Premier League

Storrie pleads for time as Portsmouth hearing looms

Harry Harris

February 8, 2010 « Cahill ruled out for remainder of season | ESPN FA Cup Promo »

Peter Storrie is convinced Portsmouth can stay up © Getty Images

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Peter Storrie, back in control of Portsmouth after their third takeover of the season, has told Soccernet that the club are now facing the most important three days in their history.

Balram Chainrai, who has taken charge of the club, has put Storrie back in a pivotal role at Fratton Park after the chief executive officer was sidelined under Ali Al-Faraj.

Storrie's first task will be to spearhead the club's battle to secure more time for a new owner to come in and make the necessary payments as they face a winding-up order from HM Revenue & Customs on Wednesday.

Should the order go through, Pompey will be headed for administration with an automatic nine-point penalty, and Storrie told Soccernet: "Our priority is Wednesday's court date with the Revenue.

"Our objective, now the new owner is in place, is to seek from the courts a 'stay' of the winding-up order. We need time for a new buyer to come in and then we will be in a position to pay the Revenue.

"If the Revenue wind this club up then they will get nothing, and that cannot be the right answer. We're in talks with potential new owners, which would be our fifth owner already this season.

"I've heard the joke about how we have had more owners than wins this season, but the media have been putting the knife in all season, and no one is going to stop now!"

Storrie does not agree with suggestions that going into administration would aid the club as they battle to pay off £60 million of debt, as he remains hopeful that Avram Grant can guide the club away from the relegation zone.

"Avram remains very confident he can save the club from relegation," he said. "We have a couple of tough games against Chelsea and Liverpool, while Spurs away is always an emotional game, but we have a series of key home games against Wolves, Blackburn, Stoke, Wigan and Sunderland, and we have a chance. In fact, we believe we can be okay as we feel we have so many key games that we can win."

Portsmouth have asked the Saudis to help them out of their short-term crisis, despite the bad publicity generated by their previous owner. An agent representing the club has made third-party contact with HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, about helping Pompey out.

An Irish-American consortium is in talks about becoming the fifth owners of the club this season with the Hong Kong-based Chainrai, who exercised his right to take control of the club on Thursday. Al-Faraj was forced to hand over his 90% interest for failing to meet repayments on the loan from Chainrai.

While Chainrai is in temporary control, his appointed trustees - Storrie and Ashok Patel of Balsara & Co - will run the club, and attempt to bring about stability by finding yet another new owner, but first they have to cope with the Revenue. The club at first tried to contest the winding-up order seeking it to be struck off on the grounds that they contested the amount of VAT.

At the moment, Portsmouth have repaid £4 million of an £11 million Revenue debt, and this current crisis is by far the most testing time in the club's history.