England's Football League declined a bid by Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai to take over Championship side Portsmouth again, according to David Conn of the London GUARDIAN. The league's board "reached no definitive conclusion" at a Thursday meeting but has "significant doubts" about accepting Chainrai's British Virgin Islands-registered company, Portpin, as Portsmouth's owner. Portsmouth's administrators, the accountants PKF, are "expected to resume discussions next week" with the Pompey Supporters Trust over its proposal to take the club over. PKF may then present the league with the trust's bid to own Portsmouth as its preferred bidder via a "one-member-one-vote mutual democratic form of ownership." The league issued no statement and would not discuss the outcome of the meeting, but "it is clear that the questions over Portpin's bid were not answered in full or satisfactorily." The league has "outstanding concerns over Chainrai's involvement and other details." Therefore, to agree a sale of the club and bring the club out of administration, PKF is "likely to turn to the trust, whose bid does not carry such baggage" (GUARDIAN, 10/12).
