Montgomery Burns wrote:giokingkladze wrote:Scousers would get three extra points if Pompey were to go bust before the end of the season as their 2-0 defeat at Fratton Park would become a 3-0 win
Well lets hope that doesn't happen then!
I must say I'm mystified at the game plan of the current owner, and the one before that come to think of it.
Whilst Al Faraj has taken ownership he seems either unwilling or unable to fund the club to the level it needs and will almost be a miracle if they survive to the end of the season without being the first Premier League club to go into administration.
But is administration even the end game here? Could this all be something to do with property redevelopment of both Fratton Park and the many acres surrounding it, which is allegedly owned by Gaydamak or linked in some way to him, that is if press reports are to be believed.
Could Al Faraj be simply a front for Gaydamak, that is someone prepared to be a fall guy for the abuse that will come his way if Portsmouth cease to have a football club in the city, with others then carving up the spoils in the next property boom to come our way?
I come back to my original point of what Al Faraj hopes to get out of this and indeed what his plan was (or was the plan of others) from day one. I don't have an opinion on any of this, for obvious legal reasons, but others may.
It's not looking good for them though.
I did some digging after writing the original piece and came up with an article from The Grauniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... e-gaydamakLand is the key to Gaydamak's Pompey standoff• Gaydamak is owed £28m by Portsmouth
• Former owner has land that the club wants
Buzz up!
Digg it
Matt Scott guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010
Portsmouth's long, slow death will be solved at a stroke if they can untangle a multimillion-pound property riddle.
Alexandre Gaydamak, the former owner, is owed £28m by Pompey and has something they want: the land that he separated from the club when he sold it. The acreage has no monetary value to him, since planning restrictions demand developments be tied to the club. But Gaydamak knows it is his best bet on recouping his £28m, since the property is worth a lot to new owner, Ali al-Faraj, as the land combined with the stadium are required for a viable development prospect.
Faraj et al, who are keeping the club on life-support with a drip feed of funding until the situation becomes clearer, are not at Fratton Park for the love of Portsmouth. The Saudi and his brother, Ahmed, hold a multimillion-pound London property portfolio looked after by Ahmed's fellow Pompey director, Mark Jacob, a property lawyer. Their fellow directors in the club's holding company, Falcondrone, are Israeli property developers.
Gaydamak has said he was contracted to sign back the property deeds to the club for £1 last month if conditions, including the payment of a £2.5m debt to Barclays and a £9m instalment on Gaydamak's £28m loans, had been met. The first of those conditions was not met and so Gaydamak holds the land. And in the midst of the standoff, Portsmouth head for a winding-up hearing in court next month.
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