Pompey Takeover Saga

[Pamplemousse]

From POL

 

For 25mins the ref was on something.Tempted to think it was almost an agenda. Of course it couldn't have been could it?

 

My own opinion is that he wanted to show he would not be intimidated by the home crowd. We've seen that before at Fratton.

 

The referee was terrible. They got away with it from the off.

 

He was clearly out to make some sort of point

 

Definitely think he had an agenda from higher up before the game the way he performed he was so awful for a current Prem ref there could be No other conclusion which is scary really we have seen it a Fratton so many times this season.

 

Its always gutting when you lose to a dirty team. And worse still when they are aided by a ref.

 

this is division four how hard can it be given our size for cook with his knowledge of this league to get us promoted.

 

just as you're walking back to your car you hear Scummers had won and their new signing was the scorer, talk about being kicked when you're down....

[Waterside.saint]

Some great cut and pastes there Dan from the deluded few - so I guess this is kind of the Oxford forum's response - http://www.yellowsforum.co.uk/thread/22819/why-pompey-fans

 

Lots of golden posts there for PTS regulars to dissect and quote :-)

 

Enjoy!

 

Rich pickings indeed, here's one that made me cough my Sunday afternoon beer onto the screen:

 

'Why do Pompey fans have such... yesterday at 11:30am

Post by bashamwonderland on yesterday at 11:30am

I always used to like Pompey before I read their forum. Their fans chat more sh*t than Liverpool's. Like it or not, their natural stature cannot rise higher than League 1 or at the very best the bottom of the Championship for as long as they are owned by the fans. Now just a jumped up little club in a crumbling stadium. Quite fitting really. I suppose you can't blame the fans for being bitter, they were playing AC Milan a few years ago and now they play Barnet'

 

I think they've been sussed.

Edited 24 January, 2016 by Waterside.saint

[Mr Biscuits]

Well obviously that can only be comments from a few disgruntled Oxford fans because everyone knows that the whole football pyramid is in such awe of Portsmouth Community Football club.

 

[\sarcasm]

[Mr Biscuits]

And I'm still mystified as to why there is such celebration of a game they managed to draw. I personally don't think a draw is much cop no matter who the opponent is

[trousers]

Some great cut and pastes there Dan from the deluded few - so I guess this is kind of the Oxford forum's response - http://www.yellowsforum.co.uk/thread/22819/why-pompey-fans

 

Lots of golden posts there for PTS regulars to dissect and quote :-)

 

Enjoy!

Some honoury nutjobs on that thread. Glad to see its not just us that can see through their self-congratulatory delusion.

 

[emoji38]

Edited 24 January, 2016 by trousers

[Colinjb]

Some great cut and pastes there Dan from the deluded few - so I guess this is kind of the Oxford forum's response - http://www.yellowsforum.co.uk/thread/22819/why-pompey-fans

 

Lots of golden posts there for PTS regulars to dissect and quote :-)

 

Enjoy!

 

I noticed one of the more moronic contributors to Pompey's 'FansOnline' posted that they 'always took the Manor'. I think he is confusing 'taking the Manor' with 'spending a while in the London Road before being forcefully evicted when the home fans arrived.'

 

The sort of re-writing of history typical of clubs whose fans remain deluded about both their past reputation and their current status. Must hurt to now be firmly in Southampton's shadow.

 

Read more: http://yellowsforum.co.uk/thread/22819/why-pompey-fans#ixzz3yBo71hZV

 

Glorious

[Golden Balls]

That Oxford lot have their heads screwed on.

[rallyboy]

Even by his standards, twelve days is a record for Harry Redknapp!

 

14th Jan - joins Wimborne board.

 

Today - NEW chairperson Paula Henley has issued a "cry for help" to save Wimborne Town after due diligence uncovered debts of approximately £110,000.

Henley revealed monthly losses of between £6,000 and £8,000.

[igsey]

Even by his standards, twelve days is a record for Harry Redknapp!

 

14th Jan - joins Wimborne board.

 

Today - NEW chairperson Paula Henley has issued a "cry for help" to save Wimborne Town after due diligence uncovered debts of approximately £110,000.

Henley revealed monthly losses of between £6,000 and £8,000.

 

How does he keep getting jobs??

[spyinthesky]

Will be interesting to see how Pompey get on against Bournemouth Reserves this Saturday

 

I thought that perhaps our squad players/second string would give Pompey 1st team a decent game, and perhaps they would, but familiarity/teamwork often [pays dividends over technically better individuals

 

Eddie Howe has a tricky decision to make

 

Bournemouth should be good enough to avoid the drop but he needs a degree of certainty set against the prospect of a decent cup run

 

Hope they wallop the plucky Pompey team

[Mr Biscuits]

How does he keep getting jobs??

 

Cos he's a top, top manager innit. T'riffic.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

I almost hope they win everyone can laugh at their increased delusion and self congratulatory drivel..

 

But on the other hand would like to see them ship double figures.....

[Wes Tender]

Glorious

 

I particularly loved the responses to the poster who mentioned the Skates as the third club on the South Coast, only to be reminded that Brighton and Hove should also be included ahead of them. And then the wags started with Plymouth, Eastleigh, Bognor Regis and Havant and Waterloovile. Also great to see the comment in response to the superior arrogance of the Skate who said that only recently they had been playing Milan and were now reduced to playing Oxford. He says that the history of the game in England confirms that apart from Swindon, Oxford have been their most numerous opponent.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I almost hope they win everyone can laugh at their increased delusion and self congratulatory drivel..

 

But on the other hand would like to see them ship double figures.....

 

I want them to go through after a tiring reply , then next round , right up to losing on pens in a 1/4 final reply . With that & the weather theyll need to play about 9 games in 3 weeks come the end of the season . Obviously I hope the cup games are at poxy little grounds where they get little money from it . I can put up with the delusional " cup fever " if it means another year in Div 4

[Gorgiesaint]

Even by his standards, twelve days is a record for Harry Redknapp!

 

14th Jan - joins Wimborne board.

 

Today - NEW chairperson Paula Henley has issued a "cry for help" to save Wimborne Town after due diligence uncovered debts of approximately £110,000.

Henley revealed monthly losses of between £6,000 and £8,000.

 

Harry is staying on in an advisory capacity according to the Bournemouth Echo

 

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/14229152.Wimborne_Town_could_face_closure_with_debts_of___110_000/

 

Would be very sad to see the club go under, remember that day out at Wembley in 1992 when they beat Guiseley 5-3.

[Hatch]

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/pompey/the-hefty-pompey-cost-for-a-moment-s-thrill-1-7176229

 

Especially considering it is the ninth reported incident involving Pompey this season alone.

 

Other reported incidents during the campaign to have been brought to the FA’s attention include two more pitch invasions, two cases of racism, two instances of smoke bombs and an instance of coin throwing.

 

It total they represent incidents at nine of Pompey’s 32 games so far.

 

Catlin said: ‘The thing which upsets me personally, more than anything else, is 99.9 per cent of Pompey fans are the most sensible, passionate and loyal fans in the country

:lol:

 

 

Nothing changes down there. Same old Same old.

[Pamplemousse]

Corporate Ho a.ka. Banker has a message for us over on POL! This is in reply to Northampton being in financial difficulty

 

I assume the scum "nutjobs" will be emailing their MP's and journos demanding that Northampton be hit with points deductions for financials irregularities.

 

And I know they'll be reading this so - "hello girls, you sad ***ts"

 

 

And in response, the Portsmyths start stirring...

 

Of course they conveniently forget their own brush with administration & their CVA which was from memory 0p in the £.

There's hypocrite's then there's some scummers.

 

if Le Tissier's taxi driving consortium had taken over they could be where we are or worse now. They got lucky

 

Pretty sure it did come out & it was 0p in the £. About 4-5 yrs ago. I remember there was some embarrasment about it. Some of theirs of course just "forgot" about it.

I was not really bothered about them except when we played them, no though I really dont like them because of the behaviour of some of their fans emailing & petitioning the FL to get us shut down & thrown out etc.

If they went bust I think I'd be mainly non plussed either way but perhaps a bit happy that those previously mentioned have got their comeuppance.

 

:mcinnes:

[rallyboy]

Aaaah, the imaginary CVA.

Next up, the SS tank driver myth, or perhaps the fantasy dock strike.

 

But remember Nutjobs, it only needs to be spoken out loud in a Portsea pub and it's a fact!

[Batman]

Corporate Ho a.ka. Banker has a message for us over on POL! This is in reply to Northampton being in financial difficulty

 

 

 

 

And in response, the Portsmyths start stirring...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:mcinnes:

 

Who cares. They are the most bestest, passionate-est, loudest, craziest fans in the whole wide world.....

[trousers]

One thing Saints and the club that now plays at Fratton Park have in common is that neither have had a CVA

[Chez]

Markus paid 0p in the pound as a result of an imaginary CVA? That's brilliant.

 

I can see it now. Fry hands over the keys to Markus (who presumably has just handed over the square route of **** all) and says to him: "The banks? Oh don't worry about them Markus, they said `forget what you owe and go ahead and enjoy yourself'."

[Mr Biscuits]

CVA?

 

What CVA would that be?

Also, wouldn't a CVA paying 0p in the £ be an oxymoron?

Feel free to correct me but thought the whole point of a CVA was that you pay back at least something on agreed terms. Why would any creditor agree one that pays them nothing?

 

Unless of course said creditor is a charity and your name is Portsmouth Football Club of course

[mcjwills]

Markus paid 0p in the pound as a result of an imaginary CVA? That's brilliant.

 

I can see it now. Fry hands over the keys to Markus (who presumably has just handed over the square route of **** all) and says to him: "The banks? Oh don't worry about them Markus, they said `forget what you owe and go ahead and enjoy yourself'."

 

No the actual statement was "You do not have to worry about the CVA just park your Tank outside the ground Markus with your fellow SS Officers"

[Lets B Avenue]

Nice to see late winners tonight for Orient and Mansfield. Its getting interesting.

[The9]

I do wonder that we don't do enough on here to dispel the Portsmyths. There's a lot of p155-taking but occasionally we should probably dissect a few with some facts, just to prove how comically ill-informed they are.

 

The "0p in the £" CVA is indeed hilarious. To be clear to the idiots, there was no CVA because Markus bought the club and paid all the creditors their outstanding debts in full, so there was no need for a CVA, a reduced sum agreement, to be in place.

 

The debt was £30m in total, with £24m of it being the cost of the stadium owed to Aviva and the £5m debt to Barclays (which when it was cut to £4m forced the club into administration). Plus a couple of million of other late and unpaid costs (e.g. staff and player wages).

 

Paid in full.

[The9]

Nice to see late winners tonight for Orient and Mansfield. Its getting interesting.

 

I beg to differ re: the Orient winner (which apparently was a dodgy-as-hell-penalty), but bigger picture and all that.

[trousers]

I do wonder that we don't do enough on here to dispel the Portsmyths. There's a lot of p155-taking but occasionally we should probably dissect a few with some facts, just to prove how comically ill-informed they are.

 

The "0p in the £" CVA is indeed hilarious. To be clear to the idiots, there was no CVA because Markus bought the club and paid all the creditors their outstanding debts in full, so there was no need for a CVA, a reduced sum agreement, to be in place.

 

The debt was £30m in total, with £24m of it being the cost of the stadium owed to Aviva and the £5m debt to Barclays (which when it was cut to £4m forced the club into administration). Plus a couple of million of other late and unpaid costs (e.g. staff and player wages).

 

Paid in full.

Yeah, but apart from all that, it was exactly the same as Pompey's multiple administrations, innit guv?

[rallyboy]

And never try to explain the difference between the holding company and the club, that is proper advanced.

[saint lard]

Harry Redknapp took over as director of football at Wimbourne FC as few weeks ago........they've just had an emergency meeting and are about to be liquidated for running up debts of £110K.......

Blimey he's the kiss of death financially to football clubs.......what a coincidence.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shance]

Hi guys. Not been a member long but I've been reading this thread for years so thought i'd finally post something.

 

I tend not to pay attention to what they say down the road tbh. I was in the Navy for 13 years and was obviously based in Portsmouth for the majority and although a few members on a fan site can't really be used as a yard stick to judge a whole fan base, the majority of their fans genuinely do believe some of the **** that's posted on that forum. The amount of times I've heard about the 0p in the £ CVA is hilarious. The fact that a CVA was designed to pay creditors a reduced fee based on remaining funds and has to be agreed to by the creditors themselves seems to allude them somewhat. What creditor who is owed millions would agree to be paid nothing? In any case, a CVA simply didn't exist in our case.

 

Anyway, the pleasing thing about the whole situation is that they can babble on about History, administration, CVA's, Dock strikes and under water stadiums all they like. The fact of the matter is, they are at the lowest ebb of their clubs entire history and are extremely bitter about it. That's why history and attendances (**** knows why they bring up attendances when conversing with Saints fans tbh) are brought up so much. I just tend to sit back and smile when I hear it nowadays as it's funny.

 

Anyway, please continue.

Edited 27 January, 2016 by Shance

[Weston Super Saint]

Harry is staying on in an advisory capacity according to the Bournemouth Echo

 

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/14229152.Wimborne_Town_could_face_closure_with_debts_of___110_000/

 

 

To be fair, keeping 'Arry on is a very wise move indeed. After all, who has more experience than him of being involved with clubs who have spunked all their money

[trousers]

I assume the scum "nutjobs" will be emailing their MP's and journos demanding that Northampton be hit with points deductions for financials irregularities.

 

And I know they'll be reading this so - "hello girls, you sad ***ts"

 

 

Greetings. How's the fairy light job going? It's a step up from toys I guess.

[Shance]

There's a bigger issue here. Yes, Saints paid in full as they should great. Pompey didn't, continued to write off debt and rip off charities, local community and so on.

 

But fans of any club just have to hope their club is run well, or acts in the right way. The only reflection on us is how we react to it. i don't blame any Pompey fans for their club being a mess or dodgy finances. It's the constant lying about it and making up rubbish about other clubs to try and make it ok that reflects badly on them.

 

What's wrong with 'the club fcked up, we didn't like it, got what we deserved and want to move on'.

 

This is bang on the money. I've got a couple of friends that are unfortunately pompey fans and they always say that their recent history is an embarrassment. Rather than the majority who just make up ******** to justify it.

[Mr Biscuits]

It comes from having a great big massive chip on the shoulder about their nearest geographical rivals.

 

The way I see it is this

 

1) they ONCE were our biggest rivals

2) they ONCE were bigger than us

 

 

but these two FACTS apply to over 60 years ago now when Portsmouth was a major Naval base and Britain still had an Empire.

So what we have is, in essence, a small club down the road that was once great but is no longer and it has a significant proportion of fans who cannot cope with the FACT that all the cool kids support Southampton these days.

[Golden Balls]

There's a bigger issue here. Yes, Saints paid in full as they should great. Pompey didn't, continued to write off debt and rip off charities, local community and so on.

 

But fans of any club just have to hope their club is run well, or acts in the right way. The only reflection on us is how we react to it. i don't blame any Pompey fans for their club being a mess or dodgy finances. It's the constant lying about it and making up rubbish about other clubs to try and make it ok that reflects badly on them.

 

What's wrong with 'the club fcked up, we didn't like it, got what we deserved and want to move on'.

 

Nail on head.

 

When you get a skate who accepts that, they gain respect. Unfortunately they're few and far between and genuinely believe the ******** they make up.

 

0p in the £ of an imaginary CVA is hilarious though. What a bell.

[Chez]

I do wonder that we don't do enough on here to dispel the Portsmyths. There's a lot of p155-taking but occasionally we should probably dissect a few with some facts, just to prove how comically ill-informed they are.

 

The "0p in the £" CVA is indeed hilarious. To be clear to the idiots, there was no CVA because Markus bought the club and paid all the creditors their outstanding debts in full, so there was no need for a CVA, a reduced sum agreement, to be in place.

 

The debt was £30m in total, with £24m of it being the cost of the stadium owed to Aviva and the £5m debt to Barclays (which when it was cut to £4m forced the club into administration). Plus a couple of million of other late and unpaid costs (e.g. staff and player wages).

 

Paid in full.

 

The outstanding debt was completely cleared when Markus bought the club, but were the two main creditors really paid in full?

 

It was reported at the time that the debt was £27.5m. Approximately £4.5m to Barclays Bank and £23m to Norwich Union. It was also reported that Norwich Union were willing to write off a considerable amount of the outstanding loan to any buyer. Maybe that wasn't true, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of offer as they risked losing the lot if no buyer was found. It was reported that Markus paid between £13m and £15m, but nothing was disclosed so I am not sure how this figure reached the press. Maybe that was the initial fee and then subsequent payments were made - although I think that goes against the general `all debts' have been paid' line.

 

It is worth noting that a debt of £20.4 million appeared on the Saints balance sheet (a loan from Markus to the club) after the admin, with £2.9m of cash in the bank. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but perhaps that suggests the real fee paid for the club (and subsequently to Barclays and NU) was more like £17.5m, with Barclays and NU agreeing to write off roughly £10m between them?

 

I believe there was talk on this forum of an additional payment to NU should we make it to the premiership. Is this true? What was this figure and did it ever appear in a subsequent financial statement?

 

One last thing. I know the `paid in full' conclusion was made by someone on these boards based on the theory that if you add up all the payments made to NU they roughly came to the same amount as the initial loan. But of course that means NU didn't earn any interest on the loan.

 

I am probably miles off here, and I'd be grateful if someone could explain how and why. We certainly didn't pay 4p in the pound, or ripped off local businesses and charities, but was the final agreement more like 64p in the pound (if my maths are right) than 100p in the pound?

Edited 27 January, 2016 by Chez

[hutch]

It seems to me that if you ask somebody how much they will accept to settle a debt and they say 10 million now and another 5 when you get back to the PL, then if you give them the 10 million and the 5 million then you have paid them in full.

 

Also I know that if I ask my bank how much it would cost to settle my mortgage they give me an imaginary number that includes all kinds of early settlement fees and penalty interest and interest in lieu of notice and all that malarkey. The Parties agreed a figure and it was paid.

 

I have no doubt NU got their money back, but I doubt if it was their most profitable investment.

[eurosaint]

The outstanding debt was completely cleared when Markus bought the club, but were the two main creditors really paid in full?

 

It was reported at the time that the debt was £27.5m. Approximately £4.5m to Barclays Bank and £23m to Norwich Union. It was also reported that Norwich Union were willing to write off a considerable amount of the outstanding loan to any buyer. Maybe that wasn't true, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of offer as they risked losing the lot if no buyer was found. It was reported that Markus paid between £13m and £15m, but nothing was disclosed so I am not sure how this figure reached the press. Maybe that was the initial fee and then subsequent payments were made - although I think that goes against the general `all debts' have been paid' line.

 

It is worth noting that a debt of £20.4 million appeared on the Saints balance sheet (a loan from Markus to the club) after the admin, with £2.9m of cash in the bank. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but perhaps that suggests the real fee paid for the club (and subsequently to Barclays and NU) was more like £17.5m, with Barclays and NU agreeing to write off roughly £10m between them?

 

I believe there was talk on this forum of an additional payment to NU should we make it to the premiership. Is this true? What was this figure and did it ever appear in a subsequent financial statement?

 

One last thing. I know the `paid in full' conclusion was made by someone on these boards based on the theory that if you add up all the payments made to NU they roughly came to the same amount as the initial loan. But of course that means NU didn't earn any interest on the loan.

 

I am probably miles off here, and I'd be grateful if someone could explain how and why. We certainly didn't pay 4p in the pound, or ripped off local businesses and charities, but was the final agreement more like 64p in the pound (if my maths are right) than 100p in the pound?

 

I guess that there is a difference between 'paid in full' and 'all debts settled' but as long as all parties agreed to the deal (it didn't go to court, so we must assume that this was the case) then it is actually fair and equitable and certainly totally different to a CVA !

Had we used the Skate approach, the creditors would have been well f#cked, so whatever the actual details, we don't need any lectures from the fishy few !!

[Mr Biscuits]

A few years ago I got into a spot of bother with some credit cards, I didn't do a full blown CVA but instead agreed a repayment plan. I stuck to it for about 18months and then borrowed 2k from my dad and offered it to the bank as a lump sum final payment - I think the total debt was around 3.5k then. They accepted it and wrote off the remainder. It's just a business decision based on what they are being offered now and what they are likely to get in the future. Happens all the time. Unless you're the skates of course who just don't pay. (BEANS etc)

[benjii]

I think Markus did the following:

 

- paid off all the small creditors in full (ie. Terry the builder), although these were relatively limited;

- reached an agreement with Barclays and Norwich Union (or was it Aviva)?

 

I'm pretty sure that NU/Aviva did not receive the full balance remaining but I think they did receive a pretty decent chunk (purchase price was reported to be about £15million) plus a bonus payment of several million when we got to the Premier League. I recall a payment in the accounts of about £6million, I think.

 

The main differences between Saints and Pompey are:

 

i) when we did actually become insolvent, Lowe put is in admin - we went "by the book";

ii) pompey traded insolvently for ages and actually went out signing players on tick when they were clearly insolvent in the January window;

iii) we were never used as a money-laundering front;

iv) we were never "owned" by someone who did not exist or, if he did, was just a name to cover a bunch of other individuals;

v) we were never owned by mafia;

vi) our lawyers have never been fined for channelling our funds improperly through their account;

vii) we did not leave a raft of unpaid footballing debts (players, clubs, small trade creditors etc);

viii) we did not leave a raft of other unpaid debts (local schools, charities, small businesses etc);

ix) we paid all our taxes.

 

Basically, we overspent, accepted the consequences and were lucky enough to find an owner who paid everyone in full apart from some institutional lenders whose job is to accurately price the risk of lending and who have deep pockets and accept it as a business risk. Even then, they got a decent amount back and certainly not the 0.4% of 0.2p in the £ or whatever it was that PFC paid. There was no suggestion of improper conduct.

 

The other myth around our insolvency was that we somehow tried to weasel out of a points punishment due to the group's corporate structure. Again, this is complete nonsense. The structure pre-dated the footballing sanction insolvency punishment rules and was a legacy of the debt structuring for the stadium finance. Perfectly normal. When we got in trouble we pointed out that technically it was the holding company not the football club in admin and the rules might be read in such a way as not to apply the points penalty but when we were told to get lost, we accepted it.

 

A favourite Portsmyth also relates to the fundraising match that was cancelled due to lack of interest. This is probably true but also not surprising. Bucket rattling was never going to raise the £10million + needed and, even if it did, wouldn't provide a long-term solution. On that basis, I, a long-term season ticket holder was never moved to throw some coins in a bucket or stump up to some amateur event. It would have been pointless. No lack of passion, just a bit of rationality.

 

Pompey, of course, were run criminally or recklessly for years by a succession of unusual characters and shafted loads of people. That's a fact.

 

As others have said, it's not the fans' fault but there is no equivalent in English football when it comes to plumbing the depths that the Skates plumbed.

[rallyboy]

Pretty much sums it up.

The criminality surrounding the old club (with the history) was unmatched in the English game.

 

This new little club did very well to leave all that stuff behind.

[Batman]

I'm sure this is all just wishful thinking....surely

 

http://fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/view.php?id=617672

[teamsaint]

my recollection is that NU got £7m up front, and further payments that were triggered on promotion.

[Chez]

It is worth noting that a debt of £20.4 million appeared on the Saints balance sheet (a loan from Markus to the club) after the admin, with £2.9m of cash in the bank. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but perhaps that suggests the real fee paid for the club (and subsequently to Barclays and NU) was more like £17.5m, with Barclays and NU agreeing to write off roughly £10m between them?

?

 

Point of order, on further research I can confirm I was barking up the wrong tree here. The £20.4 loan that appeared in the accounts was at the end of 2010 so had nothing to do with the fee paid for the club. I don't want to be responsible for creating another myth.

 

I believe the sum paid to Norwich Union on making the Prem was approximately £4m.

[CB Fry]

I'm sure this is all just wishful thinking....surely

 

http://fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/view.php?id=617672

 

"30k compact footy ground still called Fratton Park. Prem occasionally but only to take the money and run. Keep our soul."

 

"Take the money and run" basically means get promoted and then go straight back down, then. That's how you keep the souls of the bestest most genuine soulfulest souls in all of world football.

[trousers]

One other thing that separates Pompey's administrations (plural) and ours (singular).... I don't recall us having a politician fighting for us who seemingly had a useful contact in HMRC...

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?14620-Pompey-Takeover-Saga&p=1252544#post1252544

 

Many thanks for this. I do not say such things lightly, not least because my other half is a tax man, however I have to disagree with your assessment of HMRCs actions.PFC has paid all tax it owed- near to £15 million since Oct 2010. They missed the deadline for December and 2 working days later final demand was issued- which was delivered late to the club, arriving after the deadline for payment had passed. Rather than waiting until 10th February HMRC announced a winding up order on New Years day. Leaving aside the additional problems this has caused the club ( plummeting player prices etc) one could put this down to tax officials just being very keen. Sadly internal HMRC e-mails tell another story.

Sometimes HMRC ends up cutting its nose off to spite its face. If the club is sold HMRC gets paid. If it isn’t it won’t. In addition to that simple fact- a point which I would make of any business where HMRCs actions could result in debts being paid and jobs secured- I would argue that FCs are a special case. They are not like a supermarket, which when it folds another takes its place: Portsmouth fans, on finding Pompey closed, will not be buying their season tickets at Southampton. Add to that the social value they provide.

We are not asking to be let off paying. Every effort to accommodate HMRCs concerns about a pause incurring additional debt is being made, including staff forging their salaries. All we want is a meeting to discuss the options. A reasonable request in my view, and one an HMRC mindful of recouping what it is owed ought to grant.

I hope that explains my position. While I appreciate you disagree, I thought it important I explain my assessment, especially as you had taken the trouble to write to me.

 

Regards,

 

Penny

Edited 27 January, 2016 by trousers

[rallyboy]

Go on Penny, off the top board, just one more time for us!

Step back everyone, and get the sandbags out by your front doors....

[trousers]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[buctootim]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blimey she's really lost weight and progressed.

[Waterside.saint]

Blimey she's really lost weight and progressed.

 

I assume the surfer is reaping the benefit of fatpennie's freestyle tombstoning display