Cash-strapped football club Portsmouth is set to enter administration in a bid to safeguard the club’s future.
The club faces a winding-up order from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on Monday prompting owner Balram Chainrai to choose adminstration ahead of liquidation.
It will be the first ever top flight club to collapse into administration.
The Hong Kong businessman has appointed Andrew Andronikou of accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, who is waiting in the wings to handle the administration.
The club has been in talks with four potential buyers about a takeover of the club since its troubles emerged.
Phil Hall, spokesman for Chainrai,told Credit Today: "There were interested parties, but hopes are fading of a deal as time goes on. The problem is that any would-be suitor looks at the debt and think it isn't viable."
Should Chainrai put the club into administration Portsmouth will be hit with a nine-point deduction, making relegation from the Premier League a certainty.
Chainrai is believed to be paying for the administration process out of his own pocket.
Administration suspends closure
By entering into administration Portsmouth’s winding up order
is automatically suspended and the club can maintain business as normal by fulfilling its fixtures.
Hall said the owner had little choice: "He was left between a rock and a hard place. It is the best thing for the football club and for him - this way he [Chainrai] can at least recover some of his assets, instead of losing them all."
The cost of relegation from the top flight football league is estimated by experts to be around £35m due to the loss of television revenue deals. In comparison, Championship clubs earn just £2.5m a year from pooled television rights sales.
Portsmouth, who are bottom of the Premier League table, have debts totalling around £70m, with the winding up order relating to more than £7.5m owed to HM Revenue and Customs.
Hall said the administrator's first job would be to "assess the true picture of the club and find the funds to repay the taxman."