Football League rules out £11 million Portsmouth payment

The Premier League is to consider paying Portsmouth's future television revenue directly to HMRC in a bid to to help the club avoid liquidation, but won't step in to prevent the club entering administration now.

Portsmouth owe the Revenue £12 million in unpaid VAT, PAYE and National Insurance, and last week narrowly avoided a winding-up order that would have put them out of business.  There have been reports that the League was contemplating making a payment of £11 million to the club to ease the immediate crisis, but this has been denied with the League insisting it will not intervene to prevent the club entering administration.

A spokesman for the League said: “The Premier League has very specific rules regarding what happens if a club suffers an insolvency event. We will not act outside those rules or in a way that undermines the competition.”

The club now has until 4pm on Wednesday to present a statement of affairs, containing a breakdown of assets and liabilities, after which a winding-up petition will be heard at the High Court on a provisional date of 1st March.

Portsmouth manager Avram Grant has urged the High Court to consider the wider implications of any  winding-up petition on the basis that football clubs are not normal businesses. "It's not a proper business," said Grant. "When you buy a building, a property, there is no feelings behind this. The team belongs, in one way or another, to the fans because they are supporting the club from the day they are born until the day they are dying."

Under new rules that take effect next month the League will be able to intervene in the affairs of clubs in extreme financial difficulties.  Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has argued that clubs who overreach themselves financially should suffer the consequences, with a nine-point penalty punishing those who fall into administration.