Portsmouth were on Wednesday granted extra time to fight a winding-up petition from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

The Barclays Premier League's bottom club were given seven days to produce a statement of affairs to HMRC to detail their exact financial position.

HMRC claim Pompey owe them more than £11million in total. A figure of £7.4million of VAT is included in the winding-up petition, which Portsmouth are disputing.

Former owner Alexandre Gaydamak claims to be owed £28million and ex-Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell is suing for £1.7million.

If Portsmouth were closed down, the Premier League would be reduced to 19 teams and their results would be wiped out, giving the table a new look.

Gold said in the Mail on Sunday: "Anything that impacts on the integrity of the Premier League has to be addressed and if a club go bust, all the points are wiped out, giving an advantage to some clubs and a disadvantage to others.

"That can't be right. For that reason, you have an obligation to save a football club.

"We have allowed Portsmouth to get into this mess. The brand is 20 Premier League football clubs. We must take responsibility."