Tuesday 31 March 2015 14:15, UK
Portsmouth creditors may have to wait until 2017 to discover if they will receive any further money, seven years after the club first entered administration.
Portsmouth became the first Premier League club to be put into administration, with initial debts of nearly £120 million, in February 2010.
A year later, Portsmouth City Football Club Ltd was wound up and placed into compulsory liquidation at the High Court as the company exited its administration.
Baker Tilly, an independent firm of chartered accountants and business advisers, has been investigating the liquidated company for four years, and revealed they may require two more years to establish whether creditors will receive any further funds.
"Work to realise assets for the benefit of creditors is ongoing but our best estimate is that the matter is not likely to be concluded for the next 1-2 years." said Baker Tilly, in a statement to Sky Sports News HQ.
In February 2012, Championship Portsmouth entered administration for the second time in three seasons, and were relegated to League One three months later, before further relegation at the end of the following season.
Portsmouth are in 14th place in League Two.
The club, now trading under Portsmouth Community Football Club, announced on Monday that it had an operating profit of £118,000 in its first full year of trading.
Accounts for the year ending June 2014 showed a turnover of £6.6 million, with gate receipts of £3.4 million.
The club say there was an overall loss of £171,000 for the year, after including net interest charges of loans taken out to purchase the club in April 2013.
Baker Tilly's ongoing investigation is unrelated to the current company and fan-ownership of the club.
"As liquidators, we have a duty to ascertain any misconduct carried out by those in control of the company which has caused loss or prejudice to the general body of creditors." said Geoff Carton-Kelly, formerly joint-liquidator, in February 2011.
"In some cases, if appropriate, the liquidator may be able to bring legal proceedings against third parties as well as directors or shadow directors for either wrongful trading or fraudulent trading, misfeasance or breach of duty with a view to recovering funds for creditors. In addition, the liquidators have powers to reverse certain historical transactions for the benefit of creditors too."
