Those amongst us that occasionally doubt the power the most vocal of football bloggers seldom pause to consider the lengths that some people go to in order to prevent them having their say. This is a story that will ring bells in a number of clubs around the country. Fans of Leeds United, Birmingham City, Liverpool and Doncaster Rovers have all experienced some or all of the pressures we have felt at Pompey.
Portsmouth fans scarcely needed a reminder of their fall from grace this week, what with their club hitting the headlines for charging their opponents to park the team bus. But just to really rub it in, two of their former players were on the scoresheet at AC Milan defeated Barcelona 2-0 at the San Siro [.
Ever since Premier League sides stopped rolling over for Jose Mourinho's Chelsea team, parking the bus had been considered to be disappointing tactics for a team to employ but it doesn't usually invoke a financial penalty. That's all changed now after Portsmouth charged opponents Carlisle £20 to park their coach during Saturday's 1-1 draw [.
Below is full text of Pompey blogger Portus-eg's findings regarding events at Pompey at the time of the sale of the club by Portpin to CSI in June 2011. It makes interesting reading.
The blog was first published here:http://portus-eg.blogspot.co.uk/ under the title: Takeover Toils as Pompey Fans' Blood Boils.
Today, Pompey fans' research reveals that Ali Al Faraj, Pompey's well-known invisible owner, does exist. However, the same research also suggests that Ali Al Faraj played no part in the running of Portsmouth Football Club despite being the designated 'Fit and Proper' owner between October 2009 and February 2010.
It is often the last resort of the villain in a pantomime to curse his conquerors with his dying
breath. Which thought leads me directly to  the vainglorious attacks of  Pompey's chief creditor,
Balram Chainrai, on the Pompey Supporters' Trust. Indeed, not only the Pompey Trust but the entire
Trust movement.
It appears us Pompey fans have upset Mr Chainrai and he no longer wants to own our club. In an
spate of dummy spitting of some awe-inspiring magnitude on Wednesday he withdrew his bid to be our
'reluctant saviour' for a third time. Firing a tirade of self-exposing blame-shifting Mr Chainrai
has taken up Portpin's bid and walked.
It appears us Pompey fans have upset Mr Chainrai and he no longer wants to own our club. In an
spate of dummy spitting of some awe-inspiring magnitude on Wednesday he withdrew his bid to be our
'reluctant saviour' for a third time. Firing a tirade of self-exposing blame-shifting Mr Chainrai
has taken up Portpin's bid and walked.
That's it. With Liam Lawrence finally skidaddling out of Fratton Park this morning after
agreeing to terminate his contract for a compensatory lump sum, Portsmouth now have no senior
players left on their books. The two chaps you see there?
It would be funny if it didn't make for such desperate viewing. The above image from Portsmouth
FC's official website isn't a playful spin-off of the Guess Who board game, but in fact the entire
contents of Pompey's first team. The League One outfit has haemorrhaged players this summer after
accepting that the club can only [.
Things seem to be getting crazier by the day at Fratton Park, lets hope the club can sort
themselves out and avoid folding completely, but the latest news is that they are down to four
players with the departure of Norwegian winger Erik Huseklepp.
Huseklepp originally arrived from Italian side Bari in 2011 and became an important first team
player, but he has now returned to Norway where he began his career at Brann.
Harry Redknapp has vowed to do his utmost to help save Portsmouth from liquidation after it was
announced yesterday that the stricken club have until August 10th to get their finances
straightened up or face the very real  possibility of being pulped.
The darkest hour, optimists might say, comes before the dawn, to which pessimists might counter
by saying that one of English footballs longest-running financial seems to be approaching its
inevitable solution. At least, the rest of us may consider, we will at least have an answer, one
way or the other.
Crisis club Portsmouth stare placed to get another participant forth their wage measure by
offloading Luke Varney to Leeds United.
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Portsmouth devotees grouping SOS Pompey say the club are approaching closing as they name on the
staying instrumentalists to help salvage them.
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- Seven Year Flashback: Marc Nygaard Joining QPR as QPR Beat Iran
- See the Truly-Brilliant Bushman Photo Archives of Old QPR - Follow QPR
REPORT on TWITTER! - QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge,
football-only, QPR Report messageboard (and see items you won't usually read
elsewhere __________________________________________________________________________
- QPR Asia Tour Concludes Tonight
- Flashback: Bushman's Compilation of Former Michael Wale Report Profiles of and Interviews with
QPR Stars
- Flashback article re Clubs and Finances "Foreign Fans the Way to Go"
- Flashback: Transfer Leak Infuriates QPR Chairman as Transfer Falls Through
- Seven Year Flashback: Marc Nygaard Joining QPR as QPR Beat Iran
- See the Truly-Brilliant Bushman Photo Archives of Old QPR - Follow QPR
REPORT on TWITTER! - QPR REPORT MESSAGEBOARD - Visit the cutting-edge,
football-only, QPR Report messageboard (and see items you won't usually read
elsewhere __________________________________________________________________________
- QPR Asia Tour Concludes Tonight
- Flashback: Bushman's Compilation of Former Michael Wale Report Profiles of and Interviews with
QPR Stars
- Flashback article re Clubs and Finances "Foreign Fans the Way to Go"
- Flashback: Transfer Leak Infuriates QPR Chairman as Transfer Falls Through
Greg Clarke is a defender of your football club. No really. Stop snorting with derision in
Pompey, Plymouth, Leeds, Wrexham, Coventry (supporters of other clubs are also available in
snort-mode) ... He says so himself. So it must be true.
In a telling exchange with MP Damien Collins at the DCMS enquiry (from 12.
... but if they did this one would be pretty much what they'd come up with. Just when you think
it might brighten up another rainstorm blows through, drowning all hope of recovery. With the new
points deduction imposed by the Football League yesterday Pompey's Summer continues to mirror that
of Rangers in a macabre North South symmetry.
Pompey Supporters' Trust have made their bid for the club. Pause to take in the enormity of that
statement. This is possibly one of the biggest steps taken in the history of the Trust movement.
Not because of the fact that a Trust is in a position to take over a club so recently in the top
tier of the game but because they are taking on the most paradoxical owner in its history.
You have to admire the stoicism of football fans. No matter how much the parameters of the game
are manipulated to the advantage of those with little emotional investment in our clubs we continue
to process through the turnstiles. We tolerate being frisked for lethal bottle tops and are
directed to seats where we are ordered to sit down and play nice.
'Dinlow' is proper Pompey. It is used, often affectionately, to someone who has said or done
something idiotic. If Greg Clarke has not been a 'bit of a din' in his statement regarding
Portsmouth Football Club yesterday then he is guilty of being either over-simplistic or
disingenuous, I feel. He certainly hasn't helped the odds on the survival of the club.
After a poor run of form in the league, our trip to Wembley this weekend has almost been
forgotten and it's interesting to see the first previews of the game starting to appear today.
The official club website has quoted Gareth Bale ahead of the Chelsea game,
"We let ourselves down against Portsmouth two years ago, we didn't play well and that was a tough
defeat to take, but we've got another chance to reach the FA Cup final and we're determined not to
let it slip by this time," said Gareth, who played in the Pompey game.
Some weeks it will be tough to pick out a Football League game, but this weekend there is little
choice. A south coast derby with bitter rivalry and three precious points at stake when
Southampton take on Portsmouth in the npower Championship
tomorrow afternoon.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has revealed that Paul Merson once conned him into allowing a
mid-season holiday to Barbados. Speaking at the Soccer Saturday Live event, 'Arry claimed that
Merse had approached him during their time at Portsmouth and said: "I've got a problem with the
drinking and the gambling and the women.
At first glance it seemed like bad news. Another spanner in the Pompey Trust bid for ownership of the club. Balram Chainrai's Portpin are not happy at the Football League's rejection of the Keith Harris bid for Pompey. On Friday 22 Februaury the BBC website reported:
Portpin claims the Harris bid would mean it received £6.
There has been a rare old tussle going on down Pompey way this last week. In microcosm our beleagured club continues to be a perfect illustration of all that is questionable about football governance as it currently stands. On 7 Februaryit appeared that the long running Pompey Supporters' Trust bid to buy the club was about to be scuppered by a consortium led by Keith Harris.
Since October 2012 the Pompey Trust's bid business partners have committed £800,000 of their own money to the club. If the Trust bid succeeds they will convert this sum to equity in the club. If the Trust bid fails they lose the lot, some individuals to the tune of six figures.
Thursday 15 November 2012. Mark the date. On this day Pompey's administrators PKF announced they had reached a conditional agreement to sell the club to the Pompey Supporters Trust. The completed deal will be unique in English football. Its success will be a landmark victory for fan power, an endorsement of the supporters trust movement and a direct challenge to those responsible for the ills of modern football.
The battle for the soul of football took one step in the right direction yesterday. The nomination of Pompey Supporters Trust as the preferred bidder for the club is a stunning volte-face in the negotiations to bring the club out of administration. It appears to have been done in the teeth of a vigorous campaign by three-time previous owner Portpin to gain control of the club for a fourth time.
What have the following all got in common? Suliaman Al Fahim, Laurence Bassini, Balram Chainrai and Levi Kushnir? Apart from the fact they all seem intent on bringing joy to the hearts of the Fratton Faithful by throwing money at Portsmouth Football Club? For it seems there has been a virulent outbreak of 'white knight syndrome' among aspiring football-club owners down Pompey way.
Portsmouth Football Club 5 April 1898 10 August 2012.
R.I.P.
Yet nothing is ever as it seems at Pompey. Beneath the choppy waters a constant storm wages on
the ocean bed. Whilst Pompey Supporters Trust holds itself ready to do a deal with players, charge
holders and creditors, the strange PR spin emanating from Fratton Park seems to be creating a web
of misconception and deception.
Niko Kranjcar has told Croatian media that he will leave Tottenham Hotspur for Dynamo Kiev in a
big-money transfer this summer.
Kranjcar, 27, has struggled for playing time with the Spurs, making only 49 appearances since
moving from Portsmouth in 2009.
He also made 83 appearances for Pompey but it now appears that his time in English football will
come to an end after the conclusion of the upcoming Euro 2012 tournament on July 1.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has (metaphorically) rolled down his car window once again to chat to
reporters, this time telling them that missing out on the Champions League, courtesy of Chelsea's
success, is no big deal. He said:
"I think it's overrated what people say about Champions League football and whatever.
'I stand by my story and will fight them every step of the way.' Micah Hall, the Pompey blogger whose work is at the centre of the suit placed on Fansnetwork last week has now received an opportunity to defend his work. A letter from libel-specialist lawyers Mishcon de Reya accusing him of defamation in his blog on Kuala Lumpar financier Pascal Najadi, one of Keith Harris' 'passive backers' in his failed bid for the ownership of Portsmouth FC.
The managerial merry-go-round has gone in to overdrive recently with no fewer than 11 managers across all four English divisions leaving their positions in the past five weeks. Nine of those were sacked whilst two resigned to fill vacancies elsewhere, making it a total of 13 clubs who have been searching for a new manager [.
Portsmouth FC is probable to have "no choice" but to nigh on10August unless musicians agree to
transferees or wage slices.
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