Pompey are apparently 48 hours from liquidation

However.......... maybe we could devise a Pompey game (or similar) and sell it to raise enough money to start funding AFC Portsmouth.

 

Sorry Beefy. I was answering generically. If FP is owned by an entity that is not considered a part of the club and the club pays rent to the landlord (even if that landlord is more clearly linked in other financial aspects) then they would retain ownership but the covenant does still apply. However, as you rightly point out, everything then goes back to those who placed the covenant in the first place if a change is being requested due to exceptional circumstances. Now the only exceptional circumstance acceptable for overturning the covenant should be that not a single resident of Portsmouth ever wanted to watch football again. Nobody thinks that corruption exists in planning departments that could undermine that do they?

 

I wish all the best to Portsmouth and hope that you are saved. You may be our rivals on the football pitch, but off the pitch you are my fellow football fans, and I have no desire to see any fan have to go through the pain you are having to endure now.

 

Has Pompey actually been served with a Winding up order , or is it just Rumour at the moment ?

 

This is an extract from the Guardian. Apparently this will go to court at the end of February so there is still time for a good outcome - if there is going to be one that is.

 

Thanks TTE .

So you are not in the mire yet

My main concern for you is at the beginning of all this I felt you were not inexticibaly linked to the owning company , now I'm not so sure . Good luck to the decent fans & the team , none of this is really any of their fault !!!!!!!

 

Tax irregularities - go directly to Southwark Crown Court.

 

Former employee accused of tax evasion - join him in court 8

 

Wasn't having a go mate, just saying what I saw
I'm sure you know far more then me on the subject then me anyways.

 

With the exception of the torrent of vituperation issued by Ducky and the Milky Bar Kid, who display all the attributes of bitter and twisted old men, this has been a good thread, with many supportive comments and some interesting and informative data from the likes of Hot Bovril.

Apart from the most blinkered Pompey fans (ie, blue versions of Ducky and CBK) no one seeks to defend or is proud of what has gone on over the running of this club. However, as I said this time last year, football support is tribal and that tribalism will overide a lot of moral indignation or misgivings. If it was their club's survival at stake then I daresay Ducky and CBK would not be taking such a moral stance.

I suspect that the club has held off selling players to fund the paying of HMRC on the advice of the Administrator of CSI, who is effectively the owner at the moment, on the basis that he believed a deal with a buyer was iminent and he wanted to keep the clubs only 'asset', its squad, intact. It now seems that any deal will take longer and my take on Admin Andy's latest statement is that a sale of players will take place in the coming week.

Michael Appleton has rightly said, you cannot make a player leave if he doesn't want to, but if it's a case of either you go or the club folds then, I suspect, the likes of Pearce and Ward probably will; however reluctantly. Seeing as they are the only ones we have had offers for then they are the most likely departees. So be it.

It may be that Michael Appleton walks as a result. Again, so be it - if it means the survival of the club.

It's easy to take the moral highground when it is not your club on the brink, but any true football supporter must know how much all this hurts.

 

And you don't get paid !!!

Good post though TLFIH !!!!

Each side has it's idiots & Hard working Football fans as well ..............

 

Have Pompey actually been given a winding up order yet?

Only really relieve it when it is on the BBC

 

Just a question for the Pompey fans out there. I know a lot of what is being mentioned is speculation and conjecture; but where do you stand currently on the future of your club?

I know in the bad days before Markus and Nicola saved us, a Pompey supporting friend asked me the same thing and it really made me think. Given all the comings and goings of dubious owners the FL have allowed to become connected, would you prefer the club to fold and concentrate all efforts and energy on a Phoenix replacement, or close your eyes and ears for the next 12 months and hope for someone rich in both morals and wallet?

I'm not sure I ever came up an answer when I asked, but it sure gave me food for thought. I hope for all the right footballing reasons, this works itself out for the long term, but I also hope that certain people involved including those at the top of the FL get their come uppance !

-discuss.....

 

No Rickie - the situation is that the HMRC will petition the court for a winding up order. It should be heard at the end of February unless the outstanding NIC payments are made before then.

 

So 6 Weeks to find £1.6 Million . lot of fuss over nothing perhaps !!!!!

 

I think this is worth a thread of its own. Having worked at a senior level in the voluntary sector as well as the commercial sector I see similarities to both - football clubs are a hybrid between being a business (the commercial aspect) with the owners being custodians of a local sporting legacy (the voluntary aspect).

I don't want to see the club fold - over a century's worth of history going into oblivion - but nor do I want to see any of the types of owners we have had over the last decade or so, and I include Mandaric in that for his failure to take care of the club's infrastructure. I would like to see a joint position where there is investment (on an agreed rate of return) and a board which includes at least 2 members elected from the season ticket holders, perhaps with the ground owned by supporters similar to Chelsea.

How's that for starters?

 

You may be right that we have 6 weeks to find a new owner but, if we want to guarantee to meet what by then will be a requirement for £2.4M, we need to sell players of that value in the next 9 days. Of course, if we find that mythical owner in time then we will have sold the remaining family jewels unecessarily, and for less than their true value.

To answer the question, the last thing I want is for the club to fold and start annew. Not being a native of the city I don't have that umbilical connection that would tie me to a new club, especially as I live an hour away. Should the worst happen, I would follow the fortunes of a Phoenix club, and may even watch them occasionally, but it would not be my Pompey.

Do I think the club is going to fold? I just don't know and swing from optimism to abject pessimism. Unless Admin Andy has been playing a really clever game with a genuine buyer, I just don't see where rescue is coming from. But I want to keep it limping along as long as possible - a bit like a much loved pet which, on balance, should possibly be put down but I'm too damn selfish to put out of its misery.

As you can probably tell, I'm at the pessimistic end of the pendulum swing right now.

 

I hope most Saints fans would agree that divine right/wanting it enough had nothing to do with our survival. It was pure good fortune.

Before that happened, things were doom and gloom, and the article that Joey B pointed out a couple of days ago reminded me if how dark it was. I think I got as far as reading the article about the council starting talks on buying the ground and genuinely starting to imagine an AFC Southampton. I don't know a lot about the history or great players of bygone days, that time will come, but some of the most powerful memories as a child were at the Dell. That was the main reason I didn't want the club to fold; but then I had to reconcile that with the club that my little boy was growing up with. That leach Lowe, and the spineless board were memories I started to think we're good reasons to be shot of the "old" club. It's a tough call, but to be fair, I think the Pompey saga is more drawn out and therefore painful.