TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| United to press Roar defence Gold Coast United plan to expose the defensive frailties of Brisbane Roar's winger-turned-fullback Michael Zullo in Saturday night's M1 derby at Skilled Park. foxsports.com.au |
Turmoil engulfs Pompey off-field and on The financial disarray at Portsmouth is making relegation all the more likely for Avram Grant's teamOn the day when it emerged that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs had issued a winding-up petition against Portsmouth ahead of Christmas, before Sacha Gaydamak challenged the owner Ali al-Faraj – through this newspaper – to please let him know if he would be paid the millions the ex-proprietor says are his due, the beleaguered chief executive, Peter Storrie, offered the following insight into the Fratton Park shenanigans."Off the field the financial issues of the club have been prominent in the media once again," Storrie wrote in the Portsmouth programme for the visit of Arsenal, who would enjoy a routine 4-1 victory."While we would prefer to keep this in-house and deal with the situation, third parties are ensuring that certain issues are played out in public. The majority of the reports are ill-informed but such is the nature of finance that we are not at liberty to set the record straight all of the time."Leaving aside any quibbles over whether he has ever briefed a journalist or two himself, Storrie had unwittingly aligned himself with many Pompey fans who are disgruntled, at best, that since Faraj bought the club from Sulaiman al-Fahim in October there has been a searing lack of clear, precise information emanating from the new regime.Storrie, whatever may be said about his business acumen, is credited by supporters for at least engaging in dialogue with them on a regular basis.But Colin Farmery, of the Pompey Virtual Alliance, a coalition of various supporters' groups, voiced a prevailing criticism when he said before kick-off: "The fact the new owners of the club have not been forthcoming with any information at all about their plans has allowed conspiracy theories to flourish and it is largely their own fault they have failed to get the confidence of many fans. That has to change. This winding up order will hopefully bring all concerned to their senses and it is time to try to find some common ground."While this echoed Gaydamak's plea to be told who the ultimate beneficial owner is, lifelong fan Scott McLachlan agreed with Farmery. He said: "It seems to me that there are competing factions and the time has come for the owner, whoever it is, to put substantial funds into the club."Every fan I know is scared the club will fold in days if not in weeks. We seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. We just want to ensure we have a football club to support at the end of all this. The club is more than any player, owner, or board member, it is the fans and history that will always be the club."Recent history has included the three owners in two months, a player registration embargo, and a rising debt that stands at around £60m. In answer to Farmery's assertion that the absentee Faraj – he has never visited the club, no supporter could identify him in the street – plus his ever-mushrooming group of advisors is making the picture on the south coast ever grainier here is Storrie again: "It has been a very difficult year but one thing you must believe is that Ali al-Faraj and his associates are doing their very best to refinance the club so we can once again operate the business as we all want to."Avram Grant, whose threadbare resources are now further drained by the departure of Nwankwo Kanu, Hassan Yebda, Nadir Belhadj (who were all in tonight's 22) and Aruna Dindane for the African Cup of Nations, is said to be concerned that the off-field turmoil is affecting the form of his players, which is hardly surprising.While morale is still high among his squad tomorrow they wake, alongside Grant and the staff, to see if their wages have been paid, following the two previous occasions the club had failed to do so.Grant, the players and fans want to concentrate only on the football, of course. But if the embargo is not lifted and the manager cannot finagle a few shrewd free transfers and loans then relegation for the league's bottom-placed club is an almost certainty.Supporters are now facing up to this, and patience is wearing thin from what is among the very best of football crowds.During the second half the crowd sang "You can stick your Arabs up your arse" and later: "Sack the board."Faraj and his cohorts, wherever they were last night, will not have wanted to hear that.Premier LeaguePortsmouthAvram GrantBusinessJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Glazers take £20m from United's kitty • Six members of family revealed to have borrowed from club• David Conn: How the Glazers have milked United for millionsManchester United's owners, who loaded the club with more than £700m in borrowings to fund their purchase, have taken £10m out of the club in "management and administration fees" and have personally borrowed a further £10m in the past year, it has emerged.The club's financial results, released yesterday, revealed that six members of the Glazer family on the Red Football board had borrowed a total of £10m, which does not have to be repaid for five years.Manchester United also released an offer document yesterday for the £500m bond it says will be used to re-finance the £509m debt secured on the club.The offer document reveals that on 30 June last year the club entered into a £2.9m-per-year agreement with SLP Partners, a company related to the Glazers. Since 1 July 2006 a further total of £10m has been paid in "management and administration fees"."During the period from 1 July 2006 to the date of this offering memorandum, management and administration fees of approximately £0.6m, £1.8m, £1.4m, £3.1m and £3.1m were paid to our affiliates," it said.• David Conn: How the Glazers have milked United• Nils Pratley: United to raise £500m through bond issue• Kevin McCarra: Ferguson in conservative mood• The latest news on Manchester United in one handy placeUnder the terms of the bond issue it promises to terminate the agreement with SLP Partners but reserves the right to pay up to £6m per year to "one or more entities related to our ultimate shareholders for administration and management services".The 322-page offer document for those bonds, circulated in the City yesterday, also makes provision for £70m to be redistributed to the ultimate parent company for "general corporate purposes, including repaying existing indebtedness". This is thought to refer to the high-interest hedge fund loans secured against the Glazers' own shareholding in Manchester United. Those Payment In Kind loans, which accrue interest at a rate of 14.25% a year and "roll up" on an annual basis, are now believed to be worth almost £200m, as compared with £175m the previous year.The document also reveals that the club has received a large slice, £35.9m, of its new £80m sponsorship deal with AON. It also reveals plans for a new £75m "revolving credit line".City insiders expect the refinancing, put on hold when the markets collapsed in 2008, to succeed. The bond's yield, which could be around 9%, will be set only after an international roadshow. The offer document also reveals that Red Football recently lost £35m when attempting to hedge against a rise in interest rates last year.In its financial results the club revealed that it was only the £80m sale of Ronaldo and other transfer dealings that lifted Manchester United out of the red last season. Results for the Red Football Ltd subsidiary revealed a pre-tax profit of £48.2m but also indicated the overall amount owed by the club and its owners broke the £700m barrier for the first time since Malcolm Glazer acquired the club in 2005.Despite increased revenues, interest payments and write downs meant that, without the £80.7m realised in transfer profits in the year to June 2009, the club would have made a loss of £32.5m.According to yesterday's results, bank loans secured on the club now stand at £509.5m, compared with £518.7m the previous year. Interest payments on that debt totalled £41.9m.Representatives of the Glazers have repeatedly pointed to the cash flow generated by the club, once the interest on the loans had been serviced and before write-offs, as proof that money is available to Sir Alex Ferguson for team strengthening purposes.The Glazers have been keen to emphasise that the PIK loans, advanced by hedge funds at a high rate of interest when the family last restructured the debt in 2006, are not secured on the club but on their shareholding in it. If they were to default, the hedge funds would not have any say over the operational side of the business.The £500m bond issue, if fully subscribed, is unlikely to reduce the club's interest burden in the short term. It will be used to repay four secured loans, with interest rates of between 2.125% and 5% above the Libor rate at which banks lend to one another. Those rates were swapped for a fixed rate of 5.08% last year.According to the offer document, those hedging arrangements had cost Red ÂFootball around £35m to 6 January this year. It has promised to use some of the proceeds of the bond issue to reduce the liability by £8m. City sources said that the seven-year bond would give the Glazers greater certainty and no longer leave them at the mercy of the market. The release of yesterday's figures will have partly been designed to prove to potential investors the health of Manchester United's cashflow position despite its heavy debt burden.The club's results showed an increase in turnover for the year to June 2009 to £278.6m from £256.2m as matchday revenues, media income and commercial revenues all continued to rise.Matchday revenue increased from £101.5m to £108.8m, largely thanks to increased season-ticket prices, while media revenues rose from £90.7m to £99.7m and commercial income rose from £64m to £70m. The club will also point to a wages to turnover ratio of 44%, which compares favourably with most other Premier League clubs.Manchester UnitedPremier LeagueOwen Gibsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Brazil to play friendly against Ireland in London Brazil will prepare for the World Cup by playing Ireland in a friendly in London on March 2. cbc.ca |
Hammers fear Gudjohnsen deal is off • David Sullivan admits loan deal may have fallen through• Reports of last minute rival bid by Harry RedknappWest Ham United's owner David Sullivan has admitted he fears his attempt to sign Monaco's Eidur Gudjohnsen may have fallen through amid reports of a rival offer from Tottenham Hotspur.Sullivan is reported to have agreed a £1m deal to take the former Chelsea striker on loan for the rest of the season but he told ESPN that he fears Harry Redknapp and his Spurs chairman Daniel Levy have made a rival offer.Sullivan said: "We thought we had him, but I am worried that he has 'ducked' on us. I am chasing it up as we speak."Transfer windowWest Ham UnitedTottenham HotspurDavid SullivanPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |