Alexandre Gaydamak insists he is not to blame for the financial
crisis at Portsmouth, which has led to yet another delay in players
being paid.
The current owners have tried to shift the responsibility on
to the previous regime but Gaydamak, who sold the club to Sulaiman
al-Fahim in August before he sold it on again to Ali Al Faraj, said
he left it in good shape.
Gaydamak claims he is owed £28million by Pompey and the
club is almost the subject of a winding up petition from HM Revenue
and Customs. Gaydamak told fansonline.net: "It is my opinion that
they [the debts] were fully serviceable and no worse or better than
any other club in the context of the Premier League. In fact, the
debt ratio at Portsmouth was probably one of the lowest.
"The people who tried to buy the club were very persistent.
They tried to buy it in the summer and I decided not to sell to
them because I could not be sure who was behind them and I could
not be sure of the source of their money.
"These chaps knew what they were getting. They must have
realised there is a wage bill and the tax bill to meet every month.
There are no surprises."
Gaydamak says he has written off a further £20million.
He added: "I made around £50million in shareholder and
directors loans to the club during my time.
"After Sulaiman had completed the due diligence, we sat down
with his advisors and it was agreed to sell the club for £1
with me continuing to guarantee the now famous £2.5million
debt to Barclays and leaving loans totalling £28million of
which £9million is due for repayment this month and the rest
in 2012. This was our contractual agreement, but in effect I had
written off around £20million of the loans I made."
Club officials stated on Monday that the wages for December -
believed to be £1.8million - would be paid on Tuesday but have
told the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) a further
delay has now arisen. PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said the
club were hopeful of paying the players on Wednesday.
Taylor said: "We were expecting the players to be paid but
that has not happened. We have been told by the club that they are
hopeful of paying them on Wednesday."
The club told the PFA the latest delay was due to paperwork
needing to be completed after a short-term loan was negotiated to
cover the shortfall. It is the third time this season the club have
missed a payment date.
In a further blow for the club, the Premier League have told
Portsmouth they will not be able to re-register Jamie O'Hara as a
loan signing unless the transfer embargo is lifted, and there is
virtually no chance of that happening during this transfer window.
The Tottenham midfielder's deal runs out on January 15 but
Spurs had indicated they were happy to let him stay at Pompey. A
Premier League spokesman said: "If the registration embargo is
still in place Portsmouth will not be able to re-register him."
