Why administration would give Portsmouth the fresh start they need
This season has been a nightmare of Tim Burton proportions at Portsmouth. The club are going from one crisis (owner) to another and there seems little hope of a happy ending for the South coast club. With such a dire forecast should the 112 year old club just accept administration and start again?
Over the past few seasons the successful FA Cup winning side has been disbanded and the club has veered rudderless towards financial ruin. Players such as Lassana Diarra, Sulley Muntari, Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, Younes Kaboul, and Sylvain Distin have all left the club for vast sums. The players are immensely talented going to clubs from Real Madrid to Inter Milan, Everton and of course Tottenham. Despite these players leaving, little notable talent has been recruited, certainly none of a comparable standard. This has left the team struggling in the Premier League, where they sit bottom and are given little chance of staying up this season.
Surely though by selling these players for such a profit, the clubs finances must be healthy? The current Premier League is however not a forgiving place and financial stability generally relies on a wealthy owner willing to underwrite any losses. The old adage that ‘the only way to make a small fortune in football is to start with a large one’ has never been more appropriate. Unfortunately Portsmouth no longer have a wealthy businessman at the helm and instead this season they have had a succession of charlatans in charge, looking to gain a profit from the club. People like Sulaiman al-Fahim and Ali al-Faraj took over at the club with the intention of selling the club on again for a fast profit. Of course such strategies have failed and frustrated investor Balram Chainrai has now taken over, with err, the express intention of selling the club! Hopefully he will stay long enough to bring some stability to the club before he sells.
The most important assets of a consistently successful football club are continuity and stability. Many clubs have shot to glory but the downfall has been so painful as to question the original success. How many Leeds fans would trade their Champions League semi final for a regular Premier League spot and avoid the years languishing in the lower leagues? Is the FA Cup worth the potential demise of Portsmouth FC? This is a genuine possibility with the winding up order looming over the club.
There is another option for Portsmouth. It is an unpopular one but is a realistic and arguably a sensible one. The club could file for administration. This would protect the club from creditors and allow the club to rebuild and hopefully to re-establish itself on a more stable footing. The points penalty ensued would guarantee relegation this season, and the squad would be further stripped down to the bare minimum, ensuring another difficult season in the Championship. The plan would be a long term one however and with shrewd ownership the club would be able to gradually build and within a few seasons the club would be able to rise back towards the Premier League. All Portsmouth fans will hate me for saying this but Southampton are starting to recover after a disastrous few seasons. They accepted administration as the only way to save the club, and despite the difficulties they survived and are gradually on their way back to the Premier League.
It is a dire situation to even consider administration at any level of football let alone in the Premier League. It will raise serious and damaging questions of the Football Association and the Premier League as to their ownership rules. How can the succession of owners without appropriate finance have been allowed to own Portsmouth FC. It also raises wider questions on the greed and immorality that is now deeply imbedded within the beautiful game in this country. For some clubs sporting success is no longer enough or even the priority. That the FA have overseen this situation and have shown a patent inertia is irreversibly damning. They must take some blame, ignoring values over the pound signs racking up in their coffers.
Portsmouth may choose to wait and allow Chainrai the time to attempt to steady the club. The stability may also help Avram Grant and the players for the remainder of the season. If the players could do the incredible and avoid relegation then the club will be in a far stronger position. I would like to see the club continue for the next 112 years and if 5 years of strife after administration is the price required then I urge Portsmouth to swallow their pride. The neutral football community will support the club and their passionate fans will again have a club they can be proud of.
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I do actually agree with most of what you say. What I still don’t get is why our friends down the M27 still clearly think they have a god given right to be in the premier league. For season upon season they saved themselves by a matter of just a few points thanks to simply stunning performances and even more stunning goals by Le Tissier. They do not deserve to be in the league they are in, but they definitely deserve to be in the Championship because that is their level. I never see them getting back in the top tier and if they do, at best it will be as a yoyo team such as West Brom
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I’m not sure that administration is the best answer, but it is refreshing to read (for the first time online) that the FA are culpable. And the Premier League.
For too long these organisations (plus FIFA, UEFA etc) have presided over ludicrous wages and transfer fees to the point where top clubs can only survive with support from rich sugar daddies on ego trips. In the real world out here we can all see this – and we can all see that it is about to collapse like a pack of cards.
Stand aside Pompey – there’s plenty more clubs about to fall.
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You are forgetting that if we don;t come out of administration in the correct way we lose another 10 points in the championship almost certainly consigning us to “Div 3″ at a stroke.If at all possible investment is the way forward and would be preferable to administration
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salary caps , and transfer caps, would have saved portsmouth from this terrible situation, the premier league just care about one thing, money, not football, not fans, money thats it, did they care that the premiership was bought and not won properly by chelsea, no, do they care that man city are going to try to do the same thing, and that no other team can even come close to their spending ability, while teams living within their means, dont get their due reward, no they dont care, thats who you blame for your situation, good luck to you portsmouth.
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