Kanu £3m demand may liquidate Portsmouth!

Pompey’s first-team squad currently only contains 12 players and one of them, Nwankwo Kanu, has hit the club with a formal £3m demand for back pay.

Portsmouth administrator Trevor Birch has warned that the club could be liquidated ‘in two or three weeks’.

The 2008 FA Cup winners are due to start the new season in League One with a 10-point penalty for returning to administration.

Former owner Balram Chainrai has submitted a takeover offer, conditional on eight senior players leaving or accepting pay cuts, including Tal Ben Haim, who is on a £36,000-per-week contract, and Kanu.

Birch has imposed a £5,000-per-week salary cap to cut costs, with the excess paid once the club avoids liquidation, but the Nigerian forward is digging his heels in over the money owed to him.

“The club is heading for liquidation in just a few weeks, perhaps two weeks if these players don’t leave or compromise on their wages,” Birch told ESPN on Sunday. “We still have players like Ben Haim, Dave Kitson and Kanu on our books.”

Birch added, “Kanu has served the club notice that he wants to leave but before doing so he wants the money he says is owed to him by the club.