Angry Portsmouth Football Club fans reopen crisis club meeting in 1975
John Deacon angrily spelt out the awesome size of his personal stake in Portsmouth Football Club.
At a save-the-club meeting that so nearly went wildly wrong, Pompey’s chairman refuted a suggestion that he had merely guaranteed money to the bank during the two-year spending spree that followed his arrival on the board.
‘In hard cash I have put between £400,000-£500,000 into this club and further I have given the bank a personal guarantee of £350,000 to cover the overdraft,’ he snapped.
Mr Deacon’s on-the-line answer came shortly after the meeting, which drew more than 1,000 anxious Pompey fans to the Guildhall, had been closed – then speedily reopened by a club vice-chairman, Peter Faulkner.
Mr Faulkner had stunned the audience by declaring the meeting closed after an hour which was received with boos. But he made it clear that the club was prevented from giving the meeting full financial facts.
‘It’s it not a question of dishonesty; we cannot divulge things,’ he added.