Source: PA
Pompey on the brink
Portsmouth have announced they are on the brink of being closed down.
The club released a statement saying that the club faces going out of business unless a deal with former owner and creditor Alexandre Gaydamak and prospective buyer Balram Chainrai can be struck - described as "impossible" in a statement from Pompey.
Portsmouth were relegated from the Barclays Premier League amid financial strife last season, during which they were docked nine points for falling into administration. The club remains in administration.
It was revealed in April that Portsmouth owed a combined total of £38.2million to previous owners including Gaydamak and Sulaiman al Fahim, out of a total debt of £119million.
Friday night's club statement, published on the Portsmouth website ahead of Saturday's scheduled npower Championship match at Hull, said the Football League plus Chainrai's proposed new company, administrators and legal advisers have made "extensive efforts" to keep the club in business.
However the club said Gaydamak had on Friday requested a "very significant" cash payment to be made, and that was refused. Portsmouth called it "a ransom payment".
