Source: Telegraph
Portsmouth's Peter Storrie: pure hatred has been put around about me
The road to contrition is always a difficult one. Peter Storrie accepts he made mistakes as Portsmouth's chief executive but wants to set the record straight, to explain in forensic detail the astonishing saga that led to the south coast club touching the void. [LNB]"The responsibility is predominantly down to three owners in the last 15 months who haven't put finance in,'' said Storrie, "but I'm always going to be known as the chief executive that took the first ever Premier League side into administration. [LNB] Related ArticlesBrown: Pompey must fight until endPortsmouth v Hull City: match previewRob Lloyd still hopeful of Pompey dealPortsmouth deducted nine pointsPortsmouth to be hit with nine-point penaltyGerrard in the clear with FA"That really hurts because I've done so much to keep the club alive. Last summer, I got an offer from a Premier League club for a lot more money but I couldn't leave. I didn't want to let anyone at Portsmouth down. [LNB]"We've had promotion, seven years in the Premier League, won the FA Cup, got into Europe and it has to end like this. I'd love to stay. Most people in the club would want me there. But I couldn't come home and have Fran [his wife] upset over all the abuse I was getting. I thought 'enough is enough'.'' [LNB]So Storrie stood down but continues as a consultant. He loves Portsmouth so much he will attend Saturday's game with Hull City.[LNB] "I've always had a very good relationship with the fans but it's got personal. It's only a minority but the abuse is vile. Pure hatred has been put around about me which revolves around my salary.'' So let's get down to numbers. [LNB]"OK, I'm on £600,000 a year basic. That's very reasonable with 21 years' experience in football, being in the Premier League. Sacha [Gaydamak, owner from 2006-09] gave me a substantial bonus two years running, performance-related. When we won the Cup and did well in the league, he gave me a £750,000 bonus but I was only on £450,000 basic then. [LNB]"In January 2009, we were in a mess financially and I brought in an awful lot of money so Sacha gave me a £500,000 bonus. Because of cash-flow problems I didn't take that until August 09. Because I had a big, big role on the football side, they included me in the win/draw bonus. It's about £3,000 a win and £1,500 a draw.'' [LNB]Sitting in his conservatory with Fran at his side, Storrie recalled the revenues he generated, the attempts he made to stop Gaydamak overreaching in the Harry Redknapp era as the wage bill peaked at £52 million on a £70 million turnover. [LNB]"The mistake I made was I should have been even stronger with Sacha and said: 'If you're going to carry on doing this I'm off'. Harry wanted to build a big, great side and you don't have the likes of Sol Campbell, Lassana Diarra and Sulley Muntari playing down at Fratton Park unless there's big money. [LNB]"Clearly the income from the club couldn't get anywhere near that. Several times the board and I pointed out that 'we are way, way overspending here'. But Sacha was going to cover it similar to what Roman Abramovich did at Chelsea and Randy Lerner at Aston Villa. [LNB]"The classic was Younes Kaboul. The board said to Sacha: 'We cannot afford him.' I love Harry to death but when Harry came into the board meeting, Sacha just said: 'Mr Redknapp, what do you need?' I just rolled my eyes. Why bother? That's not Harry's fault. He wanted the best squad and the owner said he was going to back it.'' [LNB]Pompey's gravy train hit the buffers in October 2008 at the same time as Gaydamak's father Arcadi, a former arms trafficker, suddenly moved home from Israel to Russia.[LNB] "Sacha always said it was him owning Portsmouth and not his father. The reality is that there had to be some backing from him. Sacha's a young guy, where's he got all that money? Maybe he just borrowed it from his father. [LNB]"I think one of the reasons why they bought Portsmouth was because the Premier League was so high profile. Because the father had had some bad publicity, they saw this as a way of protecting the son and cleaning the Gaydamak name a little bit.'' Arcadi's exit from Israel sent waves rolling up the Solent. [LNB]"Everything got frozen in Israel. Sacha used Standard Bank in the UK and they got collywobbles. They wanted money repaid. Barclays wanted their money. Sacha told me there were no more funds. [LNB]"'How the hell are we going to survive?' I asked. 'We have this massive wage bill. There are loads of transfer fees to pay.' I had to find £44 million to pay the banks plus the players' wages, which were running at £4.5 million a month.'' [LNB]Diarra and Glen Johnson were the most lucrative sales, generating £15 million. "We got good money but BBC Match of the Day ran a sheet of all the monies that had come in and asked 'where's all the money gone?' But what about transfer fees? Sell-ons? [LNB]"Take Diarra. He cost us £5 million and we got €18.5 million from Real Madrid the rate was £16-17 million but £4.5 million add-on had to go to Arsenal. We still made £8-9 million. We paid £4 million for Johnson, sold him for £15 million [to Liverpool] but there was a £4.5 million sell-on to Chelsea. [LNB]"Some of the add-ons we put into agreements were winning the Cup and getting into the Uefa Cup, things you'd never in 100 years think would ever happen! A club would say: 'Give us £500,000 extra if you win the Cup.' 'OK. No problem.' [LNB]"I never thought it would happen. It happened with Chelsea and Johnson. We had it on John Utaka with Rennes. The FA Cup final cost us £3-4 million. I got calls from clubs saying: 'Congratulations! Pay us the add-ons!' [LNB]"Sacha sold to Sulaiman Al-Fahim, which was an unmitigated disaster. Sulaiman had a genuine desire to make the club successful but he didn't have the funds. Sulaiman said: 'I've got £60 million.' [LNB]"Yet he put only £5 million in. We went through September, October and half of November 2009 with no money coming in. The accounts department were fighting fires but people, even the Revenue, were understanding, were helping us. The players were outstanding. [LNB]"Michael Brown, Jamo [David James] and Hermann Hreidarsson said to me: 'Look, we want to help.' I said: 'Can you help by just being paid basic and we hold back your appearance money.' It's about £3,000 a win and £1,500 a draw times 18 in the squad. They all agreed.'' [LNB]Storrie paused for a sip of coffee, allowing his wife to make a point. "I heard Peter struggling on the phone, keeping everyone a little bit sweet each month, hoping that somebody would come in,'' said Fran.[LNB] "The only thing Peter is guilty of is trying to be a hero and saving that club. We've been living a nightmare but we'll get through it. Us EastEnders are made tough.'' [LNB]Peter smiled and resumed. "Sulaiman had no choice but to move it on very, very quickly. So they sold to the Ali Al Faraj crowd. But why buy the club when they hadn't any funds? I think they were going to 'package' it up in a month and sell it. [LNB]"I had instructions from Al Faraj that I was not to be involved in the finances any more. It was all to be done by Danny Azougy, who they described as a 'debt restructuring expert' and who I didn't get on with from day one. He came in with Mark Jacobs from Fuglers.'' [LNB]The pair set about deciding which bills should be paid first, including the vexed issue of fees to agents such as Willie McKay.[LNB] "When Danny didn't pay him, Willie got really quite stroppy. They never paid any of the agents but I felt because there was animosity between Danny, Mark Jacobs and me that they were deliberately not paying Willie to make life difficult for me. [LNB]"Bear in mind, this guy can clear me in two seconds in this police case. The charge relates from the non-payment of tax and PAYE. It's an agent's fee paid to McKay that he then paid some money to the player. I have been charged in my capacity as chief executive. It's not my 'personal tax evasion'.'' [LNB]As he moves into an uncertain future, Storrie takes heart from the messages of support. "I had a lovely text from David Gill. I want to stay in football. I've a lot to give. I had a phone call from someone saying: 'it wouldn't surprise me if you get a call from the Government, who want to look into the financial structures of football'. [LNB]"We have to look at ownership in more depth. If the Premier League called, I'd be only too happy to help. Yes, the Premier League do checks on people who want to take over but there should be a financial structure like in America and France where you prove you can trade through the season. I don't want anybody to go through what Portsmouth and I've been through.'' [LNB]
