I had to comment on the piece in the Grauniad yesterday. It's blatantly fabricated nonsense.
Balram Chainrai set to stay at Portsmouth as sale options narrow
• Balram Chainrai the only candidate 'who ticks all the boxes'
• Administrator hopes to finalise deal within four to six weeks
Balram Chainrai, Portsmouth's fourth owner of a turbulent season, could remain in charge of the club for the long term, it has emerged, after the club's administrator said he was the only potential owner who "ticks all the boxes".
Andrew Andronikou, who yesterday secured agreement from the Premier League to trade outside the transfer window and is looking to raise £20m to £30m from player sales, is working on a plan that would see Chainrai remain in control of a restructured club.
"He definitely has the wherewithal and I do believe he has the club's interests at heart [1]," Andronikou said. "He has given us full support throughout the whole process. At the moment he is the only one who ticks all the boxes. [2]" The administrator said there were no obvious credible buyers [3] despite interest from a consortium fronted by the property tycoon Rob Lloyd.
Many fans who hoped for a fresh start will be concerned over the continued involvement of a man closely linked to the club's messy past and the cast of characters involved in it. Chainrai, who advanced a £15m facility [4] to see the club through administration, has been involved since last October, when he loaned £17m to the Ali al-Faraj regime through his company Portpin Ltd. He claims he became operationally involved only in January after becoming concerned about missed payments, and later seized control.
"Without sounding like his PR agent, they stepped in at the right time," said Andronikou. "Without their involvement, the club would have been in dire straits. [5]"
Andronikou said he hoped to complete a deal within four to six weeks. Chainrai has previously said he has no interest in long-term ownership of the club [6] and his spokesman said this week he "wants to be repaid his loan and move on". But it has emerged that he may feel his only option is to retain control of the club [7], with Andronikou – the joint administrator on behalf of UHY Hacker Young – preparing to put a Company Voluntary Arrangement to creditors owed about £65m.
Chainrai may feel he has no other option but to stay on as owner [8] if he is to recover the £13.5m he is still owed. In January, as the club battled to avoid administration, he was repaid £4m of the loan he injected in October.
If creditors agree the move, it could leave Chainrai in control of a club with no debt, a far lower cost base, imminent income in the form of parachute payments and TV revenues and control over Fratton Park and the land around it.
Such an arrangement would require Chainrai to put more money into the club [9] to settle with creditors, who would be offered part payment of debts, but the CVA could be structured over several years, minimising upfront investment. With parachute payments worth at least £16m, player sales of up to £30m and the possibility of raising money against future revenues, he could bring in substantial amounts in the summer.
The Premier League has agreed to allow Portsmouth to sell players before the transfer window opens – although those players will not be able to play for their new clubs until next season – and Andronikou hopes to shift at least 10 first-team players, raising up to £30m [10], and slash the wage bill in preparation for life in the Championship.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, which raised concerns about links between the administrator and Chainrai but has since dropped its opposition to the administration, would be likely to oppose any such arrangement but could be powerless to block it.
The administrator has denied any links and said yesterday he was "not at all" concerned about perceptions if Chainrai remained in control.
"Ultimately, my responsibility is to the creditors. We have got to make a proposal to them that they feel is right. The personalities don't really come into, in terms of who the charge holder is or who they could be."
Andronikou would not be drawn on Chainrai's long term plans: "I think he just wants to do the right thing to make sure the club survives. [11] As long as the club survives, his money is alive. Who knows from there? It could be a brief love affair or a long one."
Andronikou said yesterday that there were no obvious buyers for the club, but added that one may yet emerge. "The other option is that the company stays at it is, that the current owners stay with the company and that we exit through a CVA with a restructured overhead base," he said.He added: "My remit wasn't necessarily to go out and find a buyer, it was to restructure and get it onto a level playing field. In the last six or seven months Portsmouth has become a bit of a hot potato and passed around. We're not going to pass a slightly cooler potato to someone who we don't think is going to be credible [12]. We've got a duty to make sure it stays in the right hands."
HMRC, owed at least £15m, would oppose any move to pay creditors anything less than the full amount they are owed but may be powerless to prevent a CVA, which would offer them a certain proportion of their debt, being agreed. A CVA needs to be supported by 75% of the total creditor base. Sacha Gaydamak, who claims to be owed more than £30m, is the biggest single creditor. If he were to agree to the CVA, he would also be likely to hand over the key pockets of land surrounding the ground.
"Sacha is the largest independent creditor and will have to agree the CVA. I have to say they have been supportive throughout the whole process [13]," said Andronikou.
Andronikou said yesterday that it was still "early days" for his promised investigation into the club's murky finances over the past eight months and that it was too soon to comment on claims that sums of at least £1.5m may have gone missing from the club's client account in January [14].
[1] So he hasn't actually told you that then, Andy?
[2] You forgot the box that says "I am interested in owning the Club", Andy.
[3] No surprise there then, Andy.
[4] That would be the same facility that the Judge described as "a prospect, but no more than a prospect of funding" then, Andy?
[5] Lucky they did become involved then Andy, to make their straits now so much less dire. (What was the name of that album again, something to do with brothers?)
[6] But he was only kidding, Andy, wasn't he?
[7] So he hasn't actually told you that either then, Andy?
[8] Or that, Andy?
[9] Good luck there, Andy.
[10] Half the first team are on loan, Andy. Remember that. You're not allowed to sell those ones.
[11] He didn't actually tell you that either then, Andy?
[12] But you're trying to pass it to somebody who doesn't want it, Andy.
[13] Slip of the tongue, Andy? Sacha is plural? There's more than one of him?
[14] Illicit payments for the loanees signed in January, Andy?
It's utter nonsense. AA is trying to create Plan 'C', and force it down Chainrai's throat. I can't see that going down too well.
Plan 'A' is to find a mug to buy the club and pay back Chainrai's debt. That's not going too well at the moment.
Plan 'B' is to liquidate the Company once it has enough cash to pay back the secured creditor's in full. AA is working on that one. Player sales, advances on future income, etc.
And Plan 'D' is for AA to get out quick. That's why the debt is now climbing through the roof. "The true facts of the level of debt were concealed from us by the CEO and the SoA"?
And Her Majesty's finest are watching closely.
