Is that another trapdoor I hear being oiled?

Liquidation, apparently.

Is there any "post mortem" in an English liquidation that could result in the real links to Gaydamak Sr. being exposed?

If so, this won't happen, though if not, it may be what is driving Gaydamak Jr.'s "intransigent" position at this point.

Portsmouth Football Club is extremely disappointed to report that it has not yet managed to achieve the exit from Administration, despite the extensive efforts of the Football League, NewCo, the Administrators and their various legal advisors.

The process has been extremely complicated and there has been a team of people working night and day to get the deal done. The most difficult aspect has been trying to achieve agreement with Alexandre Gaydamak after the remaining parties have agreed the deal and executed the necessary documents, namely the new owners, the Administrators, the Football League and the creditors.

Unfortunately, despite the new owners fulfilling all the requirements of the Football League and the creditors, and agreeing and signing up to the required terms of the purchase of the club, at the 11th hour the goalposts have been moved by Mr Gaydamak and this has now made the deal impossible to complete.

Put simply, despite being offered full payment for the secured part of his debt in accordance with the financial plan approved by the Football League, this morning Mr Gaydamak has demanded a very significant upfront cash payment in order to allow the deal to proceed by releasing his security.

All this is in spite of his lawyers going to Paris this morning specifically for the purpose of witnessing his signature to the document agreed yesterday.

It is neither in the interests of the club nor its unsecured creditors for such a ransom payment to be made, particularly where the payment is being demanded by one of the authors of the club’s current circumstances.

In addition, and equally importantly, all of the business plans submitted and approved by the Football League would be fundamentally damaged by such a requirement placed on the club by Mr Gaydamak.

We will provide further information as soon as possible.

However, it appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated by the Administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club.

We would like to thank the Football League in particular for their support and assistance through this difficult process.

All other parties had managed to reach agreement.

This has now been undermined by the self-interested actions of one individual. Mr Gaydamak has provided confirmation several times that terms were agreed. However, he has continually changed his position in an attempt to exploit the goodwill of the other parties to the transaction.

By now doing this he has shown complete disregard for the supporters, the club and the City of Portsmouth.

His earlier comments when the club went into Administration about doing everything possible to save the club’s future do not appear to reflect his current actions.

ursus arctos wrote:
Is there any "post mortem" in an English liquidation that could result in the real links to Gaydamak Sr. being exposed?

If so, this won't happen, though if not, it may be what is driving Gaydamak Jr.'s "intransigent" position at this point.

The original plan was that once the club had exited administration, that nine months later a new company (NewCo) be formed with everything transferred over, and the old company then liquidated and investigated by the liquidators. All this would do is bring forward that investigation.

In that case, Gaydamak is just being a greedy twat (again).

He's not even being a greedy twat. He's just being an impatient cunt. His debt is secured, he will get paid in full (regardless of what happens in terms of the club surviving or not), it's just that he wants it now, and not over five years.

Gaydamak Senior is in court in Israel again, (according to BBC's Matt Slater) so it sounds like they need some money.

Blimey.

Please bear with my immense ignorance on these matters, but is Gaydamak Jr likely to get all of his money back if the club is liquidated? Wouldn't he be better off with the current arrangement? If so, is there any chance that the club are being overdramatic over the possibility of liquidation to convince him to sign the agreement?


I'm really astonished by how brutally frank that whole PFC statement is, particularly this bit :
It is neither in the interests of the club nor its unsecured creditors for such a ransom payment to be made, particularly where the payment is being demanded by one of the authors of the club’s current circumstances.

It does seem that the threat of liquidation is being used as a negotiating strategy. A fairly risky one, I'd imagine.

Well, the threat of liquidation was used last Friday too, so it may become something of a running theme that the club will send out a message every Friday stating that it will close at the start of the following week unless somebody (last week the Football League, this week Gaydamak Jr) does whatever the club wants. Considering that they are still in administration, I would be interested to know what legal action he thinks he can take to enforce the demand, since the club is still in administration.

Breaking news is a copromise has been reached, and the matter will be resolved later today.

I haven't been so relieved since... well, since Rooney signed his new contract.

Until they have a signed and apostilled agreement from Gaydamak, that doesn't mean anything.

www.sportingintelligence.com/2010/10/22/...b-goes-under-221011/

Any move to parachute a new AFCP into League Two would meet with resistance from other non-League clubs but it would be a “real option” for the game’s authorities. There would not be much if any opposition from within the Football League: if Pompey of the Championship do fold, then an extra place in the Championship will open up next season for a club currently in League One, and an extra place in League One will open for a club now in League Two, which will effectively be replaced by AFCP.

Ball Comrade wrote:
www.sportingintelligence.com/2010/10/22/...b-goes-under-221011/

Any move to parachute a new AFCP into League Two would meet with resistance from other non-League clubs but it would be a “real option” for the game’s authorities. There would not be much if any opposition from within the Football League: if Pompey of the Championship do fold, then an extra place in the Championship will open up next season for a club currently in League One, and an extra place in League One will open for a club now in League Two, which will effectively be replaced by AFCP.

I really hope this doesn't happen. If we do go under then I want any new Pompey based club to have to work its way up the pyramid.

In fact, if an 'AFC Portsmouth' did get parachuted into League Two, I don't think I could support them. I'd go from a part-time Havant & Waterlooville fan to a full-time one.

Ursus - absolutely. I don't think anyone here is taking anything for granted yet.

I'm delighted that everything appears to be working out for Portsmouth, and everything should be secured, but people are forgetting that Dundee could easily be liquidated also over their ongoing debts. For a club with their history, I would have thought this would be getting more of an airing.

Out of administration. Not really a time to start celebrating though. It's a fucking shitty mess that has taken two years to clean up, with the fans, the club and the town all getting dragged through it. And the only thing everyone is thinking is who's going to be next. The Dundee case that irishreddevil mentions is a good case in point. It's seven years since their previous spell in administration, and you wonder why clubs never seem to fucking learn.

As I said on an earlier page, they do learn. They just don't learn what we as fans want them to learn.

Which is why the lower league clubs voted Southend "six winding up orders in the last year" United chairman Ron "inadvertent 'use' of HMRC Bank Plc" Martin as their representative on the Football League board.

After copiously following the ancient Chinese proverb 'May you live in interesting times', Pompey would be well advised to adhere to the little-known 'Beware of wiggy cockney bastards taking over your football club'.