Pompey crisis: Gaydamak payment set to bust club
Published 22:30 01/03/12 By Neil McLeman
Portsmouth are in danger of going bust before the end of the season with debts of more than £100million.
Crisis club Pompey may not make it to the end of the season - Birch
The 2008 FA Cup winners were docked 10 points last month after entering administration for the second time in two seasons.
But now the administrators have discovered the £2.2m owed in parachute payments from the Premier League will be paid directly to former owner Sacha Gaydamak.
Unless new money or a new owner is found to plug the shortfall, the Fratton Park club risk running out of funds next month and going out of business.
Manager Michael Appleton said: “The situation is bad enough that we won’t be able to see the season out unless something is done to sort everything out.”
Estimates put Portsmouth’s debt from a string of owners at more than £100m despite re-forming as a company in 2010.
The administrators have already loaned out top scorer Erik Huseklepp to Birmingham and cut 30 jobs. Trevor Birch, of accounting firm PKF, said: “The more we uncover, the worse the picture appears to get.”
The last Football League club to be declared bankrupt during the season was Aldershot back in March 1992. All their results were expunged and there was no relegation from the Second Division that season.
