Pompey upbeat before court date

Cash-strapped Portsmouth remain hopeful their winding-up petition will be withdrawn by the High Court today.

The Blues have vigorously disputed a £5.5m (€6.3m) bill from HM Revenue and Customs, who last month issued a winding-up petition.

Defiant Pompey took their battle to the High Court earlier on Friday, claiming they had already paid back £11.4m (€13m) over November and December.

A verdict is expected sometime today with Portsmouth confident of success.

While the south-coast club are in deep financial trouble, they are ready to begin arbitration proceedings against the Premier League unless their 96-day transfer embargo is lifted.

They also want £2m (€2.2m) of TV cash to be returned to them by the PL.

The club yesterday delivered a letter to the PL’s Gloucester Place headquarters requesting the embargo be scrapped and outstanding TV cash be paid to them.

The club’s executive director Mark Jacob accused the PL of treating Portsmouth as “poor relations and the black sheep of the family”.

Portsmouth have demanded a meeting with the PL today or they propose to use their right to involve an independent body to examine the case.

“The Premier League are withholding the balance of monies they owe us because they believe that we still owe other football clubs money,” said Jacob yesterday.

“We have now paid off the three UK clubs. We have agreed with Rennes and Lens to accept certain payments now and then defer a schedule of payments going forward. We are finalising the agreement with Udinese

“The total amount that we directed the Premier League to discharge and pay these clubs is approximately £5m. So there is a net balance due to the club approaching £2m. We cannot see how they can keep the money and also continue with the embargo.

“We believe the embargo should be lifted immediately and that we should be receiving money from the Premier League.

“Today we have delivered a letter to the Premier League asking to pay back the money. We have called for a meeting tomorrow and if this fails or we don’t get our money back then we shall exercise the powers of arbitration.

“Once again we are being treated as the poor relations and the black sheep of the family.

“We feel we have come in and been fully open and frank with them to explain the club’s position, where we are and how we’d like to go forward.

“We would like them to use their discretionary powers in a positive fashion rather than negative fashion against the club.”

Pompey have already paid £5m owed to Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham, via their Sky TV money.