nPower Football League Thread 2011/12

[Lineker]

Add me to the Blackpool/Huddersfield brigade.

Former Portsmouth owner Balram Chainrai's Portpin has made a firm offer to buy back the debt-ridden club.

Pompey are currently £58m in debt after previous owners Convers Sports Initiatives went into administration.

Chainrai is owed around £19m by the club but previously stated he would not let them be liquidated.

"I'm a businessman but I realise that the club will only have value if it is successful. I now want to turn things around," said Chainrai in a statement.

Administrator Trevor Birch, from PKF, revealed Chainrai's offer was the only firm bid made for the stricken club, who could be out of administration by the start of July if Pompey's creditors accept his proposal.

The proposal from Chainrai would form the basis of a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) - the only way apart from folding that the club could get out of administration.

"Nobody wants to see this much-loved club collapse into either liquidation or administration again so it is essential that all parties work together to bring stability back to Fratton Park," said Birch.

"It is the least that fans, staff and players deserve after the turbulence of the past few years."

For Hong Kong businessman Chainrai it would be the third time he has become owner of the south-coast side.

"I now want to turn things around at Portsmouth and see the club regain its rightful position," he added.

"The success of this goal can only be achieved if all parties with a vested interest in the club's business work together.

"Let's not be under any illusions though: we are planning to take on a club with severe financial problems that cannot be fixed overnight.

"I don't have a magic wand but many important elements - a proud history, passionate supporters and one of the country's top managers - are already in place and provide a strong platform on which we hope to build stability."

A takeover by a Supporters' Trust had been muted, while Birch said there may be another interested party in buying the club.

But, with time and money running out before the Football League Annual General Meeting at the end of the month, Birch and Chainrai have had to act to stop the club from being liquidated.

"PKF has not received bids from any other potential buyers and we do not expect any new bidders to emerge before the club runs out of money," said Birch.

"The Supporters' Trust is working hard to make a proposal but as yet is not in a funded position to make a bid.

"We've made it clear from the start that a new owner would need to demonstrate that it can not only fund a CVA that is acceptable to creditors but also cover the club's ongoing operating losses.

"Only Portpin has been able to give us the necessary assurances that the funding will be in place. This is important because at some stage it will have to give the Football League those assurances too."

[Adam]

Oh, Portsmouth.

We've 'announced' our released list, but in actuality it just lists all the out of contract players then says "Discussions are ongoing". How irritating!

[stokeriño]

Portsmouth are seemingly trapped in one of those horror movie sequels. "YES, YOU THOUGHT YOU'D LEFT ME AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN...BUT I'M BAAAAAACK!"

[Lineker]

Coventry City are in talks over a deal which could see them finally get shared ownership of their Ricoh Arena home - seven years after they moved in.

They pay £1.2m a year to the joint owners - a local charity called the Higgs Trust and Coventry City Council.

Following relegation to League One, the Sky Blues want to renegotiate the deal and the Higgs Trust are keen to talk.

"We're not a long-term investor. We'd love to be out," Higgs spokesman Peter Knatchbull-Huggeson told BBC Sport.

"It was never an intention of the charity to stay in."

The Higgs Trust bought Coventry City's half-share in the stadium following the club's relegation from the Premier League back in 2001 - four years before the Sky Blues actually left Highfield Road to move into their new home.

"What we wanted was to get the thing moving, get it built and start the regeneration," Knatchbull-Huggeson told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

"But we're not a long-term investor. We've got other projects we'd like to develop in Coventry.

"The stage we're at at the moment is that people will be going off and doing due diligence, which takes roughly 30 days," added Knatchbull-Huggeson, who also expects Coventry City Council will one day want to sell its share of the Ricoh.

"The city council are a longer-term custodian," he added. "But, again, their sole mission is to get regeneration.

"When they've got a partner that can take that on then I assume they will go out.

"It isn't the business of either of us to be running a stadium like that."

Knatchbull-Huggeson is also hopeful, after years of off-field financial woes and on-field frustration, that Coventry might be able to reverse the decline which means the Sky Blues will start next season in the third tier of English football for the first time since 1964.

But, with relegation, comes a significant fall in revenue. Even if the club's better players wanted to play in League One, the pressure to drive down the wage bill could force the 1987 FA Cup winners - who are still under a transfer embargo for not filing their accounts - to cash in.

Their position is not helped by the fact that, as tenants, they do no make any money from matchday food and drink sales, or the lucrative concerts and conferences which are held at the Ricoh Arena complex.

With Uefa's Financial Fair Play rules on the near horizon, limiting clubs' spending to a proportion of turnover, the Sisu group which owns Coventry are desperate to secure at least a half-share of the stadium and its revenues.

Knatchbull-Huggeson said: "How could I describe the management of the football club? I think best not to because of the laws of libel and so on. And anyway I expect I'd get edited out or bleeped.

"But I think that says enough about the management of the football club that now is the best time that something could happen.

"I think it's clear that they have acknowledged that they have failed over the first few years of their ownership.

"I think they've had a very cold shower and begun to understand that they need to run it more sensibly.

"And I think the people they have got now are the most sensible people I've seen at the football club in the last 20 years."

[Cuthman]

all the out of contract players

Isn't that every player?

[Adam]

Erm, no? It was 14 players...we've still got about 16-17 signed up for next season plus youth players in the process of signing professional deals.

[IAceI]

Sky Sports tweeted the team line ups with #dayofdestiny at the end. Good grief :/

Edited May 19, 2012 by IAceI

[Matt]

Yeah, that's what they're billing today as. Everything needs a gimmick. :/

[IAceI]

Of course, how foolish of me.

Edited May 19, 2012 by IAceI

[Matt]

Almost accurate, needs to feature a lot more Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard though.

[Lineker]

Blackpool

01 Gilks

03 Crainey

05 Eardley

06 Evatt

15 Baptiste

16 Ferguson

23 M Phillips

31 Angel

07 Dobbie

09 K Phillips

36 Ince

Substitutes

20 Cathcart

04 Southern

14 Sylvestre

32 Dicko

35 Bednar

Blackpool

01 Gilks

03 Crainey

05 Eardley

06 Evatt

15 Baptiste

16 Ferguson

23 M Phillips

31 Angel

07 Dobbie

09 K Phillips

36 Ince

Substitutes

20 Cathcart

04 Southern

14 Sylvestre

32 Dicko

35 Bednar

Referee: H Webb

[Matt]

I prefer the usual format. I'm disappointed Linekles.

Blackpool nearly scored, Green turned a shot onto the post, not sure who it was from.

[Lineker]

The website is broken!

[Gorka]

I want Blackpool to win just for the fact it'll be the third year in a row that Dobbie has won a play-off final, and then probably go on to not actually be used in the following season.

[Matt]

The BBC Sport website? Fine for me, look:

Blackpool: Gilks, Eardley, Baptiste, Evatt, Crainey, Ferguson, Dobbie, Angel, Ince, Matt Phillips, Kevin Phillips. Subs: Southern, Sylvestre, Cathcart, Dicko, Bednar.

West Ham: Green, Demel, Reid, Tomkins, Taylor, O'Neil, Noble, Nolan, Collison, Cole, Vaz Te. Subs: Henderson, McCartney, Maynard, Faubert, Lansbury.

Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire)

[Lineker]

Ah they published them - they must have retrospectively added them after kick-off.

Just for you then!

Blackpool: Gilks, Eardley, Baptiste, Evatt, Crainey, Ferguson, Dobbie, Angel, Ince, Matt Phillips, Kevin Phillips.

Subs: Southern, Sylvestre, Cathcart, Dicko, Bednar.

West Ham: Green, Demel, Reid, Tomkins, Taylor, O'Neil, Noble, Nolan, Collison, Cole, Vaz Te.

Subs: Henderson, McCartney, Maynard, Faubert, Lansbury.

Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire)

[Adam]

Matt Phillips has wasted two glorious opportunities. The first he makes a brilliant run and it's a greast through pass but he never gets it out of his feet and it trickles to the keeper. But the second one where Demel messes it up I thought he'd scored, so close.

Oh and why do the West Ham fans hate Tom Ince?

[Dynamite]

Cos of Paul.

[Adam]

But I don't get that either? Did he leave them in acrimonious circumstances?

[Dynamite]

Yeah, he was photographed wearing a United shirt before he had even left the club.