- Club known as Pompey has gone through one financial crisis after another
- Bosses threw oak chairs and tables worth thousands of pounds onto street
- A builder found them in a skip in 2006 and took them on Antiques Roadshow and he hopes one day the club will take them back
- Experts told him they had been made for HMS Warrior 150 years ago
A football club that has had to sell top players to ease financial problems hurled antique chairs worth thousands of pounds into a skip after bosses decided the club's boardroom should have a makeover.
Fourteen oak chairs and an oak table were dumped in a skip outside Portsmouth FC as the boardroom was being done up.
They were found by an unnamed builder who took them onto Antiques Roadshow where he was told they had been made for HMS Warrior, one of Britain's greatest warships, in the 1860s and were worth a fortune.
On TV: A builder took the chairs he found in a skip onto Antiques Roadshow and learnt they were valuable antiques worth thousands
Beleaguered: Portsmouth Football Club, based at Fratton Park ground, has weathered many cash crises
The upholstered chairs, which had been presented to the football club by the Royal Navy many years ago, have the design of a ship's wheel on the back and are likely to have been made for a ward room on board what was Britain's first iron-hulled ship.
They had been owned by Portsmouth, known as Pompey, for more than 70 years, with an interesting interlude in World War Two when they were moved to a harbour fort where Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery are said to have sat on them as they plotted the downfall of the Germans.
However in 2006 the historic chairs were cast off by the new Russian owner of the then Premiership club, Russian billionaire Alexandre Gaydamak.
Having just taken over the beleaguered club, Gaydamak, the son of a rich Russian-Israeli businessman, set about giving it a new look, buying practically an entire new squad and renovating the club buildings.
Out went the furniture, only for one lucky builder working at the club to spot it in the skip.
He said: 'My company actually carried out the works, and to my horror, these - and a table - were literally in the skip.
BBC Antiques Roadshow, Sunday 22 September, 8pm
Owner: When Alexandre Gayamak, left, bought the club the chairs, seen with expert Deborah Lambert, were put into a skip but were saved and have been kept in storage for the last seven years
'There's 14 chairs and I believe it's a five-leafed table which I've kept in storage for the last seven years.
'I believe it was donated by one of the authorities within the navy, because it was originally on HMS Warrior.'
The builder took the furniture onto Antiques Roadshow where, in a programme to be aired this Sunday, expert Deborah Lambert told him they were expensive antiques.
Miss Lambert said: 'I would say that these chairs date from around 1860-1870.
'They're made of oak, very characteristic kind of yellowish colour that you find in the 19th century.
'Is this the kind of furniture they could have found in HMS Warrior? Stylistically they certainly fit with the period of HMS Warrior, which was commissioned in 1861.'
The generous builder said he hoped to give the furniture back to the club when the current owners had 'changed their taste'.
Historic: Built at a cost of £377,000 in 1860, HMS Warrior was Britain's first armour-plated, iron-hulled ship
Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Montgomery, right, sat on the chairs as they drew up battleplans in WW2
Founded in 1898, the football club has suffered several financial crises, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy, selling players, and even being sold to Terry Venables for £1 in 1997.
It went into administration the following year, and over the following years had to sell several of its top players including Peter Crouch, and go into administration again.
The club is now owned by the Pompey Supporters Trust and managed by former player Guy Whittingham.
Club spokesman Colin Farmery said the table and chairs were not the only items to have gone missing from the club.
He told MailOnline: We are aware that a number of significant club artefacts went missing between 2006 and 2010 under previous ownership regimes at the club.
'Since the new community club was formed, we have started the process of recovering these artefacts, many of which have already been located and looked after by Pompey fans.
'The historic boardroom table and chairs are an important part of the club's heritage and we believe they belong at Fratton Park. We look forward to the items returning to their rightful home in the club's boardroom in the near future.'
PORTSMOUTH - ITS FINANCIAL UPS AND DOWNS
Troubles: Portsmouth FC has had more than its fair share of financial troubles
Known as Pompey, Portsmouth Football Club is much loved by its fans who have accompanied it through every up and down of the club's history.
And there have been plenty of them since it was founded in 1898.
As far back as 1976, the club found itself in danger of bankruptcy and so had to sell off players to keep afloat.
As their fortunes waned, so too did their luck, and Pompey went from the Second Division to the Fourth Division and up to the First Division in 1986-87.
By the following season they were in financial trouble again and were relegated back to the Second Division, and less than 10 years later Terry Venables was able to buy the club for £1.
In 1998 the club went into administration, a century after it was founded, but was rescued by a rich new Serbian owner Milan Mandaric.
Gaydamak bought the club in 2006 and pumped large amounts of cash into it, and in 2008 they won the FA Cup. However since then the club has had to go into administration twice.
In April this year it was bought by the Pompey Supporters Trust, which enabled it to exit administration.
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