Portsmouth chief says club will take years to recover
The chief executive of Portsmouth, David Lampitt, has revealed that it will take around two to three years for the club to completely recover from its financial crisis.
The Football League Championship outfit came extremely close to going out of business before they were sold back to Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai on Sunday, 24 October.
Before the sale, it appeared as though Pompey would be liquidated. Talks with former owner and creditor Sacha Gaydamak over the repayment of a debt of £2m had broken down before the takeover went through.
While Chainrai has refused to make any firm promises over the club’s future, Lampitt believes that the new owner and his business partner Levi Kushnir are determined to make the business stable for the
long-term.
He told the BBC, "He's got a vested interest in the future of the club given the funds he's got committed to it. We just have to take it a step at a time now. It's been a very, very difficult period for
the club. There are no winners in any situation where a business goes into insolvency."
The chief executive added that the club would be adding more directors to the board in the near future.
The sale of the club also means that the Company Voluntary Arrangement which concerns the unsecured debt to many of the club’s creditors can now go ahead.
Those owed money by the 2008 FA Cup winners will be paid an average of 20 pence in the pound over a five-year term, meaning that the creditors will lose around 80 per cent of the money owed.
'A lot of people have lost out'
Lampitt said that: "It has been a positive outcome in the end but I think that always has to be tempered by the fact that out of that positive outcome a lot of people have lost out."
Additionally, the takeover means that a transfer embargo has been lifted and manager Steve Cotterill will now be able to sign players after the club emerged from eight months in administration.
Lampitt said that: "We want to maximise the amount of money we can make available for the playing squad. Obviously success on the pitch for the first team is hugely important for the club. The reality
is we will still be operating under some serious financial constraints."
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