Glad to see this guy has the best interests of the club at heart.

"Creeping privacy laws in the UK - based on the Human Rights Act - meant we were barred from naming him last December.

Oh, those awful, awful privacy laws stopping the fine young reporters from telling us who of those semi-famous people was so desperate for a shag that they went to a brothel. How dare the government sit idly by? We can't go on like this.

hey - Leon from pompey music? small world...I thought you were more of a Havant & Waterlooville man?!

I tried to post here something here yesterday that never went through, saying how some of the latest bits David Conn had put out into the open on Wednesday - the Balram Chainrai loans/'mortgages' detail in particular - sounded extremely ominous...and then this morning, Chainrai's announced as the new owner. Feels like Conn may have known it was possibly in the offing, but couldn't allude too heavily/directly to it yesterday...
Unfortunately you can only see this getting worse though, can't you. The entire Gaydamak saga, back beyond just these past 6-8 months, is still riddled with serious questions, ones not even Conn's gotten to the bottom of.

one other thing - is Utaka honestly on £80k/week? Jaysis mary mother of god, I only found that out today - to think I was astonished when someone revealed here a year or two ago on the old OTF board, that Campbell was something like the 8th (?) best paid player in the whole of EUROPE on his Pompey contract... Dare I ask what Nugent's currently on?

Perhaps Portsmouth could try stealing this "brilliant" idea from Moldova.

Internet TV SPORTS.md and the football club Olimpia (Bălţi, Moldova) have opened a new trend in football, and namely football tourism.

Since December, 21 2009 to March, 21 2010 on the club's official website, www.fcolimpia.md will be held a competition among football fans and the the winner will be taken by the Olimpia team to play in the Europe or Champions League matches with the regular players.

Each healthy man between the age of 18 and 60 can become the participant of the contest. All you have to do is to fill in an application on the Olimpia site and pay the initial fee of 300 euros for registration. Also you have to point out the amount you are ready to spend to fulfill your dream.

The most important you have to remember is that the amount of money you are ready to pay must not be less than 10,000 euros. On March 22 will be decided the winner, who will be the one ready to spend more money than anyone else in order to make his dream come true. The one who pays the million from the very beginning will be declared immediately the winner.

The winner will sign in a contract with the Olimpia club, which guarantees the performance in the Europe League or Champions League games with the team's regular players.

compassion fatigue wrote:
hey - Leon from pompey music? small world...I thought you were more of a Havant & Waterlooville man?!

I tried to post here something here yesterday that never went through, saying how some of the latest bits David Conn had put out into the open on Wednesday - the Balram Chainrai loans/'mortgages' detail in particular - sounded extremely ominous...and then this morning, Chainrai's announced as the new owner. Feels like Conn may have known it was possibly in the offing, but couldn't allude too heavily/directly to it yesterday...
Unfortunately you can only see this getting worse though, can't you. The entire Gaydamak saga, back beyond just these past 6-8 months, is still riddled with serious questions, ones not even Conn's gotten to the bottom of.

one other thing - is Utaka honestly on £80k/week? Jaysis mary mother of god, I only found that out today - to think I was astonished when someone revealed here a year or two ago on the old OTF board, that Campbell was something like the 8th (?) best paid player in the whole of EUROPE on his Pompey contract... Dare I ask what Nugent's currently on?

Hey there - yes it's me, so it really is a small world! Indeed I am an avid follower of H&W, but my loyalties in football are split three ways between Pompey, H&W, and Newcastle (wont go into why here - but clearly I am an albatross for football clubs...)

My reading of the latest takeover situation isn't that mindblowing. Chainrai has acted to ensure he doesn't lose the money he's already invested.

I can't see him putting any more money in for players etc. He'll probably put in enough to fire-fight the never-decreasing circle of debts, because if Pompey go into administration he'll lose the £20m he's spent so far.

As I understand it, Chanrai now owns the ground and Gaydamak owns the land round Fratton Park. One is worth nothing without the other... so cue a Mexican stand-off over the next few years.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly - just about sums up Pompey right now!

Utaka's reported wages of £80k a week are just one indication of how ludicrous the last couple of years have been. The really bizarre thing is that we bought him and never gave him a run in the team in his natural position. He therefore never performed well, and people have been on his back ever since. When he has been given the opportunity as an out-and-out striker, he's generally performed well. There's a lesson there...

Same with Nugent. Bought him into the Premier League and expected him to hit the ground running. Again, he never got a decent run in the team. I do like Harry, but he makes some big mistakes. My understanding is that Nugent is on around £35k, and because Burnley have a wage cap (£15k - £20k) we are paying the difference even though he is on loan... to a relegation rival!

"You couldn't make it up" doesn't seem to be a strong enough understatement for Pompey these days...

Pompey owe HMRC a lot more than they can cobble together at the moment.

HMRC have a major hard on for "football clubs" in general because players and clubs are named as "preferred creditors". Peter Mandelson removed THAT status from HMRC approx seven years ago. No wonder theyve got the hump.

Which means Pompey are finished if they cant find the difference between what theyve aleady offered and what they owe this morning.

Gaydamaak owns the ground and this new bloke owns the surrounding land. It all depends on whether the new bloke thinks the land is worth more than he's owed PLUS the difference required this morning.

This is Broken Clock reporting for OTF News, over to you on the breakfast time studio sofa Fiona.

Various sources are suggesting that HMRC has turned down an offer from Portsmouth for the reputed £7.8m that is owed (about half in cash, and the rest from their future TV payments).

Considering the hearing is due any minute, and that the Taxman is likely to put for the club to not be put into administration (because they'd receive a lot less than 50%), that doesn't sound good.

Portsmouth case adjourned until 2pm.

In other winding up order news Cardiff (£2.7m owed) and Southend (£210k) both adjourned for 28 days.

Would it be fair to say that for Cardiff and Southend this news is a stay of execution rather than a victory? During the 28 days more tax and bills of other kinds will fall due and the clubs will need an income increase from somewhere to start catching up with the payments?

Cardiff should have that from the 2010-2011 season ticket payments that they promised to spend on players, while Southend had previous bigger bills paid off by the chairman (from what I can gather).

Do Cardiff not have that money already? What's been used to give the tax man a part payment today?

If Pompey are wound up altogether, Liverpool will gain 6 points over Arsenal and Man City and 3 over Spurs, as all Pompey's results so far will be struck from the table.

So Portsmouth had better hope that the High Court Judges aren't Liverpool fans.

Portsmouth adjourned for a week, and they must provide a statement of affairs.

HMRC claim that Portsmouth actually owe them £11.5m in tax.

"Do Cardiff not have that money already? What's been used to give the tax man a part payment today?"

No idea.

Adjournment now 9 days - the next available date is the 19th February.

Looking around, it seems that Cardiff sold some land adjoining their ground to give HMRC £1m today.

Pompey's "statement of affairs" should make fascinating reading, especially when compared against Storrie's recent public statements. The judge was clearly not amused.

There is 7.4 million in unpaid VAT, and a further 4.7 million in PAYE and national insurance. It is extremely hard for me to see the club coming up with that kind of money without a major capital infusion from Chainrai or a new investor (and I don't see anyone who isn't already involved with the process being able to do the requisite diligence before the next hearing).

And that would just clear the debt to HMRC. How muc hmore do they owe to other creditors?

I don't think that anyone really knows (which is essentially why the judge required the statement of accounts), but the number I've seen most recently is 60 million in total.

Though it is worth pointing out that only the 7.4 million in VAT is the subject of the winding up petition.