Peter Storrie stays at Portsmouth with a salary of "less than £500,000". With money so tight it seems rather a charitable decision to retain the chief executive on such a salary.
After all Storrie was present throughout the chaotic period that has seen Pompey's bank accounts withdrawn, a transfer embargo imposed and four owners in the space of one season. Digger, however, hears tell that Storrie may yet have to justify his position to the administrator, Andrew Andronikou, anew, possibly as soon as today. That is because with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs threatening to challenge Andronikou's appointment, an existing director had to be retained in case the challenge was upheld.
By law every company must have a nominated officer. Following the departures of the directors Mark Jacob and Tanya Robbins, Storrie was the only person left on the club's board. HMRC has now withdrawn its challenge – seemingly the thought of throwing taxpayers' money at an arcane legal argument that would not lead to any financial return has caused it to do so – but the taxman will no doubt have other questions when everyone heads back to court on Monday.
With Andronikou in a position to take sole control of Portsmouth, whether Storrie is present could be telling.
Second-hand stats
Npower launched its seven-figure sponsorship deal with England 2018 yesterday by saying that hosting the World Cup would be worth £3.2bn to the nation. Have we not heard that number somewhere before? The accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers came up with the same figure when it launched its England 2018 sponsorship in November. Npower says it has surveyed 3,000 business leaders but when Digger asked who they were and what questions they had been asked Npower's marketing agency said it could not release that information. Might the energy firm have taken the principles of reusing, reducing and recycling too far?
Local knowledge
ITV News has responded to the BBC's appointment of David Bond as its sports editor by creating the equivalent position for its own Saturday-evening news presenter, Steve Scott. Having previously advertised for a sports correspondent, ITV has instead made room for a more senior role. Scott will head a department of two, with Natalie Pirks, a former Setanta Sports News presenter, working under him as a reporter. ITV News managers regarded Scott's experience of working as the broadcaster's Africa correspondent particularly favourably ahead of this summer's World Cup in South Africa.
Fred the Petrolhead
When the Royal Bank of Scotland's former chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, below, climbed aboard a Gulf Air flight from Heathrow's Terminal Four to Bahrain on Wednesday, he happened to be on the same flight as Formula One's travelling circus. RMJM, the firm of architects of which Goodwin is a non-executive director, is said to be opening an office in Bahrain. Whether Goodwin was heading to the Gulf on RMJM business the firm would not say, nor would it put Digger in touch with him. Yet Fred the Shred was certainly among friends with the Formula One crowd. Since his departure RBS has been busy unwinding its sponsorships in the sport, such as the reported £20m a year it was paying to Williams – a sign, perhaps, that such deals were more for Formula One fan Fred's mates than the business they would pull in.
Coles fires debate
As ITV prepares to cover the Indian Premier League from today's first ball to the final on 25 April, the BBC has been quick to capitalise in the row over listing sports content for free-to-air broadcasters. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph yesterday BBC Sport's chief operating officer, Dominic Coles, wrote: "As ITV's purchase of Indian Premier League cricket demonstrates, there is an appetite for … cricket among other free-to-air broadcasters." Coles is using the term "purchase" liberally. It is believed ITV's deal is little more than an expenses-only transaction in taking a local feed from SET Max – a new definition of "free-to-air" sport.
