Parties submit Pompey bids

Parties submit Pompey bids

Published Sep. 15, 2012 7:15 a.m. ET

The two groups attempting to buy stricken Portsmouth have submitted their bids, with administrator Trevor Birch hopeful of concluding a sale.

Birch set a deadline of Friday for former owner Balram Chainrai's company Portpin and fans' group the Pompey Supporters' Trust to finalise their bids.

Birch says he is not yet in a position to complete the sale but has handed both parties more time to save the club.

Portsmouth have been in administration since February and will go bust if a takeover is not completed.

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Birch said: "Significant progress has been made over the past two weeks, and both Portpin and the Pompey Supporters' Trust (PST) are continuing to work with the Football League, which must agree that they can take ownership of Portsmouth Football Club, and the Professional Footballers' Association, which represents the players owed money by the club.

"However, neither party is in a position to complete an acquisition of the club at the moment.

"Once the bidders reach agreement with the League, and the remaining contractual aspects of the transaction have been agreed, we will be in a position to finalise a sale.

"Our discussions with both Portpin and the PST suggest that both parties are capable of concluding a deal.

"As a result of these factors, we believe it is in the best interests of creditors to allow the interested parties a further short period of time to conclude a sale."

Birch made no mention of a proposed third bid from a Middle East consortium involving another former Fratton Park owner, Sulaiman Al Fahim.

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