 Friday, 12th Oct 2012 09:43 by Micah Hall If Portpin's plan was to strip the assets of Sacha Gaydamak's father Arkadi, it has been described as 'stupid' by a source involved in the deal to sell the club in August 2009. Levi Kushnir and Balram Chainrai's names had already been passed to the Premier League as potential owners of the club to ensure they complied with the league's then 'Fit and Proper Persons' Test' in July 2009. The duo are principal shareholders in Portpin. But Sacha was only made aware that the pair were behind the bid fronted by Ali Al Faraj at the last minute. According to the source Gaydamak had had already rejected Al Faraj though: "Peter [Storrie - at the time PFC Chief Executive] called Sacha to say he had found a Saudi buyer for the club. At the time Sulaiman's deal was taking time to complete, so Sacha agreed to talk to Ahmed Al Faraj, who was Ali's representative in London, on the telephone. "He told Ahmed to provide proof of funds and provide details of the strategy for the club going forward. We wanted to complete due diligence on the purchaser which is normal in any commercial transaction. "However, it soon became clear that Al Faraj could not comply with our demands in terms of providing proof of funds. Their vision for the club was non-existent. "We were given evidence that Ali Al Faraj exists. He works in biscuits or something in Saudi Arabia, but we never got to meet him." Al Faraj was subsequently passed by the Premier League as 'fit and proper' owner in October 2009. "Just before we were due to meet with Storrie and Ahmed in London to tell them the deal was off, we learned that it was Chainrai and Kushnir behind the deal. Sacha didn't know Chainrai's name, but he contacted his father to find out more and he told him it was better not to do business with them,' the source added. Chainrai and Kushnir were at that time in the process of suing Sacha's father Arkadi over a $23m debt owed as part of a failed deal in 2008 to buy an Israeli company called Ameris Holdings. As revealed earlier this week [click here to read the article], the reason Kushnir and Chainrai got involved with Portsmouth was to extract the money owed to them by Gaydamak from the club, attracted by the prospect of TV rights payments and transfer fees. In January 2009 Gaydamak Senior's creditors had attempted to extract money from Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem using their debt collector of choice Daniel Azougy, but had been rebuffed. The source added: "In relation to what they did to Sacha it was clearly dishonest. If their idea was to try to use the club to get at his father Arkadi, it was a stupid strategy. "First of all the asset [PFC] was Sacha's not his father's, but secondly it failed spectacularly at the expense of the passion of the Pompey fans." Gaydamak sold to Al Fahim for £1, with the Abu Dhabi-based businessman putting £5m into the club. His reign at Pompey lasted just 44 days and collapsed in late September 2009. That paved the way for Ali Al Faraj to take over the club. He was widely publicised at the time as having significant wealth and connections to the Saudi royal family, a claim which took in even Storrie. However, Ahmed revealed in Saudi newspaper in October 2009 that his and his brother's involvement in the deal was purely a short-term investment and that they certainly weren't 'billionaires'. Pompey were put into administration by Portpin in February 2010 and took the club out of administration in October of that year. In June 2011 the club passed to CSI, but that company was put into administration by Portpin in December 2011 when its main shareholder Vladimir Antonov was arrested on embezzlement charges in Lithuania he denies. Starved of cash, and with Portpin refusing to deliver the funding they had initially promised the club [click here to see a club statement], Portsmouth FC went into administration for a second time in two years in February 2012. Despite having been given ample opportunity to respond, Portpin's retained PR agency contend a number of unspecified allegations in Micah Hall's articles are 'unfounded, unsubstantiated and defamatory'. Portpin continue to have the full right of reply to enable them to explain how and why the sources of the articles are mistaken. Want to know more? Click here to read why PFC owe Portpin absolutely nothing... Click here to read why Portpin controlled PFC from October 2009... Click here to read questions 1-13 sent to Portpin and their responses, here to read questions 14-23, here to read questions 24-33, here to read questions 34-44, here to read questions 45-54, here to read questions 55-70, here to read questions 71-85 and here to read questions 86-106. The views of Micah Hall are his own and don't necessarily reflect the editorial view of pompey-fans.com. Any proceeds of this column are donated to Action Aid. Click here to sign up for an account and reserve your username! You can then post on the Forum and add your comments to articles The Pompey Supporters' Trust is still seeking pledges from Pompey fans to back their bid. Information can be found here Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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