However, he will demand "proof of funds up front" from any would-be buyers and insists they must satisfy the Premier League's 'fit and proper person' requirement.

BBC: Administrator vows to save debt-ridden Portsmouth

The club's administrator added that he had received substantial interest in buyers for the stricken club, but only two had been able to show proof of funds.

BBC: Portsmouth FC administrators axe 85 jobs to cut costs

"They met this morning with the board of directors, it was a positive meeting, they're well intentioned, but it was made clear to them that they need proof of funds before we can continue negotiations, and it's a tall order in a short period of time, " he said.

BBC: Roberts seeks Magpies fan support

In business, the burden of proof is properly on the requester of funds to show what the expected results will be, and later, to produce them.

WHITEHOUSE: Testimony of Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.

His boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, has cited the crisis as proof that she was right at successive international meetings to demand tougher regulation of hedge funds and financial markets and that the Americans and British were wrong to resist it.

ECONOMIST: Europe and America

The proof is in the pudding on this point: every dollar of public-sector funds received by these projects was being matched by nearly four dollars in private-sector investment toward buying and installing the systems that generate on-site electricity and use waste-heat created during generation.

FORBES: Big Apple Gambles on Clean Heat and Power