Administration

Never one of football's shrinking violets, and now attempting to turn round Preston North End's finances, Peter Ridsdale reckons that it was his intervention that saved Plymouth Argyle from going bust.   There's certainly a book in his involvement at different clubs.

The financial troubles of Portsmouth have continued with the serving of a winding up petition by Revenue and Customs.   The hearing is set for February 20th,   The petition relates to the PAYE for December which is approximately £800k (which gives some idea of the salary bill).  Since then a further £1m in VAT and PAYE has become due for payment.

Joseph Cala, a little known Sicilian businessman who also has business interests in the United States, has emerged as the front runner to take over Portsmouth.  He was introduced to the club by former owner Balram Chainrai.

Cala has said that he would invest £20m before floating the club on the New York stock exchange.  The logic of this move is unclear as the recent trend has been for clubs to go private and it is unlikely that there would be much appetite for buying shares in a Championship football club in the United States.

The former owner of Portsmouth, Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai, has put almost £1m into Portsmouth to ensure that the players' wages are paid this month.   This brings the total he has loaned to the club to around £19m.

Convers Sports Initiative (CSI) to whom Chainrai sold the club went into administration in November.  The administrator has been in talks to sell Portsmouth over the past few weeks but if a deal cannot be reached soon is likely to try and find other buyers.   A new owner is likely to roll over rather than pay off the debts.