Portsmouth will almost inevitably suffer a nine-point penalty at a Premier League board meeting on Wednesday despite personal pleas from the administrator not to enforce the sanction.
Andrew Andronikou, whose status as administrator of Portsmouth was confirmed at the high court on Tuesday as HM Revenue & Customs formally withdrew its challenge against his appointment, will be given an audience to explain his club's case. Hearing it will be Sir Dave Richards, the league chairman, its chief executive, Richard Scudamore, and the general secretary, Mike Foster.
The league has repeatedly stressed that it is bound by its insolvency rules and that room for manoeuvre is limited, and is expected to hold that line. However, Andronikou will present the case according to the regulation C.58, which states that the league must take other factors into account. The rule states: "The board shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case and to the interests of the insolvent club's officials, players, supporters, shareholders and sponsors."
Andronikou will argue that creditors to the club will be materially affected by the future impact of the nine-point sanction and that this should be a consideration before it is automatically imposed. Andronikou's role is to recover funds for those creditors through the sale of the club. Yet he feels that Portsmouth become a less attractive – and therefore less valuable – proposition if they are condemned to relegation.
If the penalty is enforced, Pompey will be left with 10 points with nine matches remaining – 17 points from safety – suggesting that the FA Cup semi-finalists' survival hopes are theoretical. Nevertheless, Andronikou was continuing to underscore his confidence that a solution will be found for creditors – HMRC alone claims it is owed about £11.5m as part of the club's £65m of net debt – and hopes to set up an auction. As directed by the court, he will set about forming a creditors' committee, which is likely comprise HMRC, the Professional Footballers' Association and one other major creditor, next week.
Asked when he expects the period of administration to end, Andronikou said: "I think that will be in six to eight weeks. We have a statutory requirement to put our proposals to the creditors within 10 weeks of our appointment."
Andronikou has previously confirmed that Rob Lloyd, the property millionaire, has provided proof of funds demonstrating that he is a viable bidder. They held their first meeting on Monday. "I met him [on Monday] night and set out a few ground rules and we have agreed a way forward," Andronikou said. "There are still some boxes for him to tick."
