Pompey Agree To Eisner Deal

Billionaire Michael Eisner is set to become Portsmouth's new owner after the majority shareholders agreed to sell to the former Disney man.

Over 75% of the shareholders, including the Supporters Trust and the 'Pompey Presidents', voted in favour of the move meaning Eisner will now effectively repay shareholders their original investment and put a further £10million into the club whose Fratton Park stadium requires substantial repair.

80% of Trust members voted in favour, as did 75% of the Presidents with 81.4% of the total shareholding backing the move.

For some, like former Supporters Direct stalwart Kevin Rye, the decision is a dark day and - with nearly 20% of the shareholding against the proposal - that is significant opposition to selling to a scenario that previously saw the club plunge into peril. Eisner, and his Tornante vehicle, has set out a vision that will do to Portsmouth FC what Eisner did to Disney - commercialise the business to the further possible degree - but that he will protect the 'heritage' of the club.

The supporters of Portsmouth are in for interesting times. The EFL had already announced that most - if not all - games would be streamed live to a global audience for an estimated £110 a season per club and Eisner is likely to be keen to promote the Portsmouth 'brand' and 'heritage' outside the traditional area.

He will undoubtedly bring innovations in marketing previously unseen in football. Whether the traditional supporter will agree with them is another matter.

Full Time For Part Time

National League side Aldershot are now offering 52 week contracts to players in a bid stop them being poached by other sides. They say the move is a 'calculated risk' in adding a further eight weeks of pay to the existing 44 week schedule that National League sides usually offer.

With the administrative 'season' ending on June 30th, usually National League sides would sign players from July 1st through to the end of the playing season in early May, but the Shots will now go through to June 30th to match deals offered in the Football League.

The move is a further step towards the National League ending being a part time competition. Chester boss Jon McCarthy says that only his side may be part time next season:

“Next season, you could argue that there will only be Chester that are part time. I know you have the likes of a Dover that will stay part time, but in terms of finances and the way that they work things they are very much full time.

“I think it could be that next season is the last ever season where there is a part time element to the National League. It is turning into the old Fourth Division, which I did play in, and this is League Two standard."

Trouble Up North

A trio of National North sides are undergoing ownership issues.

Telford's second attempt at selling shares in the club has been 'disappointing' according to the club.

Just £17,700 of additional shares were purchased in the second window, and no major investor stepped forward following the abolition of ownership limits. Around 65% of the shares still remain unsold and, although technically not currently on sale, the club's Board will consider approaches.

The Board itself has advertised for reinforcements, in a week that has seen club General Manager Sharon Bowyer step down from her role due to family commitments after beginning work for the club when it was reformed.

The Shropshire side say the lack of share sales won't affect next season's budget.

Meanwhile newly relegated Southport have announced a six figure investment from an accountant and a financial advisor, both businessmen in the town. The investment comes as a second businessman claims his offer for the club was totally ignored, while the club's Board went through an unpleasant series of appointments and departures.

Former manager Liam Watson was only recently appointed to the Board but saw his appointment, and that of two others, thrown out due to limitations on the size of the Board in the club's constitution. Watson was subsequently made redundant, with current manager Andy Preece told to re-apply for his job.

Long serving chairman Charlie Clapham will step down from the club, having been a polarising figure among supporters.

Elsewhere, a surprising figure is riding to Darlington's aid.

Raj Singh, previously the chairman and owner of the liquidated Darlington club, has offered £40,000 towards next season's budget in exchange for shares in the club. The move, announced yesterday, will have to go to a vote of shareholders and has already met significant opposition due to Singh's involvement in the collapse five years ago.

A fourth National North side, newly relegated York City, have also released financial results for their final season in the Football League which report a £300,000 loss. A further similar loss is expected for the 16/17 season despite them falling straight through the fifth tier, and the club continues to rely on owner Jason McGill.

McGill's firm, JM Packaging, is now owed over £4,7million, repayable when the club's long delayed move to a new stadium - that remain in planning hell - is finally completed.

A Rare Glimpse Of Real Life

In a week when the EFL deliberately and willfully agreed to lie to supporters it has finally admitted what has been blatantly obvious for some time.

The EFL says it made a 'difficult decision' in allowing supporters to be lied to about the abandonment of a match, between Leyton Orient and Colchester, but admitted that it was powerless to stop rogue owners. Their own statement notes 'the decision was taken by the EFL to announce the abandonment of the game to clear the pitch and when it was safe, allow the players to return to complete the fixture.'

The statement also states that the EFL wants to protect the legitimacy of the competition which, in a season when teams have been fined for fielding reserve sides against Academy sides from higher grade teams (effectively a third string XI), and now sees honest paying customers fail to watch the match they forked out money to see, legitimate is no longer a word that can be used to describe the EFL.

The only decent thing the EFL have done is acknowledge what everyone knew. That their limited rules on owners were unenforceable and they were powerless to prevent rogue club owners. All the stern words, the threats, and the false hopes over the past years amounted to not one iota of real action. It was nothing more than the illusion of power.

Since their rebranding from the Football League last summer, the EFL has been massively devalued in terms of the integrity that it wishes to protect. Chief Executive Shaun Harvey has repeatedly enraged supporters, who he appears to care little about, with a series of ridiculous ideas that has seen the Checkatrade Trophy turn into the Mickey Mouse cup that many fans jokingly referred to it as - even going as far as bending the rules of the competition to suit the bigger sides.

The actions at Brisbane Road last Saturday should have the FA demand answers from the EFL and Harvey as to why the lifeblood of the game was treated with such utter contempt.

But, in a world of inaction, I won't be holding my breath.

Pomp And Circumstance

A lengthy document was sent out by the Portsmouth Supporters Trust in the past week detailing the club's current predicament and the offer from Michael Eisner and his Tornante vehicle. The document lists a number of things, but a subsequent club statement spelled out the stark message -

Fratton Park is falling down.

Compliance to keep Fratton Park up to capacity in line with the 'Green Guide' - the bible of operating a sports stadium - will cost the club £5million in the coming five years. The club say they have £900,000 of shareholder funds left and no prospect of funding the other work without dipping into the playing budget, meaning sections of the stadium would have to close.

Their story is a familiar one. "Recommended" works that were neglected in previous years by failing owners now became urgent and the funding required quickly added up. Instead of doing one years work in one year, you have ten years work to do in five.

A stadium that is the biggest asset of most clubs suddenly becomes the biggest liability also.

Portsmouth can ill afford to reduce capacity from the current 18,931. Average attendance this season is 16,771 - a lower end Championship average - and Saturday's final match against Cheltenham sold out nearly a month ago. The club has less than 10% of its capacity spare each game with the largest attendance just 300 under capacity.

With the news of the cash shortage, Eisner addressed supporters last night to lay out his proposal. Shareholders would effectively get their money back, the Trust would be removed from the Board in favour of a 'heritage' option, Eisner would put in an additional £10million, and the offer was take-it or leave-it.

The Supporters Trust then offered an alternative funding method, asking 8,000 supporters to put in £15 a month  - over £500 each over three years - to fund repair works. The Trust has not recommended an option, leaving it to the individual supporter to make up their mind.

The Pompey Supporters have a difficult decision but a Championship level club without a millionaire or billionaire backer is not going to compete at that level any more.

Hanging In The Balance

Hartlepool's 'owner' Gary Coxall has quit the club, and pushed the agenda towards supporter ownership on the eve of their do-or-die last game of the season to secure League survival.

The Monkey Hangers need to win their final match, at home to title contenders Doncaster, and hope Newport fail to beat mid-table Notts County in order to secure their League Two place. They have failed to record a win in the last ten matches, a run that cost manager Dave Jones his job, and have slashed admission prices for Saturday's game to £5 in a bid to pack out the ground.

Quite why a Dubai based recruitment firm owned a Northern football side with a Council owned ground has always been puzzling. JPNG took over less than two years ago with an Ilford, Essex UK base and immediately raised eyebrows. Coxall arrived with a partner, Peter Goldberg, whose disappearance from the scene led to a series of cash crises that led to a pair of winding-up petitions and wages being delayed.

In March this year, a Debenture was registered against the club at Companies House, one of four charges currently secured on the assets of the club including the lease of the ground. The 'borrower' on the debenture is Coxall as Chairman of the club. The 'lender' John Blackledge of Sage Investments Limited. The deal was brokered by Matt Haycox for Access Finance in Leeds. Whether Haycox is the same person listed at Companies House as a disqualified Director is unknown, nor would it prevent him from brokering the deal.

According to Companies House, Sage Investments has a Director who resigned in 2004 called Pamela Jane Duxbury. Coxall has handed the Chairman's role to the club's recently installed Finance Director - Pam Duxbury - apparently working on behalf of Sage, but infers from his statement that he retains ownership of the club.

Quite the extent of the debt to Sage Investments, or the current ownership picture of the club, remains up in the air. Debate rages on what percentages of the club Coxall, Sage, and Goldberg own with little firm evidence

However if Coxall was a poor choice of owner, the other option on the table was even worse. Peter Harris and Stephen Murrall, of "The Monkey Hangers" consortium who attempted a takeover prior to JPNG, are now facing a fraud trial relating to a series of people and HMRC in the run up to their bid failure.

Duxbury has been quick to pursue ownership talks with the Supporters Trust, holding a meeting on the evening of Coxall's announcement, but the Trust say they have no short or long term agenda to own the club.

Failure on Saturday could well see another HUFC plunged into the abyss.