Fans of Portsmouth FC have continued their celebrations after the club's Supporters' Trust learnt it can take over the club.
The Trust announced today that it will appoint Mark Caitlin as Chief Executive under the new regime. The 47-year-old has been working with Trust members at Fratton Park for the last few months. He will fill the role previously taken by David Lampitt.
The Portsmouth Supporters' Trust is receiving a loan of £1.45m from the City Council. The Trust will pay the money back in full after five months in charge.
The council agreed to provide the money because administrators must file papers to the High Court today. The council heard that Pompey's financial situation had shown a great improvement.
Colin Farmery from the Pompey Supporters' Trust has responded to a revised bid for Portsmouth Football Club from the financier Keith Harris. In Harris' revised offer, Portsmouth Football Club fans would be given 15% of the shares in the club for free.
However Farmery said the announcement made today came under curious timing, when the Football League had already made clear that it wanted the Pompey Supporters' Trust to own the club. Farmery said that fans were already on the way to owning the side completely.
– Colin Farmery, Pompey Supporters' TrustWhy on earth would we want to accept an offer of owning 15% of the club when we are on the verge of getting 100% of the club. In our bid Pompey would be 100% owned by Pompey fans. Our bid is the only bid which deals with legacy issues. We would own the Fratton Park ground from day one, making a clean break from the past."
The football financier Keith Harris has made a revised bid to buy Portsmouth Football Club which would give fans a 15% stake.
Read the full storyThe future of Portsmouth football club remains unclear tonight after a court hearing relating to a takeover bid was adjourned yet again.
The club - which is struggling near the bottom of League One - was placed into administration earlier this year. Richard Slee sends this from the High Court in London.
In a statement this evening, Portpin - the company run by former owner Balran Chanrai - has called for the administrators to be replaced as they say their case is fundamentaly flawed. The firm has offered to take over the running of the club and fund the administration costs themselves.
– PortpinThere was a fundamental flaw at the heart of the administrators’ case, even before the issue regarding the valuation of Fratton Park came up in court. The proposed purchaser of the stadium was simply not in a position to fund the purchase even at the minimum price PST offered. This has been a huge waste of time and money. Legal costs of around £400,000 have been awarded to us against the administrators, money that we are going to pursue administrators personally through the courts, to do all we can to ensure that the Club does not have to pay.
– PortpinPortpin has offered to replace the administrator and to fund the administration until a fully funded buyer can be found, but to date the administrators have not taken us up on this offer. PKF have admitted in their application that they will run out of funds by the 21st of December. ** In what has already been the most expensive and longest running administration in the history of English football, there can be no further delays if this Club is to survive.
– Pompey Supporters TrustAlthough it is frustrating not to have a final outcome this week, as we had hoped, we welcome the opportunity for the administrators PKF to return to the courts between now and January and finalise our purchase of Portsmouth Football Club.
– Pompey Supporters TrustThis has always been a complex deal with several component parts - including some which have been outside of our control - and every part of the bid needs to be absolutely right to be approved by the courts and the administrators. We know any delay is frustrating for fans, but we are committed to completing the purchase of Portsmouth Football Club as soon as possible.
– Pompey Supporters TrustWe are extremely grateful to our supporters for their terrific support, and we continue urging our fans to pledge and be part of the biggest community club in the country. We are confident that we will be owners of Portsmouth Football Club in the next few weeks, and will continue to work on every last detail of our bid until this process is complete.
The hearing to determine the proposed sale of Fratton Park, scheduled for December 13 and 14 at the High Court in London, has been adjourned for a second time. More as we get it.
Kate Bunkall has our report on the latest in the sage of Fratton Park.
A court hearing on the future of Portsmouth Football Club's Fratton Park ground has been postponed until tomorrow.
