The Portsmouth Supporters' Trust (PST) has begun talks with administrator Trevor Birch as it closes in on tabling a rival bid to Balram Chainrai. Antony Fanshawe of Begbies Traynor, acting on behalf of PST, is having discussions with Birch with a view to presenting a bid within seven days. Pompey's creditors will vote on 25 June whether to accept Chainrai's offer. Has to be a better bet than Chanrai, doesn't it?
Tal Ben Haim jut needs to collect one more pay-packet then he's going to submit a bid..........................& then clear Spains debt!
TB has to accept the offer. Then creditors will still have to accept the return; regarding the p in the £. I don't think it'll work... Where is PST going to get long term finance from?
Ok serious bit, here's what I don't get... at Rangers the players and administrators negotiated a deal to cut wages between 25% and 75%. In return they got release clauses put into their contracts so they could leave cheaply if there was an offer, and a couple of young players left voluntarily for free. If there wasn't a deal, players were going to be made redundant. Now you can't tell me for a second that Ben Haim, Mokoena and Kanu are worth anything and frankly they should be free transferred as soon as possible by fair means or foul. Rangers saved £1m a month and their top players weren't paid as much. So what's the hold up?
Difference is in Scotland players don't hold all the aces and teams are able to terminate or reduce the salary of contracts. In England, contracts can not be altered otherwise we'd have done the same thing. I considered writing to Clark Carlyle (Chairman of the PFA) on Twitter asking him if it's right that a club like Portsmouth could fold because teams are unable to terminate or reduce the salaries of player contracts so players the club can't afford can just sit around with no regard for their club. I didn't in the end though. It's still 250% of what Chainrai's offering.
Someone owed £10,000 under the 2010 CVA, will "in theory" get back... - £40 from Chainrai's 2012 CVA - £100 from PST's 2012 CVA Either way it is miniscule. Neither option has long term finance and there is every chance the club might renege on yet another agreed CVA. The Football League may yet punish Pompey with a huge points deduction for diluting the 2010 CVA with a 2012 CVA. Amounts to the same as not agreeing a CVA in the first place.
Personally I hope the supporters get control. Firstly, they can't run the club any worse than it's already been run in the last 10 years. I've also always personal;ly been a supporter of fan ownership. If all clubs were fan owned it would get rid of reckless spending, bonkers owners destroying the club's history (see Cardiff), hilariously high player wages and unafordable season ticket prices. And for anybody who says it won't work, Barcelona and Real madrid are both fan owned, and they don't do badly. Plus every club in Germany is owned by fans and this piece shows that supporters there aren't doing badly (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/apr/11/bundesliga-premier-league), and they have a national team that isn't an international joke. Also, if it all goes titsup, then the Portsmouth fans wont be able to blame the foreign bogeymen or the football league anymore.
I think most fans are generally supportive of their aims but are unsure of the feasibility of the PST taking over the club (I pretty much fall into that category). There are a small number who think Chainrai's the only feasible option but overall opinion on him is quite divided but with more against than for I think. Well I'm not too happy about it either and I'm not even a creditor, I can't imagine how pissed off most creditors are.
Neither will get accepted by creditors and Pompey fans will moan about how the FL hasn't helped at all...
Barcelona & Real Madrid are ran by fans but also are about £500,000,000 in debt, so is not neccesairily a good indicator of it's success and they are owned by 150,000 members. This is despite having more than £100,000,000 revenue than thier nearest challengers Man Utd. They also get about half of the TV money available. I'm not trying to have a dig at Pompey as I genuinly hope they find the best solution to the predicament they are currently in but I'm not sure that long term this is going to work. The answer in my opinion.... God only knows.... Get lucky i suppose, you are due some.
given that the chanrai offer is 3p in the £, and if the PST is only offering 5p, creditors might decide that they might get more from a liquidation in which the past is fully examined, and anyone found to have been involved in dodgy dealings gets sued!
I'm not Pompey's greatest fan but I have several friends and know lots of people who support the club and of all the outcomes they deserve the Trust to be successful. From a Saints' perspective if the Trust do gain control then the club will always struggle financially and meetings with them will end up being the occassional cup game.
