I arrived at the meeting with Dave with a fairly open mind, we all heard the rumours circulating and to be fair our first concern was whether or not our owner would turn up.
Turn up he did, about 15 minutes later than scheduled, but he had phoned from the A3M to warn chair for the night Colin Farmery.
He arrived with his spokesman Ivo Gabara and another advisor called Luogh (pronounced Luff). Also present at the back amongst the fans were Peter Storrie, Lucius Peart, Gary Double and Johnny Moore.
He immeadiately took the top table with his men and made a short statement to get things rolling.
His statement was to point out that the threat of administration was completely fabricated and that all was in hand, in fact he pointed further to £50m to come into the club within the next 3-4 weeks.
As questions started to flow, the obvious ones came to the fore, how much have we got?
When is the ground getting started?
What about the training ground?
Well first off, it ws made clear that there is still some debt to sort out, the £50m safeguards our future for now, the debt may be cleared by November but could linger until January, this was confirmed by Storrie. When quizzed further on the matter, it was pointed out that Pompey were legally bound not to say how much our actual debt is.
As for the ground, Mr. Fahim made it clear that he favours the Horsea island project over any sort of development of Fratton, the re-hash of Fratton was not ruled out, it was indicated that the board as a whole would vote on this matter, but don’t expect much movement on that front.
The training ground seems a lot higher up the agenda, a portion of the £50M is set aside for something to happen here, tweking of the design was cited for lack of activity here.
When quizzed on relegation, Mr.Fahim stated we would fight our way clear, that he was truly shocked that we had yet to register a point, and if the worst was to happen he would stay at the helm.
More investors where welcome to invest and he is actively seeking suitable ones, when asked on the Al Faraj brothers, he said the door was open and he had had contact, Peter Storrie consensually nodded to this.
It was pointed out that fans needed something tangible to hang their hopes on, and again it was made clear that things were happening, but again the fans made it clear that until we saw something with our own eyes that will all be taken with a pinch of salt.
Someone pointed out that Pompey’s priority was to keep Peter Storrie on board, this was met with apllause and Al fahim reiterated his desire to keep him as such.
When asked on Paul Hart, Al Fahim said he had no plans to replace him in the forseeable future.
It was pointed out that fans feel agreived at the way foriegn media is used to give out snippets of information, Al. Fahim pointed out that he turns away 90% of interviews and that a lot of what he says is recycled and misinterpreted. When asked if he could just say ‘no comment’ he made it clear that this would not be the case.
When asked if he was going to wear his Pompey shirt again, he indicated he would as this is how you watch sport in his country, it was made very clear that the fans felt this was an embarrassment, Mike ashley was mentioned and he was asked to wear a suit in future.
Another meeting was suggested for the second week of November, this is when he said he should be judged and when he felt he could answer questions a bit deeper.
As the meeting drew to a close, Mr Fahim seemed in no great hurry to depart and mixed for a while and seemed a lot more relaxed, Peter Storrie also stayed on, but I can’t say I saw any communication after the meeting was concluded.
Hope this answers a few questions, I’m ready to be grilled!
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