Welcome to Clan Pompey, home of the Scottish
supporters club
Clan News
Find out what our members have been up to. Have you goy any
news you want to share?
Click the newspaper below to send in your stories.
New Members
Want to Join, Clan Pompey is after you. We are a Family Club,
open to all ages. If you live in Scotland and miss PFC, then check
out our membership page.
Into Administration
On Feb 26th, PFC entered administration.
After a torrid season off the pitch with 4 owners since August not being
able to inject enough cash, the current owner put the club into administration.
Since then the club has still been in and out of court awaiting a decision
to see if that action was legal.
Pompey Bring in new Shareholders
Sulaiman Al Fahim, the owner of Portsmouth Football Club, has sold
the majority - 90 per cent - of the club to Falcondrone Limited, a
company owned by Saudi Arabian businessman Mr Ali Al Faraj.
Contracts were been signed between the parties on Monday to
enable funds to be released to pay the players and executive board on
Tuesday.
Al Fahim Asia Associates, owned by Sulaiman Al Fahim, will retain 10
per cent of the club and he remains as non-executive chairman until at
least the end of the 2010/11 season.
Ali Al Faraj will join the club’s board of directors along with his
lawyer, Mark Jacob.
Peter Storrie will remain chief executive officer.
Mr Al Faraj, 40, from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is a respected property
investor in the Middle East and has already passed the Premier
League’s fit and proper persons test.
A Pompey spokesman said: “The takeover will ensure Portsmouth
Football Club’s future is safe and will bring financial stability.
“The club will undergo refinancing in order to grow and develop
every part of the business.
“Mr Al Faraj is very supportive of the club’s plans for a new
training ground and the development of Fratton Park.“
Pompey have a new Owner
Sulaiman Al Fahim becomes Chairman of Portsmouth Football Club
Portsmouth 21 July 2009 - The
owners of Portsmouth Football Club are pleased to announce that an
agreement in principle has been reached over the sale of the Club to Al
Fahim Asia Associates and, as a result, Sulaiman Al Fahim, the sole
owner and Chairman of Al Fahim Asia Associates, will join the existing
four-member Board of Portsmouth Football Club as Chairman with immediate
effect.
The appointment of Sulaiman Al Fahim follows confirmation by the FA Premier
League that he has passed its criteria to be deemed a "a fit and
proper" person to control a Premier League club. Al Fahim is
the first person to pass the new fit and proper test.
Sulaiman Al Fahim stated: “I very much look forward to working closely with the
Club’s management and supporters to develop Portsmouth Football Club
and deliver future success. The Club has a long and fine history
of achievement that I intend to build on.”
Peter Storrie, who has agreed to continue as Chief Executive Officer of
Portsmouth Football Club, said: “This appointment brings stability to
the Club and is excellent news for Pompey supporters. I have every
reason to believe that together with the new Chairman we will be able to
take the Club forward to further achievements building on the successes
of the past three years”.
Charity Cycle Ride
Earlier this year, Jamie and Neil, got on their bikes for Charity.
Here is what they got up to.
For me this ride
was quite eventful, our plans to ride together as Team Clan Pompey
were short-lived, the wheel Jamie had sold me lasted about 100 metres
from the start line before buckling under the weight of all the
carbohydrates I had consumed the night before. As Jamie
disappeared round the first corner I decided I would just have to
nurse the bike round the 81 miles to protect the weakened front wheel.
After a few miles as we rode around Loch Tay I succumbed to
the temptation to get more involved and jumped on to the back of
a group of fast riders, (a peloton). After 28 miles this tactic
backfired as the two riders in the peloton touched wheels and went
to ground, despite slamming on the brakes I crashed into the back of
the group, falling on to the handlebars of another rider's expensive
carbon fibre bike, injuring my (well protected) ribs.
Having picked myself
up and dusted myself down and denied all responsibility for damage to
bikes or bodies I set off again. perversely my front wheel seemed to
be truer than before the crash, even so I borrowed a new
wheel from the support crew.
Sabotage
After 40 miles, the
halfway point, I realised I'd lost my camera and waterproof in
the crash but then noticed an increasing number of cyclists
attending to punctures on the side of the road, there were dozens of
bikes standing upside down whilst their riders turned the air blue and
picked tacks out of their tyres. Thinking that I'd had my share of bad
luck already on the ride, I hoped I would escape any further mishaps,
but trying to pick a path through the tacks was impossible, they were a
quarter of an inch long and balck so invisible to the human eye from
the height of the saddle. Slowly I made my way through the wreckage
until BANG, the back tyre went down instantly. Was this more of
Jamie's skulduggery to ensure I remained behind him?
I fixed the puncture,
made all the more difficult by my aching ribs and continued to the
foot of the Schiehallion climb. I decided to ditch my winter gloves
there as the sun had come out and I wouldn't need them again that day.
I made it to the top of the climb with ease only to be stopped at the
top of the hill along with hundreds of other cyclists as the race
organisers halted the race to allow further stretches of the course to
be cleared of tacks.
A 45 minute wait, in
the wind and cold shade of the trees did little to improve my
mood and those around me were already devising a plan of what they
would do to the saboteur when he was found. We were allowed to descend
slowly from the top of the hill though there were still many
casualties of the tacks on the final 20 miles of the route, I suffered
one more rear wheel puncture before cruising back to Pitlochry to be
reunited with the half of Team Clan Pompey. Jamie had
managed to avoid all of the above dramas to post a very
creditable time of just over 5 hours for the 81 mile route.
"Where the
**** have you been?"
Arriving about 2 hours
later than originally planned I was greeted with the now traditional
welcome from Mrs Wiggins, no hugs, kisses or concern for my welfare,
but a " where the **** have you been? Stanley's been going
mental and I've been standing here for 2 hours, 2 hours of my life
that I'll never get back, my back hurts and I'm hungry and this is the
last time I ever come to see you finish anything". All hail the
conquering hero !
Of course Jamie is
loving this, adding fuel to the fire as the Wiggins marital harmony goes
up in flames. We return to the cars where Jamie's wife Rhona had
brought a lovely picnic lunch. As we sat there the
irritating clown on a bike who had been scaring Stanley all morning
(no it wasn't Jamie) cycled past the car one more time
to terrorise Stanley.
"Do you know
how fast you were travelling sir?"
Jamie, his friend John
and I return to Jamie's house, en route we were flagged down by a police
officer waving a radar gun at us and asking us to pull over to the
side of the road. Excuse me gentlemen he says "do you know how
fast you were travelling? This is a residential area and the speed
limit is 30mph, you gentlemen were travelling at 42mph in a 30mph
area"
Now most cyclists
would boast about being stopped by the police for speeding and so
would we if it weren't for the fact that the bikes were on top of
Jamie's car at the time. A little white lie about having no points on
his licence and we were allowed to carry on our way without penalty.
Postscript - at
present a 62 year old local church elder has been charged with
endangering lives by laying carpet tacks on a 20 mile section of
the Etape Caledonia route, if prosecuted he faces potentially a claim
from each of the 3500 cyclists for their entrance fee and new tyres.
His objection to the race is that the roads in the area are closed for
part of the Sunday morning so locals cannot get to church and farmers
cannot get between their fields. There is some local opposition to the
ride even though it is worth approx £500,000 in tourism to the area
and raises about £400,000 for charity each year.
Edinburgh marathon -
31st May 2009 - no such drama in this second part of my fundraising
campaign. Despite the unseasonal hot weather I completed the marathon
in 4hrs 11 minutes, just outside my personal best. Thanks to all of
you who sponsored me.
