Portsmouth have taken the Premier League to arbitration in a bid to lift their transfer embargo.

Pompey have delivered a letter to the league chiefs' Gloucester Place headquarters detailing why they should be paid the £2million Sky money that is currently being withheld from them.

The club have said that if they do not have a meeting with the Premier League on Tuesday they will exercise their right to arbitration.

Portsmouth have already used £5million of their Sky money to pay debts owed to Tottenham, West Ham and Chelsea in the past few days and have also reached agreements with two French clubs over scheduled payments.

Executive director Mark Jacob said:"The Premier League are withholding the balance of monies they owe us because they believe that we still owe other football clubs money. We have now paid off the three UK clubs.

"We have agreed with Rennes and Lens to accept certain payments now and then defer a schedule of payments going forward. We are finalising the agreement with Udinese.

"We believe the embargo should be lifted immediately and that we should be receiving money from the Premier League.

"Today we have delivered a letter to the Premier League asking to pay back the money. 'We have called for a meeting tomorrow and if this fails or we don't get our money back then we shall exercise the powers of arbitration.

"Once again we are being treated as the poor relations and the black sheep of the family."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email