ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:PORTSMOUTH WILL pay Tottenham Hotspur €1.15 million over the aborted transfer of a player who has never been near the home dressingroom at White Hart Lane, while hundreds of small creditors will have to settle for a fraction of what they are owed.
This is just one of the shocking findings revealed yesterday in a report prepared by the club’s administrator for their creditors. The dossier lays bare the financial mismanagement and chaotic decision-making that left Portsmouth €125 million in debt and will leave hundreds out of pocket. An additional €16.4 million in transfer fees are due to the club but have already been taken up front, making overall debts of €141 million.
Andrew Andronikou, the administrator, said last night: “If you’re saying the club owes £122 million , yes it does. But it depends on the context. Around £90 millon of the £122m will be going into the CVA [the Company Voluntary Arrangement, which settles what percentage of the debts the club will have to pay].”
Portsmouth agreed with Daniel Levy, the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, to pay the seven-figure fee for Asmir Begovic, the goalkeeper sold to Stoke City for €3.73 million in January.
The transfer was concluded during a frenzied period when the club were teetering on the brink of insolvency, fending off a winding-up petition from British Revenue and Customs and trying to sell players during a brief window during which a Premier League transfer embargo had been lifted.
Described by insiders as a “Keystone Kops” period of wheeler-dealing, the negotiations were being led by Daniel Azougy, the convicted Israeli fraudster employed to run the club’s finances by the Falcondrone consortium that took control in October, and Mark Jacob, the solicitor then employed as executive director.
It is understood the club initially agreed a combined fee with Spurs for Younes Kaboul and the promising Bosnian goalkeeper, but agreed to a clause promising that if Begovic went elsewhere they would pay Spurs a €1.15 million fee in compensation.
When the club subsequently agreed to sell Begovic to Stoke City, the €1.15 million fee kicked in and was due to be paid by the end of last month. It makes up part of the €19.9 million owed in current and future instalments on players.
Portsmouth are obliged to pay the fee because of Premier League and Football League rules that protect football creditors, while unsecured creditors will be offered a settlement. Current and former players including David James, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson are owed a total of €2.35 million in unpaid wages and bonuses.
A list of more than 400 trade creditors, including St John Ambulance, schools, community sports clubs, kit suppliers and local businesses are collectively owed €5.02 million.
- Guardian Service
