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HALL RIGHT NOW: 'Portpin will take over Pompey' - Andronikou

Andrew Andronikou still claims Portpin will take over Pompey, claiming the Pompey Supporters' Trust bid for the club was 'unable to prove funding.'

In the second part of pompey-fans.com exclusive interview with Andrew Andronikou he claimed:

Andronikou told us: "Back in 1998 or 1999 when Portsmouth first went into administration we were involved and I was the guy who brought Milan to the club. I rang him up and asked if he had any interest."

 

He was then asked if he was expecting to be appointed administrator in 1999 by Martin Gregory. "That's right yes, we did actually, because that’s where I think our entry was, I dealt with Mr Les Parris. I think Martin wasn’t being allowed in the City of Portsmouth at the time."

However, the Co-op bank intervened and prevented the appointment of Mr Andronikou, appointing Tom Burton of Kidson's Impey instead.

Andronikou described the business plan of CSI as "Ridiculous" and went on to say:

"It's ongoing, an investigation is going on. The demise of CSI is nothing to do with the football club. Unfortunately the football club just seems to be at a very awkward chapter in its history. I mean in terms of what CSI did, it brought various investments in sports, all are loss-making. Portsmouth not being the largest, I think the largest was World Rallying Championship, WRC, which they invested £15m into a loss making business. It just was an ill-fated business.

"They had probably one profit making business, which was a sports conferencing business which we profitably sold but the rest of their investments were all loss-making. I mean they were robbed in the UK, they were robbed by everybody."

Andronikou further claimed to have represented all the players involved in negotiating compromise agreements with Pompey, not just Tal Ben Haim.

"We represented all the players, because all the players came to us because they knew the club was falling apart. We tried to keep the club together for the last six months. We [meaning Portpin] had got a beneficial interest because we’re the largest unsecured creditor."

He then went on to claim Pompey supporters were working to liquidate the club and that Portpin would win the race for control of Pompey: "I just get the impression a lot of the supporter groups wanted the club to be relegated. Wanted it put into liquidation – to get rid of Portpin. Portpin aren’t the villains of the piece here.

"The saga's going to end because Portpin are buying the club back and that’s all. I don't know what’s been going in the press, its just nonsense again. It's been approved by the Football League and they will take the club forward. There’s nobody else there, everybody else who has tried to put a deal in front of PKF has basically been obstructed, they are determined to only work with one party and that’s the Supporters’ Trust.

"And with all due respect while there lots of reasons why the Trust should run a football club there’s lots of economic reasons why they shouldn’t. And the Trust have never been in a position to prove any funding at all whatsoever."

And he also claimed Portpin had passed the Owners and Directors test: "Yes. All done. The argument now is about PKF because they are holding several million pounds of the club’s money which they are trying to keep for their own fees. It's all about the fees, arguing [over them]."

Certain portions of this interview have not been passed on as they contain potentially defamatory accusations which we are not in a position to prove. The full text of the interview has been passed to the Football League.

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. UHY Hacker Young's PR department has also been contacted but they have refused to comment on a series of questions.

 

 

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 the inside story of the 'Ali Al Faraj' regime... Click here to see how 'Ali Al Faraj' tried to take the biscuit with Sacha...

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.

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The Pompey Supporters' Trust is still seeking pledges from Pompey fans to back their bid. Information can be found here

 

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