Portsmouth prepare to reveal full extent of their heavy debt

Portsmouth's administrator is expected to reveal today the full extent of the club's debt when he makes an offer to creditors in an attempt to restructure its chaotic finances. As the administrator, Andrew Andronikou, has previously claimed, the figures are expected to show that between £80m to £90m is owed to unsecured creditors, including the taxman and previous owners. A further £14m is owed to Balram Chainrai, the club's fourth owner of the season, in the form of a secured loan. Chainrai is expected to be repaid in full under Andronikou's company voluntary arrangement (CVA) plan. The club's total debt is put at around £105m. However, a further £14m is owed to finance houses which forwarded funds based on transfer fees yet to be received. This debt is considered to be off the balance sheet because it is effectively underwritten by the football authorities, according to the football creditor rule. According to figures on the Soccernet website , £9m of the £105m debt is owed to 15 agents. In one deal alone, an agent is owed £2.3m. "There are agents and scouts owed over £9m," Andronikou said. "There are agents such as Pini Zahavi, who is owed £2m, but there is one agent who is owed £2.3m for just one deal alone, the transfer of [Lassana] Diarra. It is staggering. There must be something like 15 agents owed money, which illustrates how the club were buying and selling so many big-name players." The breakdown includes: £90m owed to unsecured creditors – of which £38m is due to three previous owners in the form of loans – £5m to trade creditors, and £9m to agents. There is also £1m owed on hire purchase. "I do not believe that the figures will come as a surprise to anyone who has been interested in buying the club, when they do due diligence it is there for them to see," Adronikou told Soccernet. "So, for that reason, it is not unexpected, although, of course, the figures are vastly different from what has been reported.