GG POMPEY

[TightEnd]

What Leicester did was wrong. Clueless idiots ran the club then, Mandaric now. FML

but Matt I struggle to think that the vast majority of people involved in Pompey..staff, supporters etc..deserve it.

I think, with all due respect, that you are being extremely one-eyed here. I am genuinely shocked that a football fan wishes another club, any club, to go under. 

[The Camel]

I think it's safe to say that Leeds are the most disliked club by supporters of other teams.

As much as I hate Leeds I wouldn't want them to go out of business, too many people have invested too much emotionally for that to be funny.

My late father was a lifelong Pompey supporter, as is my brother.

The club has amazing fans and the way the owners (and some of the players) from Mandarich onwards have abused this club is little short of criminal.

The government must take some of the blame too for repeatedly denying the club the opportunity of building a new stadium.

I hope they survive, but even if they don't there will be football in Portsmouth and I wish them well.

[Acidmouse]

fair enough, maybe they should go into admin and try rebuild over a given period of time. This year they cant stay up so why not just accept it? the fans will enjoy winning games and the excitment in the championship. Sometimes you lose sight off the average Jo Bloggs on 20k working for the club.

[AndrewT]

Portsmouth are a massively badly run business with costs outstripping earnings.

Businesses like that go bust every day - being a football club shouldn't make any difference. It should in fact be less bad than other businesses as a far higher proportion of the employees are wealthy and won't struggle to pay next month's mortgages as a result of losing their jobs.

In the past I've worked for a company where a big meeting was called one afternoon, the directors stood in front of us with people we didn't recognise and said 'we're bust, these guys are the liquidators, your jobs are gone and you won't get paid for the last three weeks work'.

None of us had been earning £70,000 a week for the past two years.

If Portsmouth disappearing is the price to pay for shocking other clubs to stop spending money they don't have to try and get to 10th in the Premier League then it's a price worth paying.

[lazaroonie]

fair enough, maybe they should go into admin and try rebuild over a given period of time. This year they cant stay up so why not just accept it? the fans will enjoy winning games and the excitment in the championship. Sometimes you lose sight off the average Jo Bloggs on 20k working for the club.

ffs, you dont get the option to go into administration when you owe the VAT man.....they will be calling the shots.

[lazaroonie]

7 day stay of execution. either come up with the cash, or have a definite buyout in motion.

[AndrewT]

The winding up order has been adjourned for a week, which means Portsmouth have the chance that their very last game will be getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Southampton.

Cardiff and Southend were also facing winding-up hearings today, and their cases have been adjourned for a month, which shows how much more desperate Portsmouth's case is.

[ripple11]

 11.5 million in unpaid taxes.!!

FFS... I had a HMRC guy come around last year and ask for a cheque, as we a little bit late paying a couple of grand PAYE .

Should have told him to get on his bike to Portsmouth.

[Jon MW]

... I am genuinely shocked that a football fan wishes another club, any club, to go under. 

I cba to look up the detail, but isn't the normal model to have a holding company own the club and deal with the finances, so that if it goes under the club gets sold as an asset and carries on?

In which case, they might be damaged, they might be badly damaged, but so what?
(in the general footballing sense - obv. different for the employees and fans themselves)

[Colchester Kev]

Court registrar Christine Derrett said she feared the company would continue to trade and build up more debts that would not be paid.

"I am very concerned about the financial status of this company," she said. "It seems to me there's a very real risk that this company is undoubtedly trading while it is insolvent.

"I'm obviously conscious that, by making a winding-up order, it would have very severe consequences not only for the company as a business but for the supporters themselves, but that's not a consideration that I strictly take into account."

Gregory Mitchell QC, who represented HMRC, said: "It's quite clear, beyond any doubt at all, that this company is insolvent.

"They have failed to provide any evidence at all as to their solvency. There are many debts and they are unpaid."

not looking good is it.

[gatso]

I cba to look up the detail, but isn't the normal model to have a holding company own the club and deal with the finances, so that if it goes under the club gets sold as an asset and carries on?

In which case, they might be damaged, they might be badly damaged, but so what?
(in the general footballing sense - obv. different for the employees and fans themselves)

no idea if it's the norm but it is def the case at some clubs. was it southampton who tried to put the holding company into admin rather than the club to avoid a points deduction?

[The Camel]

Court registrar Christine Derrett said she feared the company would continue to trade and build up more debts that would not be paid.

"I am very concerned about the financial status of this company," she said. "It seems to me there's a very real risk that this company is undoubtedly trading while it is insolvent.

"I'm obviously conscious that, by making a winding-up order, it would have very severe consequences not only for the company as a business but for the supporters themselves, but that's not a consideration that I strictly take into account."

Gregory Mitchell QC, who represented HMRC, said: "It's quite clear, beyond any doubt at all, that this company is insolvent.

"They have failed to provide any evidence at all as to their solvency. There are many debts and they are unpaid."

not looking good is it.

Spurs will be a bit sick spending 10 mill on Kaboul when they could have waited a couple of weeks and got him for nothing.

[Colchester Kev]

what would happen if they go tits up completely ?

would the players contracts just be null and void and they would become free agents ?

[Josedinho]

It's a joke to be honest. The debt to HMRC will just grow the longer they stay in business. A rough guess of their weekly wage bill - 300k? That's £1.2mil a month that they have found for the last 3/4 months but not managed to make a payment to HMRC. That shouldn't be allowed to continue. If the players want to play unpaid for the rest of the season they are welcome to but they should be forced to spend the money they do have coming in on repaying debt.
If they go bust another team will start up and adopt Pompey's history and it's probably what they deserve. You can keep the FA cup from a couple of years ago but as your club was run borrowing and borrowing you can start again at the bottom off non-league.
You feel for the some of the staff working there but i imagine some are over paid and don't do their job properly.
I'm with Acidmouse i'm afraid. Get rid of them. I don't want to see them in the Championship debt free.

[The Camel]

what would happen if they go tits up completely ?

would the players contracts just be null and void and they would become free agents ?

99% sure that's what happened when Aldershot were wound up.

Although I doubt those players had much value and although Pompey are bad, most of the players would be worth something.

We'll take Hreidersson if he's available!