David Conn provides a nice chronology of events that lead up to Pompey’s financial peril.
It all unravelled when Harry Redknapp decided to go on a huge spending spree and assemble a cast of high maintenance players with money through loans made by Sacha Gaydmak, the then owner and various banks. Some of these players like Glen Johnson and Lassana Diarra came from clubs on an IOU. They won the FA Cup in 2008 but the victory turned out to be pyrrhic as the clubs and banks soon came asking for money.
Like CDOs that ruined the financial market, the question now is who picks up Pompey’s tab?
Sacha Gaydamak, Pompey’s owner who when he decided to sell the club, was unaware that the subsequent owners would all turn out insolvent. The path has grown even more thorny as the fourth owner Balram Chainrai wants nothing more to do with the club other than recoup the £17m that he has loaned the club to cover operational expenses and player wages. Gaydamak is himself owed £33.5m. It is a sordid tale which could have been nipped in the bud if the FA had done its homework well.
Pompey has been granted a nine day stay by the high court in a temporary halt to the winding up proceedins initiated by the British tax authorities.