Portsmouth Court Deadline Set for April

The administrators of Portsmouth Football Club have said the court case to decide the future of the trouble club will be heard by 19 April at the latest.

PKF, the League One club’s administrators, were at the High Court today to decide a date for the hearing that will attempt to force the sale of Fratton Park, Portsmouth’s home gorund, to the Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust (PST).

A final date will be confirmed in the near future after ambiguity with correspondence between the Football League and Portpin, former owners of the club, has been clarified.

The Football League has previously stated that they will only consider bids for the club from the PST and confirmed this again in a statement released today: “”As stated after its most recent meeting, the Board of The Football League is not considering alternative applications for the transfer of Portsmouth’s share in The Football League.

“Instead, it remains focused on a successful transfer of share to the preferred bidder, the Pompey Supporters’ Trust.”

Colin Farmery, PST spokesman, told BBC Radio Solent: “Our understanding is that the Football League has been very clear on two occasions that at this late stage they will not consider any other bid in order to transfer the share.

“It was an interesting development and at Pompey we always expect the unexpected.

“PKF obviously want to clear this matter up and I am not party to correspondence between the Football League and Portpin.

“From the Trust perspective our conversations with the Football League have been very clear on this point and we see no reason why that would have changed.”

The PST bid has been approved by the Football league and the club’s creditors but is dependent the group purchasing Fratton Park in order to go through.

Balram Chainrai, who owns Portpin , claims he is owed £12m from the club and is holding the stadium as security.

Portsmouth are believed to be around £61 million in debt and the Football League have warned that they must exit administration before the end of the season or face expulsion.