Portsmouth on the brink again

Portsmouth administrator Trevor Birch claims Tal Ben Haim epitomises everything that has gone wrong at the club.

The 30-year-old Israel international has one year remaining on a £36,000 per week salary that could see Pompey go into liquidation before the start of the coming season.

Birch has imposed a £5,000-a-week salary cap to help cash flow with the rest of the money being deferred.

But the debt remains and Balram Chainrai's offer to buy the club is on the condition that Portsmouth's highly-paid players are off the payroll at the League One club.

With no club likely to take on Ben Haim's hefty salary and little indication that he or his agent Pini Zahavi intend to give up the money, Birch claims that could mean liquidation within weeks.

"Ben Haim represents everything that has gone wrong at Portsmouth, the excessive wages that were given four or five months before they went into administration the first time," he told The Independent.

Negotiate

"There were no relegation clauses in his contract, and here we are in League One trying to negotiate a way out of it.

"The player and his agent haven't caused the problem but they are not helping. It's not just him, but his contract is by far the largest.

"The creditors have accepted Chainrai's offer but it is conditional on me reaching an agreement with those players. I'm working night and day to persuade them that we are running out of time."

Asked when the club will fold if an agreement is not reached, Birch added: "We are two or three weeks away.

"Then the players will get nothing anyway. It's brinkmanship, but the club is on a knife edge. Michael Appleton (Portsmouth's manager) can't sign any new players because there may not be a club."



£36,000 a week for Ben Haim?!

I was surprised he hadn't left Fratton Park yet but on those wages, nobody's likely to touch him. He's lower Premiership standard at best, more likely Championship, and not even we're nuts enough to shell out that kind of dough on a right-back.

The thing with Portsmouth is that if and when they finally implode, the new club will end up so low in the league it'll be years before you ever see them again in the league unlike Rangers who, let's face it, will take no more than five years to be back in the SPL and resuming their duopoly with Celtic.

The sad thing is, they won't be the FL club to go under. Is it time for a wage cap like in rugby union?

Liquidate the club now. Just like they did to Rangers, Darlo et al. its taking the urine

Quoted from SlouchyMetal

Liquidate the club now. Just like they did to Rangers, Darlo et al. its taking the urine

Agree with this also BiloLCFC didn't Leicester cry off paying their debts (£7 million), glass houses and that.

NOt the players fault though is it?

I say fuk them, see out his contract that got offered to him. Not his fault they can't sustain it now.

Quoted from SlouchyMetal

Liquidate the club now. Just like they did to Rangers, Darlo et al. its taking the urine

It is, especially with Pompey's eye watering debts.

The last thing anyone wants to see is a club actually going bust, but it might just be the wake-up call a lot of badly run clubs need to spark their brains into gear.

I include City in that with our spending policy last year that didn't pay off, but thankfully we've cleared out a few higher earners who merely flattered to deceive.

Quoted from Marinerz93

Agree with this also BiloLCFC didn't Leicester cry off paying their debts (£7 million), glass houses and that.

Aye, not a proud part of our club's history at all.

If not for Sir Gary of Lineker and other benefactors, a certain Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey was among them, we probably would have been gone under 10 years ago.

We should have been the warning to other clubs, Portsmouth were particularly vociferous about us being punished due to the fact we were challenging one another in the league, but the fact that that warning has gone unheeded by so many clubs is more their fault than ours.

Just sack Ben Haim. Today, by telephone. Then when he and his agent take them to court for unpaid wages/pay off money, Pompey can just turn their collective trouser pockets inside out, take out out two boiled sweets and a conker and give a shrug.

Like they did to everyone else who were owed money.

Liquidate the cheating illegitimates. Sick of the sight of them.

Quoted from BiloLCFC

Aye, not a proud part of our club's history at all.

If not for Sir Gary of Lineker and other benefactors, a certain Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey was among them, we probably would have been gone under 10 years ago.

We should have been the warning to other clubs, Portsmouth were particularly vociferous about us being punished due to the fact we were challenging one another in the league, but the fact that that warning has gone unheeded by so many clubs is more their fault than ours.

You were, LCFC's administration is what led to the ten point deduction for admin being brought in

I'd have a bit of sympathy for them if they hadn't been handing out £20-30k contracts as soon as they came out of administration last time!

Apparently 4 players were handed letters at the training ground this morning, from the supporters group pleasing with them to leave the club. Ben Haim refused to even receive said letter. The other 3 (Kanu, Kitson and Lawrence) accepted the letter  but there's been no further news afaik.

It's a sad state if affairs, and I feel a little sorry for the genuine hardcore fans but as others have said they're taking the urine now and this needs to be brought to a conclusion. The season is only a month away and they don't even know if there'll be a club!

Quoted from RoboCod

Just sack Ben Haim. Today, by telephone. Then when he and his agent take them to court for unpaid wages/pay off money, Pompey can just turn their collective trouser pockets inside out, take out out two boiled sweets and a conker and give a shrug.

Like they did to everyone else who were owed money.

Long, long time since I worked in insolvency and then I never really got involved in admins, but if it was classed as unfair dismissal couldn't Ben Haim sue the administrator and his firm as opposed to Portsmouth FC.

Quoted from BiloLCFC

Aye, not a proud part of our club's history at all.

If not for Sir Gary of Lineker and other benefactors, a certain Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey was among them, we probably would have been gone under 10 years ago.

We should have been the warning to other clubs, Portsmouth were particularly vociferous about us being punished due to the fact we were challenging one another in the league, but the fact that that warning has gone unheeded by so many clubs is more their fault than ours.

I think I am right in saying, correct me if I am wrong but your financial meltdown was more due to the funding shortfalls of the new stadium so your situation is no where near Pay Up Pompey's.  Leicester has a very good fan base so it shouldn't be one of these serial admin'ers in the future.  If I was an Ipswich fan I'd be more embarrassed than a Leicester fan about how they went into admin, the way clubs felt about Ipswich was one of the driving forces to the 10 point deduction.

This winds me up big time, I understand that when a new chairman buys a club in admin the debts or restrcitions are lifted so to speak, then they overspend with a new chairman and the turmoil starts again. I think if a salary cap is introduced I would prefer it to commence when the club comes out of admin.  also the buyer who wants Portsmouth didn't he get the club in admin before and legged it, if so why is he allowed to purchase the club again.

if you have a salary cap, it has to be a flat rate not a percentage of income.

but really the answer should not be a salary cap, the answer should be far more severe penalties for going into administration.

if you go into administration it should be a minimum penalty of relegation by one division. and if you go into administration more than once, you should be relegated the same amount of divisions as times you have been into admin.

Quoted from pleasegoup

if you have a salary cap, it has to be a flat rate not a percentage of income.

but really the answer should not be a salary cap, the answer should be far more severe penalties for going into administration.

if you go into administration it should be a minimum penalty of relegation by one division. and if you go into administration more than once, you should be relegated the same amount of divisions as times you have been into admin.

I agree with this. Clubs should be able to look after themselves, not be capped by the authorities. Although Bradford Bulls seem to suggest they don't really work anyway.

Well I must admit they "welshed" on their parachute payment promised to us when we dropped out of the champs League so I haven't got much time for them.

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Well I must admit they "welshed" on their parachute payment promised to us when we dropped out of the champs League so I haven't got much time for them.

Oh how I miss those heady nights against Juve and Barca.....

Quoted from Marinerz93

I think I am right in saying, correct me if I am wrong but your financial meltdown was more due to the funding shortfalls of the new stadium so your situation is no where near Pay Up Pompey's.  Leicester has a very good fan base so it shouldn't be one of these serial admin'ers in the future.  If I was an Ipswich fan I'd be more embarrassed than a Leicester fan about how they went into admin, the way clubs felt about Ipswich was one of the driving forces to the 10 point deduction.

That's pretty accurate on the new stadium.

The construction of the new stadium had been protracted, we'd be talking about moving for six years before we actually did. The original plan was to have a new stadium ready for the 1999-2000 season as I recall, which would have been at the time we were a top 10 Premiership side playing in Europe.

Unfortunately, the stadium was delayed due to planning issues and we had to move the site; just in time for relegation from the Premiership and the collapse of ITV Digital. This, plus the costs of having players still on Premiership money in Division One was bad enough, but Dennis Wise (what a wanker) suing the club for unfair dismissal after breaking another player's jaw during a pre-season tour drove us to the verge of liquidation.

I'd like to think you're right on our fanbase preventing a repeat of these events but Rangers' miseries should tell us that no club is immune if they're so catastrophically mismanaged financially.

Quoted from SlouchyMetal

Liquidate the club now. Just like they did to Rangers, Darlo et al. its taking the urine

Darlington were not liquidated.

Quoted from DarlingtonFC1883

Darlington were not liquidated.

Well, you should've been.

Quoted from DubaiMariner

Well, you should've been.

And why's that?

because i said so  

Quoted from DubaiMariner

because i said so  

Valid point...

I thought so too. Thanks

I find it ridiculous that the situation wasn't sorted in May. There is now a probability that League One (third division) will function with 23 clubs from the start this season. At least it's better than folding mid-season.

Quoted from BiloLCFC

That's pretty accurate on the new stadium.

The construction of the new stadium had been protracted, we'd be talking about moving for six years before we actually did. The original plan was to have a new stadium ready for the 1999-2000 season as I recall, which would have been at the time we were a top 10 Premiership side playing in Europe.

Unfortunately, the stadium was delayed due to planning issues and we had to move the site; just in time for relegation from the Premiership and the collapse of ITV Digital. This, plus the costs of having players still on Premiership money in Division One was bad enough, but Dennis Wise (what a wanker) suing the club for unfair dismissal after breaking another player's jaw during a pre-season tour drove us to the verge of liquidation.

I'd like to think you're right on our fanbase preventing a repeat of these events but Rangers' miseries should tell us that no club is immune if they're so catastrophically mismanaged financially.

Rangers problem was it failed to scrutinse the fit and proper person and sale of the club.  I think he bought the club on several seasons ticket sales.  The fit and proper persons test is brushed over as soon as big numbers are mentioned.

We almost bought crisp boy, I think to replace Drinks when we let him go to Norwich.

If you establish a salary cap then what's to stop clubs paying players in other ways - such as buying them houses and cars?

Regarding the wage cap I don't think this would work due to legal wrangles. What I would like to see (but clearly won't happen) would be a uefa wide ban on any club being in any sort of debt. I don't particularly have a problem with teams like man city or Chelsea who have wealthy owners as long as they cover any debts they create and will honour contracts signed. For me if someone is stupid enough to throw money in then that is up to them.

The problem is when teams try and compete with man city or Chelsea and overpay. That leads to other teams trying to compete with that team who is over committing and over commit themselves. This eventually trickles down so everyone is paying more than they can afford by trying to keep up with other teams who also can't afford it. It is ridiculous. Ok this means man city and Chelsea will get the best few players who are totally motivated by money but they can only stockpile so many players. It will also have the knockon effect that pretty much every club will have to cut their cloth so wages will decrease dramatically and will act as a sort of wage cap. It will also mean lots of clubs will actually give their kids a chance as they are cheaper which can only be a good thing for our game.

Quoted from RichMariner

If you establish a salary cap then what's to stop clubs paying players in other ways - such as buying them houses and cars?

The value of 'gifts' should be included in the salary. Tax man will take his slice of house or car, so it would be easy to track.

Quoted from One Decent Lester

Regarding the wage cap I don't think this would work due to legal wrangles. What I would like to see (but clearly won't happen) would be a uefa wide ban on any club being in any sort of debt. I don't particularly have a problem with teams like man city or Chelsea who have wealthy owners as long as they cover any debts they create and will honour contracts signed. For me if someone is stupid enough to throw money in then that is up to them.

The problem is when teams try and compete with man city or Chelsea and overpay. That leads to other teams trying to compete with that team who is over committing and over commit themselves. This eventually trickles down so everyone is paying more than they can afford by trying to keep up with other teams who also can't afford it. It is ridiculous. Ok this means man city and Chelsea will get the best few players who are totally motivated by money but they can only stockpile so many players. It will also have the knockon effect that pretty much every club will have to cut their cloth so wages will decrease dramatically and will act as a sort of wage cap. It will also mean lots of clubs will actually give their kids a chance as they are cheaper which can only be a good thing for our game.

Agree with all of that, most sensible post for ages.