Portsmouth 'owed money by sponsor'

Portsmouth's debt crisis is not as deep as previously thought, a report in today's Guardian has revealed.

According to the newspaper, the south coast club are around £4m better off than their most recent financial statement - which showed the club to be £138m in the red - suggested.

A list of Portsmouth's liabilities published last month detailed a debt of £1.99m owed to Canterbury Europe, Portsmouth's former sponsor and shirt supplier.

However, an investigation by the newspaper revealed that Pompey, who face Chelsea in the FA Cup final tomorrow, were actually owed a little over £1.8m from the same company.

Portsmouth's administrator Andrew Andronikou admitted that the club had discovered a credit in their favour, although stopped short of naming the company in question.

Andronikou told the Guardian: "We have discovered that there is a debtor in our favour so the trade creditor figure will come down quite substantially."

The report added that although Canterbury Europe stopped trading last year, the company which bought up its assets from insolvency, JD Sports, is not listed as one of the club's creditors.