Portsmouth City Council are holding an emergency meeting to decide whether to lend the football club money.
The future of Portsmouth Football Club could be decided today. Administrators are close to getting all remaining highly paid players off the books and have two takeover bids to consider.
Just yesterday the city council agreed to loan one and a half million pounds to a supporters' consortium.
Portsmouth are "cautiously optimistic" they will avoid going into liquidation
as tomorrow's deadline to save the club looms.
Administrator Trevor Birch said that Pompey's high earners must be
off the wage bill by August 10 or there would be no chance of rescuing the
stricken club.
He said Israeli defender Tal Ben Haim - reportedly on £36k per
week - had left Fratton Park after reaching an agreement.
Birch also expects to make an announcement on midfielder Liam
Lawrence, while talks are ongoing with former striker Kanu.
Negotiations with former owner Balram Chainrai's company Portpin
over their takeover should take place over the next few days.
It also emerged today that Portsmouth Council have agreed to loan rival
bidders, the Pompey Supporters' Trust, £1.45million towards their proposal to
buy the club.
Portsmouth will begin the npower League One campaign next weekend on minus 10
points and are due to start their season with a Capital One Cup clash against
Plymouth on Tuesday.
Just in: Portsmouth Council will loan money to Portsmouth FC. Vote was unanimous at today's meeting.
Councillors are attending an emergency meeting to decide whether they should lend the Pompey Supporters Trust almost £1.5 million. The Trust would use the loan to increase their bid for Portsmouth Football Club, which could face liquidation if a deal is not reached by tomorrow.
Trevor Birch, joint administrator of Portsmouth FC, said this morning: "I am pleased to announce that we have reached a compromise agreement with Tal Ben Haim, who will now leave the club. We expect to make an announcement on Liam Lawrence's future later.
While the situation with Kanu has not yet been resolved, we are cautiously optimistic about our prospects. The progress that we have made over the past 24 hours means that there is now a much better prospect of meeting the conditions of CVA, completing sale of the club and avoiding liquidation.
"As a result, we will now push on with our negotiations with a view to finalising a deal in the next few days. There is still more to do, and the club's future is not yet guaranteed, but we're in a stronger position and will now take some additional time to try to conclude matters."
Portsmouth City Council will sit for an emergency meeting later to decide whether the authority should lend the Pompey Supporters Trust almost one and half million pounds.
The trust would use the short-term loan to increase their bid for Portsmouth Football Club. The team faces liquidation if a deal with some senior players cannot be reached by tomorrow.