Pompey’s debt has risen to a staggering £138m, administrator Andrew Andronikou has reportedly told creditors.

The latest startling figure is £18m higher than was announced last month.

Pompey plunged into administration in February, with debts thought to be totalling up to £70m.

But last month’s creditors report showed the actual debt stood at £120m.

That shocked many people in the game and an even bleaker picture has been painted today.

It is understood the increase in Pompey's overall debt is due to charges from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, which is owed some £17.1m in taxes and National Insurance contributions.

Current owner Balram Chainrai has an outstanding £14.2m loan, which must be repaid in full, while Pompey's "football creditors" are also set to have their debts covered.

The club are also reported to be liable for some £50m to the Football League pension fund.

Pompey owe some £17m in transfer fees, while current and former players are short around £5million in bonuses, wages and image rights payments.

Andronikou was at Fratton Park today to meet with the creditors.

They approved a debt-repayment plan that will hopefully enable the club to emerge from administration.

Pompey are offering to pay at least 20p in the pound over five years to their unsecured creditors, with the smallest of them (those owed below £2,500), as well as charities, paid in full.

A total of £200,000 is owed to charitable organisations.

The next step is for a Company Voluntary Arrangement to be drawn up and distributed among the creditors, before another meeting is arranged to approve it.

But that will require the backing of 75 per cent of the club’s unsecured creditors.

Each creditor’s vote carries a different weight, depending on how much they are owed.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing Pompey is that HMRC as a rule votes against CVAs for football clubs unless they are paid in full.

The new plan involves the company, Portsmouth City Football Club, being liquidated after nine months.

A new company would then be set up, with the CVA transferred across to it, as well as the club's assets and their right to play in the Football League.

News of the rising debt came on the same day that Professional Footballers’ Association chief Gordon Taylor said the players had been “misled” over the seriousness of the situation.

Pompey’s squad were paid their wages late four times this season.

Taylor said they had not been made aware by the former owners just how bad things were.

“They were being misled because it was almost impossible to find out the reality of situation,” he said.

“The more (the PFA) inquired, the worse it got.

“There were too many people involved there – far too many chiefs and perhaps not enough Indians.”