Pompey players wages unpaid

[Rosco]

Anyone see this story ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/01/portsmouth-wages-peter-storrie-no-money

Portsmouth's chief executive, Peter Storrie, has painted a bleak picture in the wake of news that the club's players have not been paid this week, saying "there is no money left", and insisting the club needed to refinance immediately.

"All the money from all the player transfers and the Sky TV money, all of the £35m from January, has gone straight to the Standard Bank," Storrie told ESPN Soccernet. "There is no money left.

"Whatever we spend on a monthly basis comes channelled through from [Al-Fahim]. He has promised to refinance, and he has shown me all the documentation, but I have no idea about the conditions of the £50m he says will be arriving in a few weeks.

"We need to refinance, it is as simple as that. As for the players wages for the last month I would imagine it's a blip and they will be paid, but I have spent the last nine to 10 months fighting fires on a daily basis, I'm not giving up."

Portsmouth are in a seriously dodgy situation. Peter Storrie is in a really curious position, he put together a consortium to takeover the club which lost out but he remains as chief executive. Surely there's a conflict there ?

Anyway what it makes me think is even if we think we overpaid for Glen Johnson at £17m, there's a chance we may have never seen that £10m Pompey owed us so it might have been quite clever.

 

[TheBunnyman]

I can't believe it's gone so wrong so quickly there. Portsmouth were one of the best teams in the country a year and a half ago. They'll be in League Two soon at this rate.

 

[gkmacca]

Yes. At least Southampton have a modern stadium and a decent youth academy. Everything about Pompey looks antiquated. It could go down the plughole, just leaving that daft bloater with his ding-ding-ding bell.

 

[irishred]

Their sponsor is very apt at the moment.

 

[DHSC]

What happened there? Where did all the money go to?

 

[Irish_Red]

[quote author=DHSC link=topic=36215.msg955791#msg955791 date=1254466249]
What happened there? Where did all the money go to?
[/quote]

When Harry was in charge they had one of the highest wage bills in the league, the likes of James, Campbell, Defoe etc were all on big wages, got massive signing on fees and considering the small capacity of Fratton Park something had to give.

I see on the news this morning that their new owner has been rushed to hospital in Dubai, it could get even worse for them now.

 

[Squiggles]

That's a good point about Johnson.

 

[Rosco]

Pompey to be taken over again .... this is bizarre

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/04/portsmouth-sulaiman-al-fahim-ali-alfaraj

Portsmouth's turbulent season has taken another extraordinary twist after owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim revealed he is to sell the majority of his holding to a member of one of Saudi Arabia's richest families.

Fahim, speaking to Observer Sport last night, claimed the deal with a consortium led by Ali al-Faraj will be complete this week – perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

The takeover by Faraj, who is understood to be 50 years old and have a personal holding in billion-dollar petroleum giant Sabic, potentially signals the end of a traumatic period on the south coast which had left the club's future in serious doubt.

On Friday Peter Storrie, the club's chief executive, admitted that at least "30% of the £50m" Fahim promised to raise by the end of the month had to be in place within a fortnight or Portsmouth would face financial meltdown.