rallyboy

Graham Taylor gets it, in today's Express - There have been clubs who have been knocked out of the FA Cup by Pompey who had abided by all these regulations. So there is an argument over whether they should really be in this Wembley showpiece. Something inside me says, well done for getting this far. But another part is asking, should you really be there because there are many other clubs who have not got themselves into your position financially and have run themselves properly? So just a little bit of me is uneasy.

I've been reading a legal document this morning and it concerned director's responsibilities, it just made me think that there must be dozens of offences committed in this case. There's no way they can all get away with it, especially as AA's plan involves liquidation and a full investigation 9mths down the line. He will have departed the scene by then and will hope it all goes away, but it won't. Be patient, it might take points penalties over the next few seasons to sort this one, they will regard the passage of time as an excuse for the criminal activity. 'But it's not our fault' the new owner will squeal, no, but you bought the club with all of these legal problems hanging over it, and that's why it was so cheap, so it is your problem. If they look at every offence there will be penalties aplenty!

I blame David Cameron, and to a lesser extent Nick Clegg.

Grant won't be leaving, he has a job to do, you can't break his spirit, he will forever stand shoulder to shoulder with the fans, he loves them, he loves the club, they've been cheated, the table lies, he will fight for the club forever!! Well, until 20mins in on Saturday when they are three down and his mind starts wandering..... Men who make money from porn.....and they own a financially-fragile football club.....mmmmm, sounds like his perfect job. They might even let him splash out on some youngsters.

That creditors list is a piece of fiction as is the debt figure, but we don't know where it is on the £60M-150M spectrum. I personally know of one case where AA says they are owed £20K and the puzzled creditor denies it. If he has ludicrously inflated it to leave his client as the only worthy owner it's backfired because it's just cost him an extra £17M from the taxman. He seems to have a loose business plan to obtain for his master a business that can generate maybe £70M in the next four years. The additional parachute money was a bonus but the fact that it goes to football creditors first along with 20% of transfers is a blow. Add in the fragile nature of his house of cards and it could all fall down any day, possibly next week when a few things should become clearer. Nice try AA but I still think it will unravel and when it does it will be like Maradona's first big signing at the Harbourside Superdome - Messi.

any due diligence will also have to factor in future points penalties following the Storrie gang's date in court, I'm sure AA will mention that to the queue of interested parties. So creditors are now being told that a company assured of £48M, possibly advanced, can't pay more than 20p in the pound. Good luck with that one. Come on taxman, we've waited long enough, get in there.

to throw them out of the cup would have been a massive gamble - an appeal through some dodgy legal route could have led to all kinds of complications, a points penalty was much simpler to impose, or withdraw if challenged. We now have a week until the firesale begins and the club slips into the welcoming arms of those reasonable people at the FL, they love a good legal battle. If AA and Grant start telling them what should happen as they did with the Prem, the FL will keep whacking the penalties on until they zip it. Hopefully the Prem will also pass on all files they have gathered on Pompey but have been too frightened to act upon. They have one final game, a farewell to the bigtime, and if AA's ridiculous plan for the future comes to pass, maybe a farewell to the football league for a generation.

didn't learn anything we haven't already debated here from that programme, I suspect the BBC lawyers were all over it and the best stuff is on the cutting room floor. I presume Storrie denies the programme even exists and Grant will blame Husband for their final defeat of the season. It's not fair etc.

he's thick. He had no idea there were money problems, he didn't bother prossies, he just had them massage his non-dangly areas, the league table is lies and he believes all the club's woes are down to other people. Poor bloke, like the club he's just a victim, of his own stupidity. He has managed to go from respected coach to idiot in six months without passing go and certainly without collecting his £200.

AA having established a selling price in his own mind still appears no closer to securing that little formality that has thus far proved elusive - a buyer.... I'm impressed that the taxman has managed to get his own deal up to 40p in the pound but I reckon he still wants the lot. And AA's masterplan of announcing a future liquidation not only gives the FL time to rewrite the rulebook in advance so they can hit them very hard but won't it also mean that any parachute payments will halt with the closure of the company they were due to?

I think most people had doubts after ten seconds. Looks like he might have to turn to Chanrai as the best option for the club after all. No doubt he'll be the only one willing to try and save it for the fans etc, how fortunate, AA will continue to chase away any other parties with a dirty stick. The next part of this oh so predictable soap will be the sad and reluctant exit of tearful Avram, if only he'd been given some assurances he could have stayed, (cue squealing tyres and tail lights heading up the Eastern Road at 120mph) Great fans, fantastic club, sleeping giant, deserve success etc, it'll be another Harry script. Despite all these amazing positives about the place, funny how all of them still bugger off.... And I didn't begrudge Paul Hart yesterday, he's had a ridiculous season and a last day relegation would have been a bit harsh on the bloke, especially as he's still owed money by at least one club and his current employer runs out of cash today. He's had enough misery.

Grant said 'We have played some very good football all season. A lot of teams in the Premier League do not play as well as we do. 'We have shown we're a good team on the pitch playing football. 'The fans have been magnificent this season and once again they were fantastic for us' As Kamara would say, 'unbelievable Jeff!'

just been told off for shouting 'pervert' at the tv.

if the Premier League wants to force a breakdown of relationship with the FL it will damage both parties. They don't see that there's power on both sides - the FL teams could refuse to enter the FA cup, no more relegation, just cosy membership, same old sides playing each other, Wigan/Wolves v Bolton/Fulham again and again - that'll please Sky no end. Viewing figures will drop, re-negotiation of tv money, less all round, back to the drawing board. And Sky will have to pay a premium price for the lower league games and don't tell me they won't want Leeds v Millwall or a L2 playoff final. I would be curious to know the precise relationship between FL and FA as well. If the FA has responsibility for the sport then the Premier League's plans are clearly not in the interests of the sport as a whole and that leaves the competition outside of FIFA's control, it would be a competition purely for TV entertainment and with no international recognition - world wrestling anyone? No Champion's League entry, no Prem players representing their countries?.... How about Scudamore shuts up, fecks off, stops hassling the rest of the sport and lets someone sensible negotiate properly and fairly.

not a bad milestone post, better than some of our previous damp squibs and if we're looking for a contribution that captures the atmosphere of a moment in time - Stu has summed it up pretty well with 25,001!

been away for a year, could someone just briefly sum up what's happened? Has Maradona opened the new stadium yet? Will it be ready for their champions league group games?....

Talking of unlikely European campaigns - Fulham - servicing all their debts, taking an average bunch of players and making it to a European final without funding it from stolen charity money - that's what I call a football fairytale. The only connection I see with Pompey's 'great adventure' is that they're both incapable of taking 150 to some away games. And AA has convinced himself that everyone he deals with is an idiot and cannot see through his wafer thin plans - the taxman's gonna string him up one day soon and I for one will chuckle as his little legs twitch.

how could Azougy be responsible for anything? He was never a shadow director, he was purely there in an advisory capacity, he wasn't required to pass any fapp test as he had no power in his part-time, voluntary, consultant role. Unless that version of events is now doing a u-turn along with so many of the others?.... If they are going to tell fibs they really need to try and get some continuity and remember what they said last time they were asked. It's not been a criminal masterclass thus far. Reminds me of that Keystone Cops silent movie when they did arms-dealing, charity-theft, money-laundering, relegation and fraud in quick succession - with hilarious consequences. And it's nice to see the original inspiration for Brokeback Mountain, walk in any saloon looking like that and you'd be in trouble.

If Bill's Bathrooms refused to pay plumbing suppliers and was chucked out of the Toilet Federation the taxman wouldn't care less, they just want their money in line with other creditors, anything else is an irrelevant internal dispute. So could the taxman individually challenge each football club who choses to pay creditors at a different rate to protect their league status, instead of challenging the original Prem 'guideline'? What the league imposes on it's members has no bearing on UK law and if a club leaves itself outside the league structure that's between them and the league, not the taxman's problem! Football seems to be elevating itself to an unacceptable status and things have changed since their first defeat, and that's why the taxman will be all over this again very soon.

Add the vast agent fees and the odd payment to those involved in loan deals, stick the inflated wages and image rights fees on top and we are talking maybe £10M spent on that handful of 'cheap' loanees for six months.

perhaps you were right Nick, I may have been a tad premature in my earlier judgement! I recall when we were on the rocks I did a casual analysis of what I was actually supporting, I attended the last games just to put cash in with no expectation of entertainment nor success - and those games didn't disappoint! I certainly wasn't supporting the board, the players didn't deserve it, even the ground had changed in recent times so the only continuity I was left with was the badge on the shirt. That's where the likes of PIR must be getting to. He also needs to accept that even if people like O'Hara themselves haven't cheated, their presence is clear evidence that the club has cheated, and the illegal cup run can't be blamed on past owners. When I see O'Hara in that shirt I just see the money that should have been paid to charities and local businesses. They could have paid off debts, but no, they chose to bring in overpriced loanees. And the worst thing with the charity theft is that the money wasn't owed to them as a commercial debt, it was raised and then stolen to finance Grant's glorious fairytale - possibly the most disgusting case of bringing the game and a city into disrepute in football history? Very guilty of cheating, no defence at all - next case.

if parachute payments are forwarded to clear football debts and the season ticket money 'disappeared' before August - there would remain a business with restructured debts to pay off, and with an income of exactly zero. However you look at the figures they just don't add up as a going concern. Slashing the season ticket prices to get the punters to cough up now looks to me more like a speedy cash generator than a big favour to the few - the asset-stripping continues. And before anyone says you can't build flats on Fratton, it's designated for 'open air leisure', and if there's no football club it's quite simple, if there is still a club then it would require some legal work, but not much.

spot on Wes, that was the point I was making about the likes of PIR being sensible but there are many out there still spouting rubbish about it being unfair, the debts of Livepool and Man utd being worse than theirs etc. And everytime pervy Grant opens his mouth something ridiculous spills out. Many of the few are just happy to be at Wembley and ignore where the money came from. But since the creditor list went public the rest of football knows how they got there.

it's odd - yes we may have been a bit smug and annoying guessing what's going to happen next (!) but let's be honest here, it hasn't been rocket science - HUGE expenditure + tiny income, what was likely to happen?... So tell me, how can a large section of their fanbase still not grasp - 1.The historical irregularities. 2.The current sham of a semi-administration. 3.What the gloomy future might hold..... Pompey stole from charities to pay the likes of O'Hara and that's sunk in to some and there's shame and a dignified silence, but many still don't get it - what will it take to get through to the majority of the few?

There's definitely been a shift in public opinion, many papers carried scathing Portsmouth stories over the weekend, the 'plucky Pompey battling against the odds fairytale' has unravelled bigtime. The cup win's been exposed and is forever tainted, this year's cup run is just plain illegal, and if the quoted points penalties for next season appear I would start to feel that justice has been served. And the majority of their fans will need to take that on the chin without continuing to defend those that have robbed charities.