POMPEY’S NEW OWNERS…
Portsmouth have a new owner again and he wants nothing to do with the club.
Despite taking control of Portsmouth, Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai insists he has no interest in running the cash-strapped club.
”I have zero interest in buying Portsmouth and it’s completely untrue that I am the new owner of the club,” Chainrai told the South China Morning Post. ”As far as I am concerned, I have just confiscated the shares of the previous owners.
”It’s nothing to do with controlling the club. I don’t know anything about running a football club. I just love the game and that’s why I’ve taken this action. We have exercised our right to take control of the shares, and to remove the previous owners.”
May be not the most typical of rallying cries from a new owner.
But then as recent Portsmouth owners go, it is hardly bucking the trend.
TOGO BANNED…
Following the horrific attack on their team bus in the run up to the African Nations Cup Togo have been banned for the next two tournaments and fined $50,000 for withdrawing from this year’s competition.
The fact that a Togo assistant coach and press officer were killed and several players injured in the ambush by rebels in the Angolan province of Cabinda does not seem to extend to exceptional circumstances.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) have judged that because the Togolese government ordered the team home they were in contravention of regulations that banned political authorities from intervening in such matters.
SPORTING BALLS 