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Play Up, Pompey

October 22, 2010 — by Sean

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Sad news out of the south of England today as it looks like struggling club Portsmouth FC may be forced to shut its doors due to massive debt. Perhaps I wouldn’t have cared at all except for the book Bloody Confused, tracking the american author’s journey toward football appreciation by way of Pompey’s ’06-’07 premiership campaign (I think that was the season). From the Mirror (Gaydamak is a Russian-Israeli arms dealer whose son owned Portsmouth, and his legal problems had caused issues with extensions of loans for the club before it was sold to new owners):

“Unfortunately, despite the new owners fulfilling all the requirements of the Football League and the creditors, and agreeing and signing up to the required terms of the purchase of the club, at the 11th hour the goalposts have been moved by Mr Gaydamak and this has now made the deal impossible to complete.

“Put simply, despite being offered full payment for the secured part of his debt in accordance with the financial plan approved by the Football League, this morning Mr Gaydamak has demanded a very significant up front cash payment in order to allow the deal to proceed by releasing his security.

The statement added: “It appears likely that the club will now be closed down and liquidated by the administrators as they are unable to support the continued trading of the club.”