persons test. But can they block the takeover just because they don't like our intention to appeal or disagree with the new owners re: the legality of the points deduction? I'd say Pinnacle should hold firm. Even if this means the press conference being "pushed back" to Monday. Other than the frustration for all of us, does it matter if the final closure on the deal is shortly after the expiration of the exclusivity period? I doubt Marc Jackson will come up with a more credible offer than Pinnacle between now and Monday. Although I guess he will probably make a total t*t of himself by trying...

Gary Cotterill - the SSN reporter - did say that the hold-up was based around the new owners seeking to extricate the club from the points deduction and that this was detailed and technical (and he wouldn't go into the full detail because it was complex business techno babble). Mark Fry has, however, phoned the reporter to say he remains confident that the deal will be completed today. At a (total) guess, I'm assuming the paper work sent to the Football Laegue says something along the lines of "Southampton Football Club, which is and has always been a going concern, is to be tranferred to Pinnacle's ownership. Southampton Leisure Holdings, who have gone into administration, have had their assets split in the following ways. Blah blah blah" Presumably, a sign off on such paperwork by the FL coudl aid an appeal on the points deduction.

So, I guess the press conference has now been "pushed back" to 4pm...

He said 12.30pm - but that this had now been "pushed back" to 2.30pm. There's a big difference between some of the rumours that may be speculative (e.g. "a friend works at St. Mary's and has just seen Mark Fry- bearing a pearl-handed revolver and a bottle of whiskey - walk into his office and lock the door behind him") and other supposed pieces of information that are verifiably wrong (e.g. "I hear we are playing Leyton Orient on the first day of the season" when the fixture list says otherwise or "I hear there is a press conference scheduled for noon" when the press office know absolutely nothing about it). An annoying thing about posts of the latter type is there is usually a determination to insist the original info was in some way accurate. So we get something like "Well, it isn't Leyton Orient we are playing, but my source was right that it was a team from the east side of London" or, whenever a press conference finally happens, insisting that the originally "planned" press conference had been "pushed back" to this time.

There was NEVER a press conference planned for 12.30pm. I honestly have no idea where people like you get this nonsense from. It's hardly a nudge, nudge, wink, wink about a highly secret matter. Your source, if he exists, is so unreliable he even gets these sort of straight forward organisational matters wrong. It's as fantastical as him having an alternative view of the fixture list. I really wish people wouldn't post such total garbage. Or would at least have the courtesy to explain how their "information" turned out to be so completely 100% wrong afterwards.

Assuming confirmation equals a major media outlet stating it as fact (and being right), then - if it happens - 11.01am today.

No adult membership scheme at all this season: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/Membership/0,,10280,00.html

I guess all will be revealed at the press conference at 12.30pm, right?