Portsmouth’s debts make grim reading for fans

The chaos of Porstmouth's finances has been laid bare after the club's administrator released a 70-page document that outlined its debts.

The report from Andrew Andronikou confirms that Pompey are £122m in the red. And the list of creditors includes many local firms, many of them run by supporters, who are owed in excess of £4m. They are unlikely to get more than a fraction of the money they are owed.

More than double £4m owed to small firms is owed to players' agents and scouts, who are claiming £9.76m.

The shocking way the club was being run is highlighted by the fact that Portsmouth actually owe Spurs £1m for not selling them keeper Asmir Begovic in January. The club eventually sold the keeper to Stoke for £3.25m in the January transfer window - but before then they had agreed to sell the player to Tottenham, and had agreed a compensation deal of £1m if the deal fell through.

The club's business dealings were described as being like the "Keystone Kops" by observers. At the time of the Begovic deal negotiations were being led by a convicted fraudster from Israel, Daniel Azougy, who was employed by Ali al-Faraj's Falcondrone consortium. Mark Jacob, a solicitor, was acting as executive director.

That was shortly before the current captain of the ship, Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai, seized control of the club after the then-owner al-Faraj failed to meet a loan repayment.

Al-Faraj had only taken control of the club in October after purchasing a 90 per cent stake from Dubai businessman Sulaiman Al-Fahim. He had only been in charge for five months after buying out Alexandre Gaydamak in a £60m deal - although Gaydamak is still owed £31.5m.

The rot goes further back than this season, however. The agent who who negotiated the sale of Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid at the end of 2008 is owed more than £2m, while 'super agent' Pini Zahavi also has outstanding bills of over £2m.

£17.3m in transfer fees for players is outstanding. The players Pompey still owe money for include Sulley Muntari (who now plays for Inter Milan), Mike Willliamson (who never even played for Portsmouth before being sold) and Nadir Belhadj.

Other players including David James, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson are owed a total of £1.87m in unpaid wages and bonuses. ·