Portsmouth’s joint-administrator Trevor Birch has said that there is a very real chance that Pompey might not be able to fulfil this season’s Championship fixtures. If that’s the case, the games Portsmouth have played would be removed from the record with the Blues, who beat the Hampshire side both home and away, losing six points.

That would see the Blues drop two places to 18th with 34 points six points off relegation in the 23-team division from which two clubs would go into League One at the end of the season.

Birch, who works for accountancy firm PKF, said in a statement: “Following our discussions with the Premier League and Football League over the past few days, it has emerged that Portsmouth Football Club is unlikely to receive any further parachute payments or other league funding.

“We had previously stated that there was a real danger of the club running out of cash before the end of the season. The risk of this happening increases substantially without the money from the football authorities. Unless something significant happens, there is a real possibility that we may not be able to fulfil the season’s fixtures.

“One potential issue appears to come from the assignment of £2.2 million of parachute payments that was made by the old company to a previous owner. We have instructed lawyers to challenge this, but the process may take time.

“The club is also still owed nearly £300,000 by the CSI administrators and their lawyers, who are withholding the funds as payment for their work in applying to court for administration. PKF is talking to its lawyers to see if this money can be returned to the club.

“Despite the tremendous support that we’ve received from everyone involved with Portsmouth Football Club, it seems that the club isn’t getting any of the breaks that it needs. The more we uncover, the worse the picture appears to get.

“The only consolation I can give supporters, staff and players at the moment is that my PKF colleagues and I have not given up hope and will continue to do all we can to save the club. But the clock is ticking.

“We are looking at all possible options for raising further revenues in the very short term but we realise that there is only so much that can be realistically achieved. We will update you on the situation as often as we can, but keep in mind that the situation will change on a daily basis.”

One of those options for raising cash is likely to be selling players, something which may be of interest to the Blues who made offers for defender Jason Pearce, midfielder or defender Joel Ward and keeper Stephen Henderson in January.

Town’s bid for Pearce was turned down, while offers for Ward and Henderson were accepted close to the deadline with the Blues refusing to agree to the pair’s “excessive” personal terms.

Photo: Action Images

radiogaga added 17:49 - Mar 1 Poor tinpot Pompey...serves the club right for being reluctant to sell players when required in January. The utter greed of Henderson & Ward could prove to cost that club big time... Went down to Fratton Park for our 1-0 win the other week and their fans were an excellent, very passionate and loud bunch. They have been top notch over the years, have seen it all before, & no fans (apart from Norwich) deserve all this. See, a lot of us moan about ME, but at least we don't have complete outsiders owning and abusing our football club. Pompey, a warning to us all

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Blandford added 18:04 - Mar 1 Really feel for the fans of Portsmouth and the staff and players that have not been responsible for bleeding the club dry. It makes you understand why ME tries to run our club as a business and not pay stupid wages for mediocre players. I don't like the idea of missing out on players because terms cannot be agreed, but I would much rather that than lose the club we all love. Remind me I said this in the summer when we don't sign any of the 250 players that we are linked with.

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Toepunt added 18:15 - Mar 1 Read on BBC sport page that Portsmouth administrater says... "HM Revenue and Customs are currently challenging a Premier League and Football League bill that ensures unpaid players are allotted money first" Seems right to me, never could understand why Mr Millionaire footballer gets paid while the little local printing company that produces the matchday program goes to the wall. Full story here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17219854

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cornishblu added 20:00 - Mar 1 ....desparate times for pompey....but you chase the dream you have to be able to live with the consequences.....got to be tin king about David Norris and his choiv=ces....anyone want him back (but on half his wages from before??)....Rangers also going through troubled times.....anyone think that Neil Alexander would be welcomed back to the club with open arms??....still think if he had stayed with us for all that season we would have gone up....I'd have him back like a shot!!!

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bedsitfc added 20:07 - Mar 1 lets remember this when we fail to agree terms with a player... cleggy may not be a football man but we are in a good position as in we will have a club next season.
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Mungo added 20:28 - Mar 1 Sounds like it would be in our own best interests to go back in for them (or others) - could mean we get a useful player or two and keep our 6 points! On a more serious note, I do feel for the non-playing staff, smaller creditors and their fans, who are likely to suffer as a result of the the way the club has been run over the past few years. Signing players on massive (by Championship standards) wages and even paying quite significant fees for players, when there was not the money available to do so, was at best inexcusable, and is arguably criminal. A prime example of the damage greed (of players, agents, etc) is doing to the game...

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EatonBlue added 20:34 - Mar 1 What exactly is the Rule about a team not completing the season? I had a feeling that once a team had completed three quarters of their games, 35 in this case, the results stood?
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runaround added 21:19 - Mar 1 Will be terrible for Pompey fans but it does seem increasingly inevitable that they're going bust. Regarding the lost points, a team that was relegated or missed out on promotion/play-offs due to having points already earnt removed due to mismanagement of other clubs are likely to be somewhat peeved to say the least! I could see legal challenges to that. Lets hope for all concerned they manage to fulfill their fixtures and survive in some form

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beerhelps added 21:44 - Mar 1 Their fans were amazing the other week, their players were crap. The wages they take for the performance they gave was shocking. Given that our debt is around £70m and our wage bill is 98% of income.....there by the grace of god.... Football is eating itself.
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ThatMuhrenCross added 22:09 - Mar 1 I hope this doesn't come across as sounding stupid, but why don't Town offer Portsmouth £2m to help see them through the season, on the proviso that we can bring in Henderson, Pearce and Ward in the summer on frees?
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eunos added 22:25 - Mar 1 No sympathy here to be honest. As michael11 correctly pointed out when we found ourselves in that position we weren't in a position to say no to insultingly low offers for the very core of our 'once in a generation' crop of mainly local youngsters - ie Bent, Ambrose etc etc. They must've knew the gamble they were taking by buying and keeping players they couldn't afford, and they lost - tough. I can't understand how a business can be so skint that it cannot continue trading, cannot pay bills it has promised it will be able to pay and will be end up being 'vapourised', yet has at least £10million worth of easily traded assets? Surely they could sell some assets reduce their costs and carry on trading albeit maybe at a lower level than before? Did they 3 players we wanted have the final say in wether they went or not? Surely Portsmouth explained to them that they wouldn't be able to pay their wages if they stayed? and that if they were 'loyal' to the club (unfortunately) the best thing for the club is that they take up a good position at another similar sized club in the same division? seems a bit odd no? It doesn't make any sense to me. But then the wierd and often shady world of football finances doesn't make any sense either. I bet this is the tip of a very rotten iceberg of dodgy tax arrangements, off shore accounts, fraud and money laundering. Trouble is there's likely to be some powerful and wealthy people implicated and I doubt our pathetic FA, FIFA, UEFA, FSA, SFO, SOCA (insert whatever pointless acromyms you want here - won't make any difference!) will have the balls (ha!) to do anything much about it. Why was football allowed to be run in this way? it's been going on for years, yet the pointless FA and Football League (who's members all profited massively from the 'finacialisation' (is that a word?) of OUR national game) stood idle - they must know whats going on - or at least they should have, and they could have insisted Pompey put their house properly in order when all this first came up years ago. But no it rumbles on until it gets to crisis point. Whats the betting there are already a few property developers measuring up Fratton Park for some nice new 'executive' flats as we speak. Stuff the fans, the club, the community, the tax payers and the very GAME itself so long as I make another few million. GREED AND CORRUPTION.

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Umros added 22:36 - Mar 1 Oh dear.............shame..............about our 6 points that is! Back to Plymouth then Norris?. Good luck to the three that didn't want to commit to us, chosing to stay loyal, unpaid and potentially out of work............sound thinking lads :) Best thing............No more bell to endure for 90 minutes.
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marc96 added 23:09 - Mar 1 Surely if they wanted to the premier league could easily pay pompey a few million and not even notice that money when it would have a huge impact on a championship club in that situation.
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arablue added 00:31 - Mar 2 Sympathy for Pompey fans? Yes Sympathy for the Management? No - their stubborness to face reality in having to sell the players to keep the club afloat (as we painfully did with Bent, Holland etc) was them being financially irresponsible...plus the signing of players with wages to the scale they could not possibly afford...Maybe - one possible face saving aspect of their role was the directives they have to execute as "commanded" by their shareholders/owners. Lessons: 1. The Football League will have to be realistic in its approval of future owners - "would you let these fellas be part of your family?" 2. Do not live beyond your financial means - premiership to most will be unreachable distant dreamland 3. Management has to be financially pragmatic - even if have to sell key players so that the club can survive - "the club is bigger than any individual" 4. Appoint Management that has passion and cares about the tradition and knows what the values that make the club - the challenge is to appoint professional managers/management (ie CEO and team) that understands those tradition and values and build the club around those values...and to safeguard the well being of the club, not just to safeguard the owner's "investment" but to protect what is dear to the hearts of the supporters. Point 4. for is the most important of all. Do hope that Mr Clegg and team realise this...

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Guthrum added 01:55 - Mar 2 @arablue What is "dear to the hearts of the supporters" is spending unimaginable sums of money getting in all the players they're lusting after for their team (so they win, win, win!) and damn the consequences. Fans and financial good sense do not always mix.
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portlandblue added 08:00 - Mar 2 this may well be the first of the old clubs we see dissolve. it will be a shame but maybe naarich will gell get relegated and the same happen to them in a few years time. if ME decided to dissapear we could well be facing the same fate as we have done so in the past. sad days. agree with earlier comment about selling players for minimal sums. could be some bargains to be had but the loss of 6 points will be a major blow to our final league position. whatever next

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jas0999 added 09:28 - Mar 2 So, we could be in a relegation battle after all. That's all we deserve after losing 53% of our matches - 11 of which conceeding AT LEAST three goals. To think managers have been sacked at other clubs for much better results! Will be interesting to see what season ticket sales are like.
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Lightningboy added 09:59 - Mar 2 Can you imagine the mayhem it would cause if we had our 6 points taken off of us and then we go and get relegated..there would be riots and court cases galore. We earned those 6 points fair and square - there is no way they should be deducted because of another team's "off the field" problems. Hopefully this will be a massive wake-up call to a lot of teams out there who chuck so much money away on players over-inflated wages.

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ITFCOYB added 11:39 - Mar 2 Wow. Hot topic. Very harsh on teams that have played them twice as they will have played an extra game in the season too. Not to mention anyone who was injured in a game against Pompey or knocked out of a cup by them etc. You can't just wipe a team from the map. Real sanctions might be a better idea. For example, relegate Pompey whatever happens this season, but if they finish in relegation places put them down to League 2. Impose a wage cap on them for several seasons- effectively meaning they have to become a club that serves football by nurturing talent, or are reduced to a level they can afford to play at. But this should come with the FA- yes, the FA, buying their debt and finding suitable new owners, with FA being repaid on a ratcheted earn out. As for the players- i have no sympathy, including for the youngsters, who, if they are good enough, will make it anyway. Players that lose out on wages can go talk to their Union, or look to get bridging loans if needed against likely signing on fees at the end of the season. I should run the FA. I would but i hate Plattini and Blatter. I should point out that Plattini was a great player though. Just an anti-English kn**.

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TractorRoyNo1 added 12:44 - Mar 2 serves them right - their players who refused to move to ipswich should hang their greedy heads in shame for helping to ruine the club they are supposed to love so much
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