Portsmouth are set to become the first Premier League club to go into administration after owner Balram Chainrai served notice of his intention to put the club into the hands of insolvency experts on Friday.
Chainrai said it was now unlikely that a takeover deal would be done before the end of the week and administration will prevent the club from being wound up in the High Court on Monday.
Administration will mean certain relegation for Pompey and there is an automatic nine-point penalty for any Premier League club going into administration and that would leave the side on just seven points, 16 behind their nearest rivals.
Chainrai is still in talks with four different consortiums about a takeover but any chance of a deal being done is remote, and with a winding-up order due in the High Court on Monday, the decision has been taken to go in to administration instead to save the club.
A statement read:
“Businessman Balu Chainrai, the owner of Portsmouth Football Club, has served notice that the club will go into administration unless new owners can be found by Friday. Mr Chainrai and fellow investors from his Portpin investment vehicle, are in London to continue talks with representatives of four different groups interested in buying the south coast club, but have had to reluctantly accept that it is now unlikely a deal can be done before a winding up hearing due to be heard in the High Court on Monday.”
Chainrai’s spokesman Phil Hall said administration would keep the club alive as the winding-up order is now automatically suspended. Portsmouth have debts of £70million and the winding up order was over £7.5million owed to HM Revenue and Customs.