Chainrai May Return Again

26 April 2012 21:55
Former owner "will not allow" Pompey to go bust.

Balram Chainrai may well reluctantly own Portsmouth Football Club again after his representative at the football creditors' meeting said that he won't allow the club to be liquidated.

The news comes as unsurprising but the most disappointing thing is that Trevor Birch dismissed the fans' community buyout unless there was a significantly wealthy owner in the group.

The club stands to make a loss of £5 million next season and so if Chainrai does take charge of Pompey yet again, he will simply add that to the other £18-or-so million that he is supposedly already owed if someone else wanted to buy the club from his company, Portpin.

Having made plenty of false promises and taken money out of a club he has no interest in owning, it is claimed by UHY Hacker Young that Portpin intends to "finally pay the small creditors" but I have no reason to believe that.

There are more than a few Pompey fans that are willing to walk away from Pompey should Portpin come back and I can see why. In fact, I would not set foot in Fratton Park and hand my money over to Chainrai and would simply follow the team away from home.

Why? Because I don't believe Chainrai has any morals, he doesn't care about a football club he (allegedly) attempted to buy and sell on quickly (only to fail), he has already made money out of the club through player sales and Pompey simply cannot prosper under his ownership.

Under Portpin's ownership, Portsmouth FC isn't a football club, it's a hollow vessel for the people who are responsible for Pompey's death to make as much money as they can from a rotting carcass before it dies.

Unless there is a super rich "White Knight" willing to buy Pompey and willing to lose a vast amount of money on a League One football club then it will be stuck with Portpin until it dies.

Let's face it. The prospect of that happening is unlikely, the prospect of a fans' takeover is unlikely and therefore Pompey's long-term survival is unlikely.

Yes, the club may continue to operate under Chainrai's minimalist regime but until when? Who knows? The Football League may decide that Portsmouth cannot fulfil its fixtures next season at its AGM on June 2nd and the club may be forced to be liquidated anyway.

Therefore, I will be travelling to Nottingham on Saturday morning with the belief that there is more than a fair chance that this will be Portsmouth's last ever game before the end.

Source: FOOTYMAD