Jump to content

Pompey Takeover Saga

Fitzhugh Fella

By Fitzhugh Fella,
in Golden Posts

 Share

Recommended Posts

Under Weststand

Under Weststand

Posted
Posted

 

Ha Ha what a great day, the chickens are coming home to roost now :smt117LOL.

Storrie teller is right in the brown stuff, & no matter how he tries to bleat that he is only an employee, that is not going to wash with the law.

I'll go for a total of -27-points for them next season if & that's a huge if they survive to start the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pedg

pedg

Posted
Posted (edited)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article7079556.ece

The Premier League’s lawyers are already working in conjunction with their Football League counterparts to share information regarding the ownership of Portsmouth, a development that would cast doubt about the prospect of Balram Chainrai resuming control at the club.

Andrew Andronikou, the Portsmouth administrator, suggested last week that, with none of the potential buyers having yet proved their credibility, Chainrai is “the only one who ticks all the boxes”.

That set alarm bells ringing at the headquarters of the Premier League, with Chainrai, the Hong Kong businessman, yet to pass a “fit and proper” owner’s test since he took control of the club when Ali al-Faraj, the previous owner, defaulted on loan repayments in January.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7532910/Richard-Scudamore-Portsmouths-financial-plight-has-hurt-Premier-League.html

Richard Scudamore has blamed Portsmouth's slide into administration on the club's "rank bad management"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/27/avram-grant-portsmouth-administrator

 

Andronikou has been the administrator for more than a month and has repeatedly voiced a desire to attract a new proprietor. Yet he has not carried out a forensic examination of the club's books, which would help any potential purchaser, saying it is not his top priority.

Supporters are worried about the delay in examining the club's accounts. Mike Hall, from Pompey-Fans.com, said: "In terms of securing the future of the club surely any buyer wants to know the true liability of the business and as the debt seems to be a moving target this has to be examined."

Andronikou said: "We've started looking at the accounts and records of the club. It is a slow and methodical process, but its not our primary area of concern." Asked if there was any difficulty in accessing the accounts he added: "Its all readily available."

Edited by pedg
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Goalie66

Goalie66

Posted
Posted

As we all bask in the afterglow of yesterday we officially took 44,000. The gate was was 72,000. 20,000 from Carlise. Yes a stagerring 52,000 Saints fans present in Corporate and some in the Carlise section. Indeed the largest ever following and attendance from one side EVER at Wembley. I doubt if it will be beaten..unless we could have had all those unsold seats.

 

Now there is no argument as to who has the biggest following.EOS

Link to comment
Share on other sites
angelman

angelman

Posted
Posted

Not a top priority is one of the most bogus arguments I have ever heard. It's not like he is going to do it himself as well as trying to do everything else. While it might be expensive to do, it will be impossible for any potential buyer to complete due diligence without having had a full forensic investigation of the books. So that would make the club unsellable until that has been done, which goes against what he is supposed to be doing. OK, getting the wage bill down is of EQUAL importance, but the 2 have to be done.

 

The only reason I can think of for this inaction, is that I presume City of London police and the Fraud Squad are circling. Maybe they can do the forensic investigation and save PCFC from having to pay for it. Having said that, I am very surprised that they (the Fraud Squad) haven't come down already. Maybe with all these off shore accounts, it is hard/impossible/lengthy to do. One thing for sure is that if £xx million has been laundered for, say hypothetically, a gun runner, then the authorities are going to look both rather stupid and inefficient as well as not looking upon PCFC too kindly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gaz

gaz

Posted
Posted

2 reasons why hes not trying to untangle the books yet (IMO):

 

- hes a skate in disguise and hes deliberately not wanting to do it while this cash cow is still milking...

 

or

 

- Storrie put 12 combination padlocks on the filing cabinet and Android has only guessed the combination to the first one :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Crab Lungs

Crab Lungs

Posted
Posted
They truly are a stinking, horrible, offensive, nauseating, foul, repulsive, disgusting, rotten, filthy, corrupt, dishonest, repugnant, festering, putrescent, fraudulent, obnoxious, cesspit of a club.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention

 

CHEATS.

 

Concur with all of this. Hopefully, they'll die soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OldNick

OldNick

Posted
Posted

If what has been predicted on here (the club folding or being sent to the BSL) it must be galling for the Skates to know that a large percentage of their grandchildren or great grandchildren will be Saints fans in the future. I know they wont have it, but I know that it would be the case if the same had happened to Saints last season for ours.

I await all the gnashing of teeth to the contrary, but a large slice of both teams fans want to see winning successful teams and the kids will turn their heads to us longterm.

Pompey is a flashback to the past, a nostalgic look when the cities with black smoke coming out of chimney stacks, whippets and flat capped football fans standing in decrepid conditions and when the working man was happy to put up with it.

Saints will be the modern streamlined club that, the new youth will want to be associated with and like the miners ,the fathers wont like their kids going down the pit, but want to be better themselves and grudingly accept life has moved on and Pompey were the past.

Hers's to the future

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rallyboy

rallyboy

Posted
Posted

Through injuries and loan agreements Pompey now seem to be losing a few of those players who shouldn't have been playing at all.

It will now be interesting to see how good they look with the youth team approach forced on every other club that has suffered financial problems.

Karma.

 

Has the balance between football rivals ever tipped as much and as quickly as this one seems to be doing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kingsland Red

Kingsland Red

Posted
Posted
If what has been predicted on here (the club folding or being sent to the BSL) it must be galling for the Skates to know that a large percentage of their grandchildren or great grandchildren will be Saints fans in the future. I know they wont have it, but I know that it would be the case if the same had happened to Saints last season for ours.

I await all the gnashing of teeth to the contrary, but a large slice of both teams fans want to see winning successful teams and the kids will turn their heads to us longterm.

Pompey is a flashback to the past, a nostalgic look when the cities with black smoke coming out of chimney stacks, whippets and flat capped football fans standing in decrepid conditions and when the working man was happy to put up with it.

Saints will be the modern streamlined club that, the new youth will want to be associated with and like the miners ,the fathers wont like their kids going down the pit, but want to be better themselves and grudingly accept life has moved on and Pompey were the past.

Hers's to the future

 

I'm with NickH here on the West Hampshire utopian uplands, worshipping at the shrine of St Marcus, and wondering why, with so few fans, they tried to compete with us in the first place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sidthesquid

sidthesquid

Posted
Posted
I don't thinkit was us they were trying to compete with but the Villas/Spurs of this land.... If they had tried to compete with us they probably wouldn't have created such a large mess...

 

They weren't trying to compete with anyone. They wanted to buy some sham respectability and to launder lots of blood-stained money, and how better to do it than to hide in clear view in the dirty trough of the Prem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
View From The Top

View From The Top

Posted
Posted

No O'Hara then. :-)

 

In addition, Jamie O'Hara was ineligible to face Spurs on Saturday and will also miss the semi-final.

 

Grant had hoped a last plea would convince Spurs to allow the midfielder to play.

 

But Harry Redknapp has dashed that once and for all.

 

He said: 'I have never discussed it with anybody, but I would not think it is a possibility, no.'

 

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Cup-dream-over-for-duo.6187233.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pedg

pedg

Posted
Posted
No O'Hara then. :-)

 

In addition, Jamie O'Hara was ineligible to face Spurs on Saturday and will also miss the semi-final.

 

Grant had hoped a last plea would convince Spurs to allow the midfielder to play.

 

But Harry Redknapp has dashed that once and for all.

 

He said: 'I have never discussed it with anybody, but I would not think it is a possibility, no.'

 

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Cup-dream-over-for-duo.6187233.jp

 

So what's the record winning margin for an FA cup semi final?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eastcowzer

Eastcowzer

Posted
Posted

 

It will surely be totally unconnected, but the name of the BVI company mentioned in the article, Medellin Enterprises, has a name unfortunately similar to Medelin, in Colombia, infamous for white powder, shipped under cover of darkness, in small, fast boats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
landford.saint

landford.saint

Posted
Posted
I don't thinkit was us they were trying to compete with but the Villas/Spurs of this land.... If they had tried to compete with us they probably wouldn't have created such a large mess...

 

In the past, small clubs were able through team spirit, clever player acquisition, and skilled/lucky managers, to keep up with the 'big boys' and even occasionally beating them. Like the old Wimbledon or Ipswich, or us. But now even with these things still going for you, you still need money to compete successfully. Portsmouth (through means that have been discussed at length on here, and I wont even elaborate on their moral implications) invested huge amounts of cash. They did achieve an FA cup win in a year when for some inexplicable reason all the big clubs kept losing, but PCFC by bringing in the players from many nations lost that team identity/team spirit/whatever you call it. And when times got hard they simply crumbled. Teams like Ipswich were built and run on a shoestring so when failure came their falling was not as hard and disastrous as it could have been. Wimbledon are a special case, what with MK Dons and all.

But PCFC have not been run on a shoestring, they have for several years ran at a massive loss. It was obvious to anyone taking an interest that it could not last. The house built on sand.

 

I compare that to our present situation.

We owe nothing.

We have a good team spirit.

We have a cash flow situation that has improved. Note ... i said improved. Comparing our squad to others in our league (and the championship) it is big. I can foresee a clearout of quite a few of the less used players in the summmer and just 2 or 3 of higher quality players coming in. NC is a banker/financial person, and I dont think he has this club anywhere near where he wants it in terms of efficientcy. He came in when the club was at a low ebb, in cash and morale and structure, and I personally can foresee some more changes in the structure/running of this club in the close season to achieve more efficientcy.

ML has shown he is more than willing to put the cash in (without it being a loan or owed back by the club) but he has appointed a man he can trust to run it for him.

When we again reach the PL, we SHOULD have a more sreamlined club in terms of cash flow. A higher income due to attendances, and minimal/no debt to eat into any profit that we make.

 

Liverpool and Manchester Un'ed both have huge incomes, but astronomical debt, the interest on which alone must be incredible. Think how powerful they would be with that amount of income and no debt....

It could be us with the right hand at the tiller (not Hamsters though after hearing of his exploits aboard his narrowboat).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bridge too far

bridge too far

Posted
Posted
It will surely be totally unconnected, but the name of the BVI company mentioned in the article, Medellin Enterprises, has a name unfortunately similar to Medelin, in Colombia, infamous for white powder, shipped under cover of darkness, in small, fast boats.

 

Hmmm, well - they've been medellin with financial regulations for years :)

 

(see what I did there?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pedg

pedg

Posted
Posted

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1262038/Nadir-Belhadj-injury-set-scupper-Russia-move.html

 

hopes of cashing in on Nadir Belhadj have been dealt a double blow.

CSKA Moscow are interested in the £4.5million-rated Algeria left-back, but a thigh injury will keep him out beyond the April 8 transfer deadline in Russia.

 

Belhadj is also far from thrilled by the prospect of playing in Moscow and admits that staying in England or moving to Spain would be more attractive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tpbury

tpbury

Posted
Posted

In a country where many major banks are 'owned' by the state (meaning they are really owned by sovereign bond holders in China, Russia, Malaysia, Serbia etc etc), I think Gay2theMax is employing the right strategy. Any debt will be written off, regardless of the fate of P©FC. The money will be nice and safe and clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gingeletiss

Gingeletiss

Posted
Posted
http://www.fansonline.net/pompey-fans/article.php?id=197

 

The penny is well and truly dropping

 

It still has a long way to fall, looking on some of their forums. Hope the blue phew understand all of this....

 

Balram Chainrai's PR people and Andronikou have been talking up the possibility of him remaining as owner after administration.

In which case, serious questions need to be asked about why he took £4m out of the business in January, although no-one disputes he had the right to do so. If he “ticks all the boxes” in terms of having the funds to take the business forward, why did he take his money out in January as the club teetered on the brink?

Why did he not fulfil his pledge to use his family trust to keep the business going? Fair enough, he might have been entitled to this money, but if he is rich enough to take the club forward and has its interests at heart, (the tests Andronikou seems to be setting up for a future owner), why take the money when the club patently couldn't afford it, even if entitled to it?

 

As things stand we have a business in which:

 

  • Our future transfer revenue, possibly as much as £25m, has been forward funded and spent but no-one knows where or when
  • £5m is apparently missing from 2008
  • Large chunks of debt have appeared that we were assured were not club debts and the CEO is hinting the source of the funds is a convicted gun runner who is holed up in Moscow to avoid French justice
  • Documents have appeared showing even the CEO had to go to a convicted fraudster (Danny Azougi) to beg for the right to pay creditors
  • That fraudster had unfettered control of the business for four months during which “unauthorised payments” were made to someone totalling a reported £1.5m
  • The owner from October to February (Ali Al Faraj) was clearly not the ultimate beneficial owner and the Directors were calling in outside agencies because they felt they were unable to act as directors
  • The Finance Director resigned from the board
  • HMRC is still refusing to accept Chainrai's secured creditor status, and the lawyer who drew up the agreement under which Chainrai took control cast public doubt over its validity. If Chainrai is unsecured, it means he gets possibly £10m less from a CVA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sidthesquid

sidthesquid

Posted
Posted

Pinched this from the News who pinched it from pompey-fans.com.....

Quotes are frm the guardian article I posted earlier.

They are finally getting it

 

'Last week an Israeli judge ruled that Gaydamak Sr, currently exiled in Moscow after being convicted of arms trafficking by a French court, would be made bankrupt if he didn't pay the US$46m (£31m) he owes to Chainrai and his business partner, Levi Kushnir.'

 

Funny how Chainrai/Kushnir own PFC now!? What a coincidence!

 

Another coincidence is that Sacha Gaydamak claims to be owed £30.5m as a 'creditor' of PFC. Amount required to stave off bankruptcy for his father – £31m.

 

As said here before, if Chainrai retains PFC via the CVA we're still hostage to the shady past ownerships.

Makka

Posts 3,5,7

Gaydamak snr is allegedly awash with money from the sale of arms to Angola and diamonds to Russia.It's highly likely that some of this money was stuffed into bags and sent to the Pompey laundry where it could be exchanged for "clean" tv money and tansfer fees courtesy of the industrious messrs Storrie and Redknapp.

Because of colossal cash flow problems and persistent creditors, viz mr Chanrai, It seems that Sacha is now trying to claw back as much cash as he can to save his dad's affairs, hence £5m going straight into an offshore account no doubt.

3 & 5 Makka - not only are these stories, but BIG stories, because they raise issues again about the very future of the club.

However, nothing about any of these issues in The News in the last days.

Unbelievable. Perhaps because the News put "sports writers" on Pompey, whereas these pieces deal with completely questions at a completely different level.

However, luckily people in Portsmouth read the nationals.

Very sorry for the injured players, but there are no articles about the really BIG concerns for us to comment on.

Also http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/portsmouth/7532910/Richard-Scudamore-Portsmouths-financial-plight-has-hurt-Premier-League.html

And interesting, News story mentions "efforts are made to reach an agreement with Lens" but leaves out what was published in The Mirror, that - who other than "Peter Storrie, the chief executive who negotiated the deal, is planning to meet Lens officials tomorrow in an attempt to allow Pompey to continue playing the star". So Storrie still very central to running Pompey.

A month of administration, and all we hear is that Andronikou "has not carried out a forensic examination of the club's books, which would help any potential purchaser, saying it is not his top priority" (Guardian).

I think other authorities are needed for this.

 

& a link

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/the-mole/Where-has-the-5millon-compensation-payment-Portsmouth-received-from-Tottenham-for-Harry-Redknapp-gone-The-Mole-Column-article369391.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gingeletiss

Gingeletiss

Posted
Posted

Ooops!...new owner alert!

 

peter026

 

spacer.gifnav-messages.gif Posted 28/3/2010 14:52

#99849

Subject: Could this be Pompeys new owner

 

 

68891p.jpg?rnd=490

Pompey 1st team

 

Posts: 155

100.gif25.gif25.gif

 

Kevin Cash, seems to tick all the right boxes and is very media shy

 

Cash, 46, has been married three times. One of his ex-wives, intriguingly, is Jackie St Clair, who became Simon Cowell’s girlfriend. Cash is reputed to be worth about £500million and his substantial property portfolio includes half of an exclusive row of mews houses close to the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair, homes in Marbella and Miami and a £16million country estate, North Aston Hall, in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Yet he has never been included on any rich list.

He is involved with a company set up to manage property portfolios for Premiership football stars, including the controversial Chelsea defender John Terry. And he is in partnership with businessman Derek Llambias in the exclusive London club known as The Fifty, where they can all meet discreetly over dinner.

 

Llambias and Cash are also closely linked in business with Mike Ashley, owner of Newcastle United Football Club and ranked 60th in the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated wealth of £700million.

 

‘Cash is probably one of the most powerful people in London today,’ says a source. ‘He handles money for many super-rich businessmen and has managed to make himself more than any of them.’

 

Despite his enormous wealth, Cash does not appear to have any British-registered companies, but has based his business empire offshore. Rose Properties – which owns his impressive Oxfordshire estate – is registered in the Virgin Islands, where it is neither necessary to file accounts nor name directors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rallyboy

rallyboy

Posted
Posted

they made no attempt to address debt, they made no attempt to sell players, now AA is making no attempt to sell the business.

The first question from any prospective buyer would be the details of the debt.

But AA hasn't got those figures yet....even though that should have been the second job on this first morning - after sacking Storrie.

 

As he's an impartial administrator and not a puppet for an arms dealing money-laundering consortium, when's he going to start administrating??

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wes Tender

Wes Tender

Posted
Posted

Cash is reputed to be worth about £500million ....

‘Cash is probably one of the most powerful people in London today,’ says a source. ‘He handles money for many super-rich businessmen and has managed to make himself more than any of them.’

 

Despite his enormous wealth, Cash does not appear to have any British-registered companies, but has based his business empire offshore. Rose Properties – which owns his impressive Oxfordshire estate – is registered in the Virgin Islands, where it is neither necessary to file accounts nor name directors.

 

Enormous wealth? It's only about 20% of what our owner is worth.

 

The general consensus regarding financial prudence when investing in a football club is that you don't spend more than 10% of your fortune in the process. Pompey will take about 20% of Cash's supposed wealth and I can't see him being foolish enough to plough that much into the festering hole that is Pompey.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gorgiesaint

Gorgiesaint

Posted
Posted
It will surely be totally unconnected, but the name of the BVI company mentioned in the article, Medellin Enterprises, has a name unfortunately similar to Medelin, in Colombia, infamous for white powder, shipped under cover of darkness, in small, fast boats.

 

Again probably totally unconnected, but wasn't there a story last week about some arrests in the Dordogne area of France relating to shipments of white powdery substances that was linked to British football agents money.

 

As I said, probably nothing in it, but its a poor choice of a company name...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sotonist

sotonist

Posted
Posted
It will surely be totally unconnected, but the name of the BVI company mentioned in the article, Medellin Enterprises, has a name unfortunately similar to Medelin, in Colombia, infamous for white powder, shipped under cover of darkness, in small, fast boats.

 

And they would have gotten away with it too...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rallyboy

rallyboy

Posted
Posted

Managing legend Avram would have no problem getting another job - if it wasn't for the fact that his league record at pompey must now be worse that that of Tony Adams.

(our stattos can check that out)

 

Some fans don't seem to let those facts get in the way of having a new man to worship so you can judge fans by their heroes, whether they be Bates, Le Tissier, Keegan, Liebherr or Redknapp, Grant, Fahim and Storrie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Doctoroncall

Doctoroncall

Posted
Posted
Managing legend Avram would have no problem getting another job - if it wasn't for the fact that his league record at pompey must now be worse that that of Tony Adams.

(our stattos can check that out)

 

Some fans don't seem to let those facts get in the way of having a new man to worship so you can judge fans by their heroes, whether they be Bates, Le Tissier, Keegan, Liebherr or Redknapp, Grant, Fahim and Storrie.

 

Avram: Pld 25 W 8 (4 in cup) D 4 (1 in cup) L 13 (1 in cup)

Adams: Pld 22 W 4 D 7 L 11

Hart: Pld 30 W 9 D 6 L 15

 

I didn't have time to list cup matches for Adams and Hart, but more or less the same losing about 50% of the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...