What 'fit and proper person' test?
Pompey's revolving door ownership continues. The theme is the same, they are all bankrupt. Meanwhile, the club is getting indebted to a Hong Kong based businessman called Balram Chainrai who is footing the player's wages and he is not even part of the ownership.
This is just the tip. The club remains on a transfer embargo because it owes money to Arsenal and Chelsea for Lassana Diarra and Glen Johnson.
The present owner Ali Al Faraj also passed the "fit and proper person" as did Sulaiman Al Fahim but after doing so he tells a Saudi Arabian newspaper that he intends selling the club within six months to make a profit and he is "no billionaire."
Now, the club is fending of rumours of administration and Peter Storrie, whose future in the club is tenuous, is supposedly in Australia at the bidding of Al Faraj trolling for new investors as well as celebrating his wife's best friend's birthday. How much clout does he have when all indications are that he has been elbowed aside by Mark Jacob, Al Faraj's laywer as chief executive?
How true are the rumours that "Pompey are believed to be searching for a major loan secured against the next two years of their TV revenues, which are paid via the Premier League?" Now correct me if I am wrong, banks are chary of refinancing Liverpool's loans when that club has four times Pompey's collateral but loans are available against TV money. If the season ends now, they are out of the Premiership and goodbye TV money and hello, massive loan to be repaid headache. Which bank/ lending entity is going to fall for that one?
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