After a poor start in the league Spurs will be hoping they can pick up where they left off last season in the Carling Cup against Newcastle.

Portsmouth insist that Alexandre Gaydamak is their owner after the Premier League sought clarification about who was in charge at Fratton Park.

Reports in Israel have suggested that Gaydamak’s father Arkadi is in fact the owner of Portsmouth.

Premier League rules state that those in charge of clubs must pass a “fit and proper persons” test and submit an annual declaration to that effect.

Arkadi Gaydamak, the owner of Israeli champions Beitar Jerusalem, has been the subject of an arrest warrant by French authorities looking to question him in connection with allegedly illicit arms trading to Angola during the 1990s.

But a Portsmouth spokesman said: “We are a little surprised that this issue has come up again because Alexandre Gaydamak owns the club 100 percent and nothing has changed.”

After a poor start in the league Spurs will be hoping they can pick up where they left off last season in the Carling Cup against Newcastle.