Pritchard finance brains behind possible Portsmouth takeover

Lever claims to have offered Portsmouth's de facto owner Balram Chainrai £16.2m to take control at Fratton Park.

Lever appeared on the MTV reality show Living on the Edge which tracked the wealthy teenagers of Cheshire, and says his major business interest is a "lifestyle services" company called Paint.

But Portsmouth administrator Andrew Andronikou has expressed doubts about Lever's ability to fund the deal, and on the face of it he is as unlikely an owner as any of the four men who have run the club in the past nine months.

The financing is being organised by lifelong Pompey fan Terry Pritchard, managing director of Charterhouse Retirement Solutions, and who also founded the now defunct packaging company Chase UK.

Should Lever’s bid prove to be successful - the deadline for the deal is tomorrow - Pritchard has been promised a seat on the Portsmouth board, fulfilling a childhood dream. Lever is also being advised by family friends who run pawnbrokers Cash My Gold.

Lever's lack of a visible business track record has caused some concern among Portsmouth supporters, fearful of the club passing to another owner who does not have the resources to fund its recovery from administration.

Concerns have also been raised about the potential involvement of Lever's father David Lever, who was declared bankrupt earlier this year with debts of more than £3 million including £120,000 owed to the spread betting firm Spreadex.

Last week Lever insisted that his father had nothing to do with the deal. He told the Daily Telegraph: "My dad has nothing to do with the deal at all other than to provide me with support and to ensure that I do the right deal.

"He is simply looking out for my interests."

Lever said he intended to launch a leveraged takeover of the club, borrowing money against the club's primary asset, Fratton Park.

He said he would not put any of his own money into the purchase, and declined to discuss his personal wealth or circumstances, but said he would provide a personal guarantee to his lenders, whom he declined to name.

Andrew Andronikou said he had a 'gut feeling' that Lever's interest in Pompey would not lead to him taking over at Fratton Park.

Andronikou said today that he was still waiting for Tom Lever and his backers to deposit £16m in to a bank account to prove they were serious about taking over the club.

Andronikou said: “There is nothing to show it is going to be a done deal.

“I was hoping these would be the real deal - but they definitely are not. Let's move on and leave these behind.

“I want somebody to put the money into a bank account. That's all - it takes 24 hours. So far they have been talking for four to five weeks and nothing has happened.

“It is going nowhere.”

Lever had originally agreed facility terms of a £30m loan from Jumbo Bridging, charged at 2% interest, equivalent to payments of £600,000 per month. But he said his group decided not to go with Jumbo Bridging in the end.

Pritchard told Mortgage Introducer: “I think Portsmouth might have another agenda here. The club has not sent out half of the information required for the deal to go through.

“At the moment Tom Lever doesn’t know what he’s getting for his money and that’s part of the problem. He’d be foolish to put any money anywhere until he has seen what he is buying as a club.

“At the moment all we have seen and had access to is three years’ profit and loss accounts, what the parachute payments are and an outdated valuation. We can’t do anything with that and certainly can’t put a finance package together.”