Portsmouth debts rise to £120m

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8634140.stm

Portsmouth have also released full disclosure of their expenditure and revenue (below) on page 31. prior to this it is disclosed that on top of that portsmouth are paying a loan of 38 million and owe 9 million to agents. their unpaid expenditure includes 17 million in unpaid VAT, 17 million in unpaid transfer fees - including glen johnson from 3 years ago (page 15).

http://www.uhy-uk.com/media/news/PFC%20-%20Report%20to%20creditors%20Adobe%207.pdf

job well done harry!!!

They are an absolute disgrace. How they are allowed to play in the Cup final is beyond me, let alone the authorities even contemplating letting them represent our country in European competition next year.

The figures are literally laughable. Don't know which I find more astounding, the ones Stu mentioned, or others including image rights still owed to ex-players, p51, (Muntari, Lauren, Diarra, Ben Haim, Kranjcar, Campbell) who left years ago.

Another that is just astounding is on p43, where they are shown to be owing £40 to a company called.... Pukka Pies Ltd!!!!

Their figures are an absolute disgrace, you'd think that alarm bells might have started ringing years ago, yet no one took responsibilty. Forecasts even show they will lose a further £7m before the end of june this year.

I personally feel people should be criminally charged for what they have done to that football club, god knows how it feels to be a Pompey fan at the minute.
For probably one of the noisiest sets of fans in the country, it is an absolute nightmare.

Disgrace.

The bottom line is this. Football clubs are a business, like any other limited company. Although Mr HMRC has done his best over the years to make special cases out of football clubs, even they are now getting tougher.

If you cant pay your bills then you should be wound up. Administration whilst seen by some as a punishment, is definately the cushy option. I don't think a ten pioint penalty is enough for going into Admin. Im not sure if it was Will that said this to me the other night, but admin is definately seen as an inconvenience to a football club, not the worst case scenario. It cost local business's fortunes, which is why as a small business owner, I could very easily be supplying Notts County, and if I really put my mind to it...Forest too. However, ask me if I want to wake up every morning and wonder if my invoices are gonna get paid.

Portsmouth should be wound up over this. The £38m or whatever it is that's owed to former owners should be written off, or at very least they are firmly last in the queue.

The best thing Pomey could do would be to do a Wimbledon. Go under, start a fresh in the Ryman league or wherever, they'd still get 5000 gates easy and be through the leagues in no time.

I dont see how any local trader or national one for that matter will want to supply Portsmouth in it's current guise again.

Now, you may think this ironic coming from a guy whose on club have debts they're struggling to service...however, we've fallen on our feet i think. I don't think Trew will put the club into admin despite making a career of buying businesses out of Admin and selling them on.

10 points aint enough. Should be at least automatic demotion to the league below, and a ten point penalty.

Having said this. Being in debt is not a crime.

Taking on debt you know you cant service should be...but it isnt.

[quote=Rich@Leicester]Portsmouth should be wound up over this. The £38m or whatever it is that's owed to former owners should be written off, or at very least they are firmly last in the queue./quote]

Ironically they are apparently first in line to be paid off. Small local businesses like Rich's are last on the list. How is that fair?

Rich & Will are right though, administration it seems nowadays, is more a get out clause, than a disaster. Looks like Palace will get away with it this season, having accepted the 10 points when they were higher in the league earlier in the season. Would they have done it with a few less points on the board? We will never know.

At least there is some sense amidst all this:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11674_6108814,00.html

Being a Liverpool fan though, I suppose I am biased!

clubs can be voted out of the football league if they enter two seasons in administration. portsmouth could have this fate found upon them or be forced to accept a luton town 30 point deduction. points deductions can be easily worked out:


-15 = failure to comply with FA administration guidelines ( luton town and chester city )
-10 = deduction for entering administration ( chester city, rotherham, bournemouth, southampton, leeds, luton, town, stockport )
-8 = entering consecutive season in administration ( luton town )
-7 = coming out of administration without a CVA ( luton town, bournemouth, leeds )

could this be the next in a long line of clubs

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/hull/article7106728.ece

its quite frightening really you would'nt have thought that Hull have spent particurly heavily during their brief stay in the prem yet they now look like they will be the next in a long line of clubs facing bankcrupsy.

Palace are the same, i really dont recall them going top heavy on players barring maybe a brief flirt with big name players like Lombardo and Montella.

but that was years ago yet now they are a reported to be some 30 plus million in debt and when ur averaging attendences of less than 10k a week thats a whole heap of trouble.

Worrying times

no club can support over a 1m a week wage bill when they only have average players and an average attendance less than 25,000. hull havnt spent huge but the players theyve brought in like Geovanni, Bullard, Hesselink, Mendy, Hunt and Kilbane were all offered reduclous signing on fees and wages. i read a couple of weeks ago that all of them are on over 40 grand a week and many of them dont have release clauses in their contracts if they do go down, and that could kill them. geovanni is on 80 grand himself (after tax) and hunt isnt far behind. no club of that size can possibly have an income to support such a high expenditure even with the 30m revenue the club gets per season from the premier league. they've literally spent 100% of their income on salaries so its hard to feel for a club that runs itself like that. just feel sorry for the supporters who invest in it only to see it run more badly than the goverment runs the economy. also, hull have 33 players in their squad which is abolsutely rediculous (plus another six out on loan)

This might sound a silly question, but why do the chariman offer these signing on fees and wages. Long term it is guaranteed to catch up with you?

why has the government asked to borrown 175 billion from the bank of england? because it thinks the future is rosey. caution pays.

Who the hell gives Kevin Kilbane 40k a week OMG!

dont get me wrong Hunts a good footballer but 40k a week??

and to pay someone 80k a week to largly sit on the bench is truly madness.

keep reading that despite having spent something close to 10m Billy Davies wanders why Nigel Doherty wont back him, and back him, and back him.

the last chairman that couldnt say no to his manager was Peter Risdale and look what happend there.
wake up billy smell the coffee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8746162.stm

Really good of them this...'The administrator will now press on with the plan to repay creditors at least 20p in the pound over five years'.

A lot of small businesses will not last 6 months let alone 5 years, and 20% too??!! How is that fair?

Cheats.

ok so they now have a club off the pitch. lets see how they manage on the pitch. i can only see one way still and thats down. but its not fair that they can just brush 80% of their debts under the carpet as if they never happened!

just read this,

New Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill will make centre-back Steven
Caldwell his first signing. Caldwell, 29, was released by Burnley last
month following the Claret's relegation from the Premier League.

now im sorry but are the taking the fucking piss.

youve just begged your creditors to take 20p in the pound for what theyre owed ....... over 5 years!!!!!!!

no reduction in the playing staff wage bill who will still all be on truly massive wages, no cash rasing exercises and now theyre looking to add to the wage bill.

its so wrong its beyond belief

so..its ok for these investors to be forced to cut their cloths to the tune of 80% of any debt owed to them being wiped out, but portsmouth can carry on spending and adding to their wage bill and generally just pick up where they left off.....

ok then....