Joensuu

Last time they were mentioned in the Gazette was 29th Jan (confirming the Winding Up Order) http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/59321/pages/1551

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Pompey-prepare-statement-for-court.6074736.jp

For the sake of the rivalry, I'm actually one of the few left who want to see you survive. Despite you doing the best you can to persuade me otherwise. 27 hours left (at least Storrie hasn't been spending this morning blabbing to the media. If he's not careful people might end up thinking he's actually in Irish-American meetings. Perhaps he's just trying to find the shredder, or learn how to hide cells in Excel.... that'll scupper HMRC's case).

****-poor - maybe. Desperate - not really. Accurate - absolutely. I'm sure 'FC Pompey' wiki page will have a nice heading at the top to keep the two seperate clubs connected though: "The original Portsmouth FC was an English football club that existed from 1898 to 2010"

That was the year you got promoted up to Div 3, hardly suprising that your 'fans' crawled out from under their rocks... ...but what happened once you established yourself in a Div 3, yes that's right 2 seasons later, and your home attendance fell to 8,544 (ouch)

Next years 'Combined Counties' league table: Ash United Badshot Lea Banstead Athletic Bedfont Bookham Camberley Town Chertsey Town Chessington & Hook United Colliers Wood United Cove Croydon Dorking Egham Town Epsom & Ewell FC Portsmouth Guildford City Hanworth Villa Horley Town Molesey Raynes Park Vale Sandhurst Town Wembley At least the skates can look forward to a trip to Wembley next year. With such a tasty line up, thousands, maybe tens of thousands will flock to Fratton, I mean Westleigh Park

Are you dissociating yourself there pf3123? I understand, the cresent must be a shameful badge to have to wear.

I'm sure their will be surge for the first month or so (say 7-8k), but that will soon ease off, and before long 2-3k will be the norm. Until you're promoted from the Combined Counties, you'll undoubtedly be the biggest fish in a very small pond.

They'd go for a bye every time...

I'm sure they've acquired the name, it's the 'League 2' bit that's wide of the mark. The leagues know that attendances will be significantly down, on frankly not many to start with. AFC Skates would be lucky to scrape together 2-3k fans. As for potential fanbase, Dudley & Croydon both have far larger populations but no league team, towns such as Poole & Maidstone are not far short of Skatesville for potential fanbase (were either even in the Premier I'm convinced they could find 16k fans!). Frankly, new teams should start at the bottom of the heap (AFC Wimbledon's 9,000 fans only got offered to start in the Combined Counties league (tier 9!). Although hearing skates talk about back to back promotions and 'real football' etc will grate a little (but you know where they'd rather be!)

4pm come and gone... 48hours left

Why would anyone think the EPL have £11million just hanging about in a bank account? They would have to either borrow the money, or ask Sky for early payment... hmmm, "Dear Mr Murdock... "

How bad must their season be if the think beating a league one team is something to print on a t-shirt? http://www.zazzle.co.uk/southampton_1_v_portsmouth_4_saturday_13th_feb_tshirt-235547652027129923

Good to see he has his priorities right... if playing a league one team in the cup is a 'big' game, then where does that leave the relegation stuggle? small?

What's the betting that they submit the paper work, then before the court case try and throw a late spanner in the works by staging a takeover by Levi Kushnir (or perhaps a re-takeover by Al Mirage)? Wonder if Registrar Derrett will fall for the ploy and grant them yet more time?

Begovic relieved to leave pompey: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stoke_city/8512831.stm (wonder if he's as 'relieved' as Grant was?)

I can't believe anyone is taking Storrie's nonsense seriously! No quotes or facts at all. The Premier League would be opening themsleves up to massive litigation issues if they bend the rules. Has Sky already paid next season's payments to the league? How else could the Premier League pay any of next season's money early? As Scudamore points out, the Premier League isn't a bank, it doesn't hold millions in reserve:

Looks like it will only be around 40K. The club should put pressure on the Football League asap to try and avoid another c*ck up like Luton S****horpe. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/5000631.Saints_in_line_for_40_000_Wembley_tickets/

Bugger. Their must be some way we can offer our TV money to Haiti or something (and shame the Premier club for not following suit)?

Oh yeah £120,000 wasn't it? Hmmm, if we pay the police well, they might even end up owing us money...

45% of the gate money works out to about £400K before any matchday expenses or tax are taken out. I hope Cortese is paying the police very well for this game... Ooh, didn't notice at the time, but 13,000!

Mostly, yeah. Only a secured creditor, or the court itself, can now put pompey into admin. Who knows whether Chainrai is now legally the owner, or still a secured creditor? I guess by this time next week HMRC will know...

Perhaps he means it in a condecending liberal middle class way, you know: 'One of my best friends has... I can barely bring myself to say it, but one of my best friends has the misfortune of being a skate' 'Oh how frightfully shocking, how ever do you cope? Do they wash themselves? Well I suppose we all need to do our bit for charity'

"District Judge Timothy Workman adjourned the case until April 14 and released both men on unconditional bail. " http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5002058.Ex_Saints_boss_in_court_over_tax_evasion/

Don't take it personally! I'm broadly in agreement with you that they are in the brown stuff. I disagree that the only thing that would save them was a deal with HMRC, at any point in the last fortnight: a new investor could have appeared (very unlikely); Chainrai could have put his hand in his pocket (possible, but unlikely); the Premier League could have intervened (very unlikely), etc. Until Tueday night either self-imposed admin or a deal with HMRC were by far the most likely outcomes. Neither of them would have saved the club, but both would have bought them (crucial?) time. But by no streach of the imagination was a deal with HMRC the only way to avoid liquidation! Here's my take on what the odds were, and how they changed, as you can see, I felt that the odds on the case even getting to court were slim, and once they were their the odds on liquidation unlikely: I also disagree that HMRC 'wanted' to wind them up. Quite simply, HMRC were handling Pompey as they would any company. Sure they were probably annoyed that instead of looking for ways to pay, Pompey looked for ways to not have to pay. Once a case has got as far as the court room of course the prosecution will be pressing for the hardest possible sentance, I bet they did exactly the same for Cardiff and Southend (difference being the Registrar could see that they both have attempted to pay their bills, not attempted to avoid payment, and have almost acceptable repayment schedules going forward; Pompey haven't and don't). Which brings me to my last point, the Registrar didn't take the 'jobs' into consideration - she said she couldn't herself. She gave them a very short period of time to prove their 'investor' claims. The 'jobs', one man protests etc were simply not considerations. Broadly, I agree with you, that barring a new investor (or Chainrai losing his marbles) they are well and truely shafted.