Birch issues payment clarification

Portsmouth administrator Trevor Birch has moved to clarify comments he made about the club's parachute payments from the Premier League being paid to former owner Sacha Gaydamak.

Birch on Thursday stated Gaydamak was assigned £2.2million of parachute payments to satisfy part of his debt, with him set to receive the next four instalments. But on Friday he confirmed the Premier League "is not a part of any agreement to pay money to a third party".

In a statement, Birch said: "Yesterday, I made a statement about the finances of Portsmouth FC and referred to the possibility of parachute payments from the Premier League being paid to a previous owner of the club. I want to make it absolutely clear that the Premier League is not a part of any agreement to pay money to a third party."

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