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Balram Chainrai seizes control of Portsmouth

Submitted by tribalfootball.com on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 09:40

Portsmouth have been taken over for a fourth time this season after Balram Chainrai seized control.

Chainrai has taken over the 90 per cent shareholding in Pompey that was held by Ali Al-Faraj after the club continually defaulted on loan repayments.

The Hong Kong businessman had loaned at least £17million to Faraj to keep Portsmouth afloat through Portpin, the company he owns with his Israeli business partner, Levi Kushnir, and their associates. Those loans were secured against the stadium, the club's future television revenue and Faraj's 90 per cent share.

Angered by Portsmouth's failure to make the repayments, despite Portpin continually extending the deadlines, Chainrai's patience ran out on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the loan Faraj's 90 per cent shareholding in Portsmouth was frozen and passes to Chainrai, who has confirmed Portpin will now look after the club's best interests.

"Portpin have made substantial loans to Portsmouth to try and ensure the club's future," he told The Guardian. "Portpin will [now] continue to work for the best interests of the club."

Portsmouth are due in court to appeal against the petition before the hearing next Wednesday. Chainrai appealed to HMRC to understand the club's financial predicament, adding: "To help Portsmouth succeed we need the support and understanding of Her Majesty's Revenue to work out a solution."

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Comments (1)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 08:23.

My sympathies lie with the fans on this issue, as they are the ones suffering the most from the astonishing goings-on at the football club.
If Chanrai is NOT interested in owning a football club and in this case Portsmouth, what exactly will his involvement be until it is sold?
He wants a sale as soon as possible BUT the big question is, who will pay the salaries of the players, the staff and so who still have to be paid?
So is Chanrai going to pay up and then add the cost to the sale of the club OR will he not pay any salaries at all and leave the club not only broke but with no players or staff either? - (There has not been a comment on this issue to my knowledge.)
If he pays the salaries and then adds that cost to the sale of the club, any potential purchaser is going to have an even greater debt to pay than the reputed £60M that Portsmouth are said to owe their creditors so far!
....................................................................................................................................
The Premier League need to sit down and give this matter a serious amount of thought.
With owners coming in, who display little or no knowledge of owning/running a football club OR have little or no interest in football at all but onlyinterested in taking the profit out of it, then perhaps a potential owner should be made to put forward a 'deposit' with the Premier League of 25% of the gross turnover of that club. This in turn could be available by the PL to pay players, staff etc in the event of a club running into financial difficulties AND hopefully deter any potential buyers from making a quick 'buck'. Adding 25% to the cost of actually buying the club in the first place, should deter most if not all of the 'pretenders' from buying into the Premier League and if extended to the other leagues, the same outcome should result. (Should the club be sold, then the 25% would be added to the cost of sale)
Good luck to Portsmouth fans, hopefully everything will turn out ok but it looks as if relegation is more than a possibility as the season is running down and time is fast running out.

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