The Harris bid risks liquidating Pompey

The Harris bid has now plumbed the very depths of futility, and poses a real risk to the future of Portsmouth Football Club.

Lets deal with the inaccuracies of their statement first:

Their quoted offer of £750k to unsecured creditors is less than the Trust's offer to unsecured creditors. That surely means it would require a new CVA to be voted for. Pompey must be out of administration before the last game of the season. That is totally unachievable in the timescale. However, maybe this forms part of their latest claimed deal with Portpin and Portpin have agreed to forego £100k of their own unsecured debt. (Bear in mind that it is highly possible that the majority of the unsecured creditors actually wind up being Portpin, as they are also the unsecured creditor of CSI's £10m debt, prop A Androinkou).

The egregious Bick also said:

‘We think there’s a big question mark with the PST bid,’ he said.‘It’s one thing buying a club but they have to leave enough working capital to run the club afterwards.‘Our fear is that they get the bid through and in a year’s time, they are in financial trouble. With Keith’s bid, it will ensure the financial survival of the club.’

Bick then claimed that the Harris bid have £3m of working capital to keep the club running.
Now the Trust have £3m working capital to put into the club, donated directly from fans. It is in escrow. The amount rises all the time - is the Harris bids money in escrow? Bick didn't explain how their £3m would be enough while ours isn't.

The most glaring problem with it though lies in this quote:
‘They are still saying that the football league’s position is to deal with the PST.‘We don’t think that’s the position at all. But they appear determined at the moment to go ahead with this hearing next week."

Their offer rests purely on scuppering the Trusts bid by helping Portpin win their court case, and then hoping the Football League will change their minds. Well, the Football League have confirmed FOUR times that they will not be considering any other bid than the PST bid. If the Football, League didn't really mean it, why did they instruct their lawyers to write to Portsmouth City Council weeks ago saying "there is only one commercially viable bid which is Pompey Supporters Trust"? If there wasn't time to consider new bids two months ago why would there now be enough time when there are just two weeks left for the club to exit administration?

When I've spoken to David Bick he repeatedly claimed that the Trust did not have the money to do the deal, that the council would not come through with their loan, that the Trust was seeking emergency bridging finance to do the deal and had only £1.2m in funds. That Stuart Robinson would not and had not come up with the money to buy the surrounding land.

NONE, count them, NONE of those claims were correct. Not only were those claims made to journalists - I know because they rang me and quizzed me about them - but also the Harris camp claimed that the Football League would approve their bid by the end of the week in which it was first submitted. Did that happen? No.

Their bid cannot succeed because the Football League have said to BDO that it is Trust or Bust. If the Trust don't succeed, Harris will not be braving the near universal wrath of Pompey fans and taking over - because the club will be liquidated the following day. BDO, (PKF), the court appointed administrator, will report back to the court that it is the Trusts deal or liquidation.

I told David Bick right from the outset that the Harris bid could not succeed, it could only make liquidation more likely. Make no mistake, without the Harris bid, Portpin have no case. With it, they have a tiny chance. If Keith Harris cares about Pompey he can immediately secure the clubs future by withdrawing his bid. He cannot own Pompey, he can only destroy it.