January 1 – Portsmouth officials will meet with Nick Cusack, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), on Monday after the players’ wages went unpaid for a third time this season.
The Premier League club claimed the wages will be paid on Tuesday, but the news casts further doubt on Portsmouth’s financial stability after it emerged on Wednesday that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued a winding-up petition.
“The club has been assured of receipt of funds by Tuesday and the owner and Board have been working hard on resolving the short term delay,” the club said in a statement released this morning.
Cusack is expected to meet Mark Jacob, a lawyer for the owner Ali Al-Faraj – who has never visited the club – who sits on the board as executive director.
Steve Finnan, the club’s PFA representative, said: ”You try and do your job as best you can.
“There is obviously talk, the players obviously talk about what is going on, about getting paid.
“Everyone is in the same position.
“The lads have tried their best.
“But as players we have to get on with our job for the club and hopefully things can resolve themselves.
“But I think no one really seems to know what is going on.
“It worries us, its not nice for the fans, they have obviously been supporting the club for a long time.
“It’s just not fair on them.”
Portsmouth lie bottom of the Premier League and are operating under a transfer embargo.
They are believed to have debts of at least £60 million pounds, and it is thought that the Premier League could decide to withhold the next tranche of television revenues, which would be due at the end of the season, to use to pay Portsmouth’s outstanding transfer debts to other clubs.
If Portsmouth’s players are not paid on Tuesday, they could serve a mandatory 14-day notice to terminate their contracts.
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