Portsmouth Announce Club Officially Debt-Free, Two Years Ahead Of Schedule
​League Two side Portsmouth have announced that the club is now officially debt-free, two years ahead of schedule and only 18 months after a fans' consortium took over ownership.
Pompey are eighth in the table after a solid start to this season and the outlook at Fratton Park looks positive after suffering three relegations, two administrations and five different owners during a turbulent period which threatened the whole future of the football club.
The final reported amount of £7million has been paid off by the consortium to creditors and a club statement said: “Portsmouth Community Football Club would like to announce that all legacy debts taken on by the club as part of its exit from administration in April 2013 have now been fully settled.
“Everybody at the club has worked hard in reorganising our operations during the past 18 months and the legacy debts were a significant liability hanging over this ongoing process.
“We would like to thank all staff, supporters, directors and the PFA for their assistance in enabling this to be achieved well ahead of schedule.
“PCFC can now fully focus its efforts on looking forwards instead of backwards, while still recognising that the rebuilding process will continue to be a difficult task in the years ahead.
“Our imminent move to a new training ground is a fundamental part of this work in putting in place foundations to enable the sustainable growth of all aspects of the club.”
Mark Catlin Portsmouth chief executive told Sky Sports News HQ: “It's absolutely a great day. It's the culmination of 18 months of hard work since we came out of administration and a lot of work which went in via the supporters trust prior to the administration as well.
Tony Brown, the club's financial director, said: “Administration was quite a difficult process itself and the liabilities coming out of it quite complex.
“They were stretching for two years onwards and we recognised as a club it would be best to settle as early as possible for as many of those creditors. That's been going on for the past three or four months.”
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