Lower league Pompey

[Pinkie Brown]

What I find intriguing is that the new administrator has come in and immediately made 33 people redundant (which, no matter how much you hate the football club, is very sad for the individuals).

They had a previous administrator for MONTHS, who was cheerfully employing all these people, so my question is, what kind of pathetic, head-in-the-sand (typical Pompey) job was he doing if the next guy can see straight away that there are 33 roles the club can do without, if needs must? Even if these people only earned an average of- say- £16k per year, that's over half a million quid saved immediately. Or, if you prefer, fourteen and a half weeks of Tal Ben Haim sitting on his backside doing nothing.

It's yet another example of that crappy club pleading poverty but in practice carrying on doing whatever they bloody well want.

Which all begs the question: What was the previous administrator playing at? What happened (or didn't happen) behind the scenes? Did he act in an unprofessional or even illegal manner?

Those who oversee administrators or maybe even the police, surely need to be asking questions? There's a dodgy stench to the way the first administration was handled imo.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Portsmouth Football Club - Portsmouth - Party Venues & Function Rooms

"The world famous Fratton Park is one of the most iconic symbols within the City and has recently undergone major refurbishment to deliver Quality service throughout the stadium"

Hey, there's a potential revenue stream Pompey are missing out on here....

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I hope HMRC find a way to get MY money back from PFC.... I loathe the way clubs have been able to operate like this, wracking up debts and carrying on as if nothing happened. The tax bill should come before the players wages IMHO. If they go bust, tough.

More to the point, how is football (as an industry) allowed to have a rule which gives certain creditors (footballers) preference over the national interest (ie taxes).

If I owed the taxman fifty quid you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be on to me in a flash, yet Pompey can write off millions and millions of pounds and HMRC just shrug their shoulders. How do they let it get to that point, and why aren't they picking up on the unpaid tax bills sooner, rather than waiting until it reaches twenty million?

 

[severnside gull]

They're still trying to play the card about not having a big enough first team squad! If the F.L. fall for "player x, player y & player z are injured, can we have more players in please", then the F.L. are mugs! That ruling is open to abuse surely Shirley? Let them use the youth team players. However, due to cynical manipulation of the 'system', they won't do that.

Not entirely an aside - Birmingham have been doing rather well even after having sold a large number of their squad since being relegated in order to make ends meet. Pompey take note.

They have been regularly fielding academy players to "make up the numbers" (and in the process discovered a genuine talent in Redmond who would otherwise still be in their youth side) but have now signed Husseklepp from Portsmouth on a loan to buy deal*. They are also about to sign Andros Townsend who has walked out of Leeds because he wasn't happy. Neil Warnock's response "if that's what he wants, good riddance......"


*Hopefully Birmingham will take over Portsmouth's debt on the signing of Husseklepp, a rumoured £1.5m fee plus add-ons which they obviously knew at the time it was agreed, they would be unable to actually pay**. Bear in mind too that Bari sold Husseklepp to Portsmouth AFTER they were themselves relegated because they were unable to service what they owed on his transfer fee and earnings.

By signing Husseklepp last summer PFC - if they knew as they surely must have that they couldn't service the staged transfer costs - were not only possibly acting fraudulently; they also put another club, Bari's, financial security at risk as they have a committment to the player's original club, Brann FC in Norway, also by way of staged payments which the sale to Pompey theoretically enabled them to meet. So Pompey could never pay. Bari weren't going to get paid so could also go bust. Brann weren't going to get paid either.......................and the Portsmouth fans think it is unfair that the administrator has moved the player on to ensure that there is a prospect at least that two other clubs might see their money.Cheats? 'Course not.........................



**let me justify that statement by pointing out that PFC had all their major revenue in place in the summer when they signed Husseklepp and they knew the expenditure they were committed to. Their policy of "quality over quantity" meant there was no real room to manouevre by selling so their budget was effectively set. Any competent accountant (and presumably the administrator, Mr Andronikou, purported himself to be such) could prepare a cashflow forecast including repayments of the transfer fee on a schedule and would have known that it was at very best an extreme high risk strategy and more reasonably, was impossible to expect to sustain. They went in eyes wide open with only one realistic option which was - unless there were exceptional and impossible to forsee circumstances - to default on scheduled payments. Sorry PFC but that is neither appropriate or prudent. It is however, potentially, fraudulent.



Final comment on Husseklepp...... how important will his two goals v Forest (Pompey win 3-0) his two against Posh (again a Portsmouth win) or his winner against Blackpool, be at the season's end? If PFC stay up by a point? If Blackpool just lose out on the Premiership? A level playing field.....................?

 

[Ernest]

It's a shame for Pompey that Birch wasn't administrator the first time and they might not be in such a mess now

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's a shame for Pompey that Birch wasn't administrator the first time and they might not be in such a mess now

Massive shame.

 

[Ernest]

Not entirely an aside - Birmingham have been doing rather well even after having sold a large number of their squad since being relegated in order to make ends meet. Pompey take note.

They have been regularly fielding academy players to "make up the numbers" (and in the process discovered a genuine talent in Redmond who would otherwise still be in their youth side) but have now signed Husseklepp from Portsmouth on a loan to buy deal*. They are also about to sign Andros Townsend who has walked out of Leeds because he wasn't happy. Neil Warnock's response "if that's what he wants, good riddance......"


*Hopefully Birmingham will take over Portsmouth's debt on the signing of Husseklepp, a rumoured £1.5m fee plus add-ons which they obviously knew at the time it was agreed, they would be unable to actually pay. Bear in mind too that Bari sold Husseklepp to Portsmouth AFTER they were relegated because they were unable to service what they owed on his transfer fee and earnings.

By signing Husseklepp last summer PFC - if they knew as they surely must have that they couldn't service the staged transfer costs - were not only acting fraudulently; they also put another club, Bari's, financial security at risk as they have a committment to the player's original club, Brann FC in Norway, also by way of staged payments which the sale to Pompey theoretically enabled them to meet. So Pompey could never pay. Bari weren't going to get paid so could also go bust. Brann weren't going to get paid either.......................and the Portsmouth fans think it is unfair that the administrator has moved the player on to ensure that there is a prospect at least that two other clubs might see their money.

Cheats? 'Course not.........................

Aren't Birmingham meant to be f***ed with the owner facing money laundering charges so hope no jiggery pokery going on

 

[Pinkie Brown]

"The world famous Fratton Park is one of the most iconic symbols within the City and has recently undergone major refurbishment to deliver Quality service throughout the stadium"

Never has so much bullshit been crammed into such a small sentence. Quite an achievement.......

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Which all begs the question: What was the previous administrator playing at? What happened (or didn't happen) behind the scenes? Did he act in an unprofessional or even illegal manner?

Those who oversee administrators or maybe even the police, surely need to be asking questions? There's a dodgy stench to the way the first administration was handled imo.

Sorry for some low key pedantry but I think you may mean "second" here; this is now the third time Pompey have been in Administration since Dec 1998.

Is the wedding list out yet - John Lewis, Debenhams..........?

 

[severnside gull]

Aren't Birmingham meant to be f***ed with the owner facing money laundering charges so hope no jiggery pokery going on

An entirely different can of worms but no less savoury.

On the plus side they are actually trying to manage within their means this season having sold most of their big earners and they were and still are very actively (possibly desperately) trying to offload their biggest earner, Nikola Zigic. They are massively in debt and it could all collapse if the money laundering charges bite and permanently freeze what assets they have but within that overall context they are trying to keep to a balanced budget.

The world of football finance eh?

 

[itszamora]

To my mind there's no doubt that Andronikou at best didn't do his job properly, at worst committed serious fraud. Isn't he actually quoted as saying they went way over their self-imposed wage cap to sign Kitson and Lawrence? I think he just basically enjoyed playing football chairman for a bit instead of being an administrator and working on behalf of the creditors.

 

[Curious Orange]

I wouldn't want Andrew Andronikou anywhere near any football club - he isn't exactly popular with our good friends from Wiltshire either.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I see Pompey have signed a couple of players on loan....

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I see Pompey have signed a couple of players on loan....

Another loan in from WBA , despite a transfer embargo they are allowed to bring in loanees to ensure they have 14 fit players , one player went out on a loan to buy deal to Birmingham City this morning and this afternoon they bring in Allan from WBA

 

[Dave the OAP]

More to the point, how is football (as an industry) allowed to have a rule which gives certain creditors (footballers) preference over the national interest (ie taxes).

If I owed the taxman fifty quid you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be on to me in a flash, yet Pompey can write off millions and millions of pounds and HMRC just shrug their shoulders. How do they let it get to that point, and why aren't they picking up on the unpaid tax bills sooner, rather than waiting until it reaches twenty million?

or rangers who owe £75 million. I wish I was paid offshore so I didnt pay any tax....why do football clubs think thery are something special?

 

[SurreySeagulls]

But the difference this time round was that Pompey were not allowed to appoint their own Administrator. Hence the proper job Mr Birch seems to be doing in bringing costs under control.

 

[SurreySeagulls]

or rangers who owe £75 million. I wish I was paid offshore so I didnt pay any tax....why do football clubs think thery are something special?

But the thing that pisses me off is that Rangers have not paid tax and NIC on staff salaries since the takeover last May and now owe another £9m to HRMC. If my business decided to do likewise HRMC would be knocking down my door so why do 1. Football clubs think that are above the law and 2. why does it take 9 months before HRMC do anything about it.

 

[SI 4 BHA]

I wouldn't want Andrew Andronikou anywhere near any football club - he isn't exactly popular with our good friends from Wiltshire either.

Hardly surprising HMRC objected to his appointment...

Portsmouth administrator criticised

 

[severnside gull]

"The world famous Fratton Park is one of the most iconic symbols within the City and has recently undergone major refurbishment to deliver Quality service throughout the stadium"

Hey, there's a potential revenue stream Pompey are missing out on here....

what and put Palace out of business!?

 

[desprateseagull]

deducting points now is like not letting people use the deckchairs on the Titanic..