• Club apply to go into administration for second time
• HMRC freeze accounts over £1.2m unpaid tax bill
Groundhog Day has become an overused analogy for Portsmouth fans in recent years. But it will be reached for again when the club on Friday apply to go into administration for the second time in two years, automatically attracting a 10-point penalty from the Football League but freeing up enough working capital to continue as a going concern in the short term.
The manoeuvre should allow administrators to avoid the lights going out entirely at Fratton Park, with the club's overdue electricity bill among the most pressing to be settled.
The club's bank accounts have been frozen since Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs issued a winding-up order over unpaid tax of around £1.2m, which was due to be heard next Monday.
The club's financial advisor UHY Hacker Young, already appointed administrator of Portsmouth's parent company Convers Sport Initiatives in November after the owner Vladimir Antonov was arrested for alleged bank fraud, is expected to be appointed as administrator of the club.
The move to apply for administration before next Monday's court hearing will supercede the winding-up order.
"It's not a decision we've taken lightly. From an ongoing point of view, it's become a necessary decision and one a lot of people anticipated. It's become necessary to protect our creditors and give them the best possible chance of getting a decent return," the Portsmouth chief executive David Lampitt, the former head of regulation at the Football Association, told the BBC.
HMRC is likely to fight the application, in the knowledge that the club's PAYE debt is only likely to increase when this month's wage bill becomes due. Portsmouth's players and staff have not been paid since Christmas and there are a host of other overdue bills, according to UHY Hacker Young's Peter Kubik.
"The club's bank accounts have been frozen due to the winding-up hearing and they are finding it very difficult to trade. Once the administration order is in place the bank accounts will be made accessible again," he said.
In addition to gate receipts, it will allow the club access to its latest instalment of Premier League parachute payments. Around £1.3m was forwarded to Portsmouth last week, when all payments were made early for internal Premier League accounting reasons. The electricity bill is among the most pressing bills to be settled, with the club at risk of being cut off if it is not paid in the coming days.
The situation will raise familiar questions among Portsmouth's supporters about how the club has again found itself on the brink of administration only two years after it became the first Premier League side to do so, while owing more than £120m.
The catalyst for the latest implosion was the arrest of Antonov, who immediately resigned as the chairman and director of the club and is still fighting extradition to Lithuania. That left the parent company without any ongoing capital, forcing it to be placed into administration and a fire sale of its assets.
Administrators have been attempting to sell off other assets owned by CSI but one of its most valuable, the media rights to the World Rally Championship held by North One Sport, were seized by the FIA.
Negotiations continue over the sale of football conference Leaders in Football and Powerplay Golf. In any event, the proceeds will go directly to CSI's creditors and can't be used to cross subsidise Portsmouth.
Apparent interest from Italian businessman Joseph Cala aside, Kubik said there had been little interest in buying Portsmouth as a going concern. He said potential buyers had been "put off" by the ongoing confusion surrounding Antonov's situation, but expected them to now come forward.
A familiar figure from the twisted saga that preceded the club's last administration – Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai – will again play a key role in its future. He was persuaded to loan the last discredited regime £17m. He then bought the club through a CVA and sold it on to CSI, taking out a mortgage against its assets. He also claims to have a charge on Fratton Park. Any prospective new owner would have to come to a settlement with Chainrai's company Portpin before agreeing a new CVA to exit administration.
But small creditors including local businesses and St John's Ambulance are again in limbo. Payments under the 20p in the pound settlement they agreed as a result of the last tortuous administration process were not due to begin until April.