Pompey continue talks with taxman

Cash-strapped Portsmouth continued to hold talks with British tax authorities on Tuesday in a bid to avoid becoming the first English Premier League club to be wound up.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are set to take Portsmouth to London’s High Court on Wednesday in order to have the club, bottom of the Premier League, wound up because of a multi-million pounds unpaid tax bill.

But if Pompey can come to an arrangement with HMRC they will avoid going into administration and so evade the risk of a points deduction which would all but condemn them to relegation and life in the second division Championship next season.

Portsmouth are looking for new investors after Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai effectively became the club’s fourth owner in a matter of months.

But Chainrai, who only assumed control after previous owner Ali Al Faraj defaulted on loan payments, has made it clear he does not want to take over permanently at Fratton Park.

Former Pompey boss Harry Redknapp, now in charge at Tottenham Hotspur, said: “Let’s hope they can find someone else.

“I think they have a potential owner they are talking to. It needs someone to invest in the club, stabilise the club and get it back on its feet,” added Redknapp, who guided Portsmouth to FA Cup glory in 2008.

“They’ve been through it before, a couple of years before I came when the gates were locked and Milan Mandaric saved them that time.”

Meanwhile Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie tried to boost the morale of fans, many of whom have been left bewildered by the numerous boardroom changes this season, by insisting he was close to finding an owner who could stablise the situation at the south coast side.

Storrie, writing in his programme notes for Tuesday’s match against Sunderland, said: “I already have more than one interested party and am hopeful that we can finally find owners who have the best interests of everyone at the club at heart in order to move us forward.”