Let me get this right. you don't pay your taxes (twice, while still splashing out on players) and now a government body (funded in a large part by those who Have paid their taxes) is expected to bail you out. Only Pompey 'cos they're "special". Bloody obscene!
Rangers' debt has just been announced to be £134 million!! Pompey look like small fry compared to that.
I can't believe they would dare to do this, someone should start up a petition on that website to have this stopped! Personally I know some Pompey fans and despite being fairly deluded they are generally nice but the comments from those poorpey fans on that link are disgusting, I only read a page of the oldest and was angered by their bile. Grrr
Sorry, someone should've mentioned there's a serious problem with the posts at the News site. Filth, anger and irrational ranting is order of the day. Even if one of their own says something vaguely sensible they promptly get accused of being a f***ing scummer bastard who's children should be eaten by giant sausages. Ho Hum.
It's not just overspending though. For example, Chanrai loaned Al-Faraj £17 million which somehow became Portsmouth's debt, rather than the debt of whatever al-Faraj's company was called. That doesn't make sense to me, does it make sense to any of you chaps?
Unfortunately it's like you want a start up loan for a business and borrow against your house...perfectly legal. The difference is that it affects other people in the case of a football club i.e. the fans.
But surely in that situation, if you defaulted, they could take the house (as Chanrai did with Portsmouth) that's fair enough, but surely the loanee would still be liable for the debt? Forgive me if my question's stupid, I'm not really an expert when it comes to business finance.
It would appear that your administrator is very optomistic that PFC will be playing in the FL next season. That is good news no matter what guise they are in.
Some people have suggested that there have been quite a few exceptional efforts to get Pompey out of the mire, and to stay in existence. So much so that they have felt that Pompey are being given preferential treatment. That may be the case, or it may not. Frankly, I'm not particularly interested, and when all is said and done, my interest is in SFC and nowhere else. However, one thing I am certain is that, if Saints had been in the position where there had been no likelihood of a good buyer on the horizon, during our darkest days, I would hope and expect that Administrators, former Chairmen, Board Directors and Friends of, MPs, etc... would also strain every sinew to keep a club such as Southampton FC in existence. Nothing to do with preferential treatment, just a wholehearted feeling of making sure the club didn't go under. The fact was, with the assets Saints had, in the stadium and extra land, someone was always eventually going to appear. We just didn't know it at the time. In Pompey's case. we can see where the train of influence has come from. Fred Dinenage is a former Board member and he's been spoken to, and he's spoken to his daughter Caroline, who has got Mike Hancock and the rest involved, and so the next easy avenue is the Secretary of State. When MPs get involved they can make a case or not, bend a ruling here or there, it doesn't matter provided what they want to get done, gets done. I can't see any rational money making businessman coming in for Pompey, as a going concern, any time in the future. It would be so easy and logical to wipe the club off the map and sell the land for lucrative redevelopment. Anyone with any sense would do that. But we're talking about a football club that means something to people. It certainly must mean a lot to some, notwithstanding a load of Saints supporters, when you consider the amount of energy they expend at the hatred of it. So, from a Portsmouth FC perspective, it must be worth hanging on to, for that alone. I still hope Pompey make it through, hook or by crook [that's with help, nothing illiegal] and remain that blue club down the road, who occasionally give Saints something to think about when the time comes around again, to have one of our all-too-rare derbies. After all, it is The Derby fixture, that most of us can really stir ourselves about. It would be a great shame if there was never a chance of it happening again.
It was a shame they didn't show the two fans greatest moments. John W having a wee wee in a public place and Herbie picking up his fan of the year award. Only 29.6 hours left now.