Direct Debt Solutions

Portsmouth Football Club has admitted that once again it is facing the possibility of having to call in the administrators, as it struggles to pay its debts.

The predicament has been caused by the insolvency of their parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI), which collapsed in November 2011.

Portsmouth, nicknamed Pompey, said that they were ‘given assurances’ that the plight of the parent company would not affect the footballing outfit and claimed that the administrator, Andrew Andronikou, had told them that Pompey would still be funded.

The club have blamed Andronikou for the impending winding up petition because he failed to generate enough revenue from the sales of other parts of CSI. A spokesman for the club said that it was common knowledge that Portsmouth would not generate sufficient revenue to be self-sufficient, but said that the ‘expected funds’ had not been raised from the sale of assets.

If Pompey do end up back in administration, they face a further automatic points deduction in the League, a situation which would seriously hamper their future. Andronikou had previously reassured Portsmouth that they would not be penalised by the League but the club say they are waiting for confirmation of this.

The football outfit owes the taxman £1.8 million, a debt which resulted from the club being ‘severely stretched’ over a past lack of capital. Portsmouth have pointed the finger of blame at their creditor, HMRC, for failing to take a more sympathetic approach to their situation. According to Pompey, HMRC could have delayed announcing the winding up order, as well as refraining from leaking details to the media in advance. The club say that by generating bad publicity about the state of their finances, HMRC have hindered them in terms of ‘the club’s position, the sale process and possible player trading’ and have claimed this could be ‘to the detriment’ of the creditors, including HMRC.

The winding up petition being pursued by HMRC is due to be heard in court on 20 February.

In the meantime, another football club which was in danger of disappearing under the weight of its debts, Darlington FC, appears to have pulled off a miraculous recovery at the last minute.

Darlington, also known as the Quakers, had entered into administration but with no agreeable bids on the table, the administrator was widely expected to announce the club was to be closed down for good. However, on the same day fans were expecting to hear the bad news, the Quakers announced that they were going to be permitted to keep going for a further three games.

The administrator, Harvey Madden, confirmed that there are now a number of bidders involved in a takeover battle for the club, but one has told supporters he expects to be in place by the weekend.

Paul Wildes, a 35 year old venture capitalist from Sheffield, has allegedly proposed to invest £300,000 into the Quakers and raise another £200,000 from the fanbase, in return for handing out a 40% share in the club.

The Northern Echo has reported Mr Wilde as saying he is ‘confident’ the club will rise out of administration before the end of the week, with only ‘a couple of legal issues’ left to resolve.

The official rescue support group said they had not been given any more information but were holding out hope that a deal could be struck in time, admitting ‘time is not on our side.’ The Quakers have just one more match of their three game stay of execution left, before the administrator must decide the next step.