PST Statement of Clarification
Following recent media speculation, the PST Board would like to clarify the situation regarding the ‘Pompey’s 12th Man’ campaign funds raised by Pompey fans to assist PST member and Pompey fan Micah Hall with his costs resulting from a lawsuit filed by Pascal Najadi. The lawsuit followed a series of blogs written by Micah in 2013 when Pascal Najadi was part of a consortium bidding for ownership of Portsmouth FC.
At the end of May 2014, the ‘Pompey’s 12th Man’ campaign released the sum of £2,900 to Micah Hall (donated by fans for this cause) to help with impending legal costs which were causing him and his family significant financial worry. The payment of these funds was handled by the two signatories to the 12th Man Fund, and paid into an account agreed with Micah Hall. Both signatories had full authority at the time to issue the payment which at the time was not expected to be repaid.
This payment was discussed at a PST Board meeting in November 2014 having been raised by the 12th Man signatories, and following confirmation from Micah that he had not at this point received the anticipated legal bills, it was agreed that as the legal fees were not yet due, we should seek repayment and a plan was agreed with Micah, with £400 having so far been repaid.
The anticipated legal bill was received by Micah in December, and his lawyers have confirmed he has paid £2,000 of these legal costs directly. The £400 already repaid to the 12th Man Fund by Micah as part of the repayment plan will now be transferred by the PST directly to Micah’s lawyers with Micah also paying the remaining £500. This now accounts for the full £2,900 dispersed by the 12th Man Fund, which was raised to help Micah with his legal costs.
In light of this we can now confirm that the PST board has now assumed full responsibility for agreeing & actioning all future payments from Pompey’s 12th Man fundraising.
As the money has been used for its intended purpose we consider this matter closed and the position will be reflected in next year’s accounts.
We would also like to clarify the position of PST Board member Steve Tovey. Publication of the PST accounts were delayed this year – this delay was not linked to the transaction outlined above. Steve has taken full responsibility for the delay – and resigned as PST Treasurer earlier this year. He has confirmed to the PST board that he will not stand for re-election later this year.
We wish to stress that at no time did the PST or its officers breach any legal or financial regulations.
The PST accounts were approved by those members that attended our SGM and have since been accepted by our auditors and presented to the FCA.
Mick Williams’ decision to resign from the PST on a 'matter of principle' is linked to the above, but his reasons for resigning remain personal and are for him to comment on should he wish to.
Finally, we are planning to hold a general open meeting in the coming weeks to update members on all the latest PST news. More details about the meeting will be supplied shortly.