Portsmouth caretaker boss Guy Whittingham hopes that the ownership of the club can be sorted out by the January transfer window. Pompey are currently one point away from the relegation places in League 1.
Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust (PST) need to force Portpin, the investment vehicle for former owner Balram Chainrai, to sell Fratton Park which he is holding as security against the £18m he is owed by the club.
Portsmouth caretaker boss Guy Whittingham hopes that the ownership of the club can be sorted out by the January transfer window. Pompey are currently one point away from the relegation places in League 1.
Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust (PST) need to force Portpin, the investment vehicle for former owner Balram Chainrai, to sell Fratton Park which he is holding as security against the £18m he is owed by the club.
The administrators, PKF, must convince a judge in the High Court that ordering Portpin to sell Fratton Park at the market rate is in the club’s best interests because it would bring to an end the eighth-month insolvency. What the court will be asked to do is to remove Chainrai’s fixed charge against the ground, forcing him to sell at market value.
PST have offered £2.75m for Fratton Park, based on five independent valuations. The district audutor has valued the ground at just £2.1m. Chainrai is holding out for nearer £10m.
The money to buy Fratton Park is being put up by Stuart Robinson, a local property developer, who will lease it back to the trust with a future buy-back option. A further £1m is to be provided by five wealthy fans and the trust also has pledges from 2,000 supporters amounting to about £2m.
Owning Fratton Park has become even more important after Robinson agreed a deal to acquire the land around the ground, Originally owned by Milan Mandaric and passed on to Sacha Gaydamak under the name Midland Development, the land is now controlled by administrators David Rubin and partners.
Without the stadium, the land is of little value as Portsmouth council will not grant planning permission unless Fratton Park is upgraded or a new stadium built. PST’s business plan involves selling the stadium to Robinson, who will lease it back at a peppercorn rent. Robinson hopes to build a supermarket on the surrounding land which in turn will help fund a new stadium.
Portpin presents this as a deal to flip Fratton Park and sell it to property developers. They claim that the rental agreement will ratchet up costs as the years go by and that their bid is preferable because it keeps Fratton Park under the ownership of the club. It seems clear that almost all Portsmouth fans would prefer the PST bid to succeed.