http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/p...ord-owner-interested-in-pompey-deal-1-4189790 This man came to us just more than one year ago with smiles and promises of good things. To be fair to Laurence Bassini the promises were starting to happen, but for a reason the bond holder of our club pull the rug from under him and sold the club on to the Pozzo family. With only a little digging Watford FC was found to be in a much worse position than when he arrived, with new and larGe bills we did not have before (HMRC). Portsmouth have enough problems without Laurence Bassini's help.
We're hoping that he's just a tyre-kicker - in the same mode as Joseph Cala, aka the Man from Atlantis. But you are right, we already have big enough problems, we don't need his help to make them worse.
As the title of this thread says this is a warning to all Pompey fans from a Watford fan. Seeing as I don't have an account on any other pompey forum website I would like one of you lot to spread this around the forum websites as many times as you can to get awareness about one of the men who is interested in buying your club- Laurence Bazini/Bassini http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/former-watford-owner-interested-in-pompey-deal-1-4189790 The best way for me to warn you about him is by telling you lot what he did at Watford. He properly took over our club last March/April with a whole new ethos to our club. He managed to rub people up the wrong way straight away as this is insinuated by Malky Mackay (our former manager) as the reason he left. Originally everything seemed good as he cleared off any debts we had from our previous owners (too long for me to go into). The first doubts came when a bit of digging by the local rag found out he had declared insolvency a couple of years ago and to escape from that world changed his name (from Bazini to Bassini). The second piece of doubt came in when we didn't have enough money to spend (comparing to other teams, but that was to be expected seeing as we are 'poor little old Watford' and he had spent a lot on clearing debts). The first major warning sign came with his PR- they were god awful (understatement of the year). As fans we had many questions about the events of the summer and the future and the vast majority were left unanswered. The club had a fans forum in the winter of 2011/12 but he pulled out at the last minute due to 'illness', of which club legend Sir Graham Taylor (chariman back then) verbally 'attacked' him a bit. Bassini replied by threatening him to withdraw his comments or he would withdraw all club funding. GT naturally backed down. Over the next couple of months there were signs that maybe Bassini cared about the club by renovating our run-down pub next to the stadium, starting pitch improvements and setting dates for stadium renovation (one of which went past without any work getting done). Then the Pozzo family came in (Udinese and Granada owners). By the close of the season just gone and into the off-season we were basically sure that the Pozzos were going to become our new owners. But it didn't come without any surprises. News media outlets reported that staff hadn't been paid for a month, GT stood down as chairman (because he believed the Pozzos were good people), Bassini had locked the club's safe and bank accounts so no money could be transferred, he claimed we had no money to scare away the Pozzos and he finally claimed that the Pozzos had no money (of which they had well into the hundreds of millions). He finally went and the Pozzos formally became our new owners, but he left a bad stench. Reports came in that we had an £1.8 million unpaid tax bill to Her Majesty and our owners have scaled down every money-guzzling activity at the club because we had debts of roughly £6 million to all the people involved. Just in case you're not fully convinced that he is a top-class ****** his reason for leaving us was that he wanted to see more of his daughter, of which he couldn't on matchdays and running a football club. Begs the question (unless he's going to move to Pompey) why do this again? Now I know only some rags/media outlets are showing this story and for all we know it could just be a story. But if this is true and he becomes your new club owner your club will be run into the ground completely. You as fans haven't done anything to deserve this and yet if true you could be facing even more ****.
Sorry geitungar but could we merge this with my thread seeing as I've explained everything he's done at our club. Thanks
I see no problem with that nisman. Put comments on htis here: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/164106-Warning
Thanks geitungur & nisman for the "heads up" - after our last 4 or 5 owners, we can well do without another "nightmare" owner to bugg*r the club up any further
And just when we thought it can't get any sillier................ Anyway Bassini has just got to be another tyre kicker - in the mode of that child from a couple of years ago. Apparently been introduced by Admin Andy. When are they all just going to go away!
It is nigh-on illegal to speculate about illegality in this context. So I will simply stick to the facts. Whatever your previous owners did wrong, however disgracefully your debt was managed, the one mitigating factor is that a lot of the money was spent in the pursuit of success, and having won the FA Cup, the debt was built upon in the hope of emulating it, and later surviving in the Premier League, and later getting back there. I'm sure there were some parasites involved along the way, but if I were to list the reasons for Portsmouth's current situation, I think incompetence would just about pip greed to top spot So what about Watford? For a bit of context, Watford typically make a loss of about £3-4m a year, if you ignore player purchases and sales. But Bassini sold a net £7m worth of players (sold £8m and paid about £1m for replacements), ensured that we were no longer paying the wages of the best chief executive we've ever had, and sacked or alienated most of the office staff immediately below board-level. All unpopular things, but also things you would think would bring in some short term cash? Apparently not: despite all of our previous debt being held by two genuine Watford fans, plus Lord Ashcroft, who for all his faults has never put a company into administration, we were in such bad financial shape that HMRC were crawling all over the place, at least one member of staff was willing to take her chances with the police rather than let Bassini access the club safe, and we were placed under a transfer embargo. You've had owners buy your physical assets, fail to pay charities, gamble the very future of your club in the hope of a quick re-promotion, and then demand that absolutely every professional was removed from the books. Heck, one of your owners was responsible for the Mike Williamson deal. And yet I still think that if Bassini buys your club, he will go down as the worst owner in Pompey's history.
See I knew I got the whole safe incident wrong. But still highlights the failings and incompetencies of Bas. Thank god for that lady
That would be Peter Storrie - he also signed Tal Ben Haim on a completely unsustainable wage. From Wikipedia Portsmouth On 1 September 2009, Watford accepted a £2 million pound offer potentially rising to £3 million from Premier League team Portsmouth. He made no appearances for the club, as if he made any appearance for the club they would have to pay Watford more in transfer fees and due to Portsmouth's financial troubles they could not afford it.
You may be fed up with Watford supporters coming on here with advice but I assure you it is well intended. Like most other fans we are really sorry to see you fall down the league due to money / ownership problems. Also like the other posters here I can assure you that you should avoid Bassini at all costs. He was a bankrupt and yet with no explanation managed to "find" half a million to enable him to get control at Watford - he does have family money behind him - but not much in footballing terms but never once gave any clue as to where his backing was. We all thought that he intended to use Watofrd for his own purposes - and he did - nearly bankrupting us into the bargain - he has a history of bankruptcies behind him. Do whatever you can to highlight to whoever is responsible for your administration that they should talk to the likes of Graham Taylor and others at Watford if they want to know how he is thought of by them. Do whatever you can as fans to keep him away from your club p.s nisman - why don't you post on the Watford board at all?
I did (and still do occasionally). I tend to use not606 for cross-club threads and stuff and use wfc forums for club topics. Should use this one more though
