It seems that this once great Club is on the brink of total collapse. Does anybody on this Forum have any sympathy with their plight? Do we need a team like Pompey to go to the wall,and perhaps issue a wake up call to the rest of the football fraternity,who think that living beyond their means is the way to carry on?
I have mixed feelings on this one, as it somewhat affects me. My son is part of there Academy training system so is the club does go, were not sure if his dream of playing professional football will happen. On the other hand I do think it will take a well established side like Portsmouth to go out of business, for the football authorities to take note and sort these clubs of for not living within there means. Another club by the sound of it, teetering on the edge is Port Vale.
Hi again Vetch. Absolutely agree with the sentiment of your article, and I like a growing number of other fans, am concerned with the way football is going. My only reservation about making an example of a club like Pompey is the fact that we end up punishing innocent fans because of the actions of others. There is no doubt that fans of certain clubs put incredible pressure on chairmen to spend, spend, spend, but I think that even in those circumstances, it is down to the chairman to make choices according to the club's financial situation. Our own, recent experiences clearly demonstrated the lack of transparency that comes from certain boardrooms, and although we got out of a worrying situation, it was one hell of a fright when we didn't see it coming. I nearly lost my beloved club because of someone else's actions, and i wouldn't want that to happen to such an honest and dedicated bunch as the Pompey fans. I honestly don't think we can use the lifeblood of the game in a risky strategy to make other clubs live within their means. I haven't fully got my head around them yet, but I understand that UEFA are trying to table proposals that will cap the amount of debt a club can run up - so hopefully that may eventually go some way to addressing the problem. One thing is for certain, fans will have to understand that not every club has the means to buy success. I wish the Pompey fans well and hope they get owners that will treat them with more honesty and respect.
i feel sorry for the fans, but the club itself, i hope they are forced to pay every penny they owe to every person / organisation. i despise them. the latest reports say that creditors (including the likes of st johns ambulance, local builders, printing companies) will get 4p in the pound. god knows how much they owe in tax which will never be repaid. every fan who watches pompey has to pay his taxes so why should the club get away with it?
Never good when a team goes to the wall only the real people involved suffer in the long term and the people who couldn't run a piss up in a brewery but think they can run a club get away with murder..and although i agree a wake up call is needed i'm not sure a football team going out of business will do the trick only got to look at Newport Bradford Pa Wimbledon to see nothing changes and the real villains (Risdale & Penny for example) get away with it
Hiya Swamp. Yes, there is a very valid argument to say that a football club should be the same as any other business, and yes, someone should be forced to honour the debts or be forced out of business for good. However, a football club is not like most other businesses in as much as they have so much impact on a community. In essence, this is where company law fails in this country, and the real villains of the peice rarely pay for their indiscretions. I can't get to hate a club because of their rogue owners - if I did, I'd have had a few problems not so long ago! I don't know the answer to all of this, but we can't let a heritage disappear.
Hi again,yourself,cling. We better watch out,or all this cosying up will get noticed,and people will talk. Ah,to hell, with it,let them talk,I say. I was reading some comments posted by Southampton fans',re the gloating by Pompey followers when Saints were in trouble,not so long ago. I guess it's karma time for those thoughtless Pompey fans'. Football supporters can be as heartless as children in the schoolyard. If only they had the ability to stand back,and think how awful it would be were their Club in dire straits. Of course,Pompey have been in trouble before,not so long ago. Since your FA Cup Final with them,I think,and whilst I wish them well,maybe,just maybe,their ship has run aground,and will now sink. All very melodramatic,and I'm having a real tough time thinking it might be going to happen.
Portsmouth ultimately paid the price of there FA Cup win as they were living well beyond there means. They had players earning in excess of 60k a week, not just one but quite a few. With a attendance's around the 20k mark, how can a club sustain this sort of spending. Yes they were Premier League team but they were paying top four club salaries then, the mind boggles. This then leads us onto how the hell have they now got into this situation now. Over the last couple of years and there first time in administration they have been shafted by owners wanting to make a quick buck, when they had no money to invest in the club. They have had "don't quote me on this" three or four owners since they last came out of administration. With this sort of turnover of owners what the hell is "The Fit and proper persons test" that the league carryout. Pompey must be very unlucky to get the only arab owner who's skint, he had to go cap in hand for a bail out. You now have a club with really no assets other than the players. Not sure who own the ground but it's certainly not the existing regime. The surrounding area is owned by Gaydemak and he basically holds the club to ransom over this ground ( he's still owed money from selling the club) there practically imprisoned by this ground. I feel so sorry for the supporters and staff of the club, not necessarily the players as they will leave and find other clubs. It's the clubs youth coaches, admin people etc that I have dealings with, the true lifeblood of the club Pompey through and through, it will be a sad day if the Pompey chimes stop ringing.
hi clingo, i've read what you've said, and i understand where you're coming from, but they've had enough chances. they are still paying players wages of over £30k a week to some players, one of them being tal ben-haim (fans of the PL will know he is at best a journeyman), whilst simultaneously making around 30 office staff redundant (most of them probably earning less than £20k a year), thats 30 people who are now without work, some 'impact on the community' they are having. and as we cardiff fans know, they beat us in the FA cup final with a team they couldnt afford. they were cheating. they have cheated other PL teams, as well as teams in the championship. they have cheated the local businesses by offering them 20% of what they're owed, and now they've reduced that to 4%. they have made staff redundant whilst continuing to pay multi million transfer fees and wages. it stinks.
I know what you're saying Vetch with regard to some fans. I sometimes find myself wishing ill on the club of some fans and wishing the very best to other fans........and it's all the same club!!!!! At the end of the day, I guess I wouldn't want karma to be so indiscriminate that it would punish a good majority. Let's hope that if Pompey do go under, they'll be able to rebuild under more controlled leadership.
Hi again swamp. All very valid points - as always. My only question is who are "they"? To my mind a club is a heritage and a focus point for the passions of paying fans. It's others who made all the immoral dealings and it's they that deserve to pay for their wrong doings. Yeah, I know, I'm an idealist, but even so, there have to considerations for the community. I think that it's got as bad as this should be a sufficient shot across the bows ( sorry for continuing the naval analogies).
when are the FA going to start banning these people who allegedly run these clubs to the ground, walk away, and find another club to ruin. i fell sorry for Portsmouth, the fans the players who havnt been paid and have families mortgages etc (bar the ones still getting obscene wages compared to their teammates) i wonder where the stats are that show any team made a profit (actual) last season. how hard is it for a team to say - crowd of 20,000 or 30,000 per home match = ?, tv rev = ? sponsorship = ? other income = ? minus, wages, taxes etc etc etc, how many teams are actually doing it right?
Thats more or less what i said scott and lets not forget what nearly happened to us not so long ago and most of the fans on here would have been right pissed off if other fans had no sympathy for us we would have had the old "Why does everyone hate us" story going round like wildfire
apparently the former owner who started this all by suddenly demanding all his money back, gets 100% of the parachute payments, so the next installment of £2.2m goes straight into his bank account, whilst the club do all they can to ensure they fulfil the remaining fixtures. i remember alan sugar (former spurs owner) saying that clubs cant be trusted to spend their money wisely. if they get more TV money, they simply spend more on transfer fees and wages. despite the PL giving more and more money to clubs than ever, it goes on inflating wages, as we have seen, £200k seems to be the going rate for a top class PL player, even 5 years ago it was around £100k. loads of average players get £2m, £3m a year or even more. clubs like rangers have taken away income tax from players, VAT from sales, and not passed it on to the government. yes they are central to the community, but many of them are run like multinational businesses. that idea that they are run for the good of the community went ages ago. the game is run by businessmen.. (the rangers owner being an asset stripper who has been disqualified as being a company director in the past!) though this latest fiasco makes you believe how some of them got rich in the first place when they make financial decisions such as spending 105% of turnover of wages alone, as pompey did. i believe cardiff city pay an unhealthy percentage on wages as well. this is a problem many clubs suffer from..
these dodgy owner's are taking millions for themselves first, and don't give 2 fk's about the fans/club, look at man utd's owner's, they buy the club with borrowed money and then because they own the club all their debts are put on that club, that's the biggest load of b***ocks i've ever seen
trouble is football sold its soul 2tha devil with the deal with sky.....since then its been a gravy train and the only ones that aint on it are us the fans
No offence but it makes me laugh to hear Cardiff fans moaning about 'cheating' by buying expensive players and paying them excessive wages. You were in trouble recently too, remember, and it'll take a while to get out of it. Hasselbaink or Fowler ring a bell? Journeymen on ridiculous wages. More recently, what about Bellamy? Even the portion of wages you were paying him was still very high for a Champ club. Was that 'cheating'? No because the rules allowed for it, even though most of us felt it was inherently unfair. Anyway I digress. Can't have much sympathy when a club is in trouble due to spending above its means. Our problems years ago, whilst regrettable, were nothing to do with spending big. We didn't have a pot to piss in because we hardly had anyone coming through the gates. No club can sustain that. The Pompey fans, by and large, were the ones screaming to spend spend spend. It must have been like having an army of Daiswan's on the Chairman's back. So they must bear a share of the responsibility too I'm afraid. As for setting an example, well if the owners of clubs up and down the country don't know by now that you can't live beyond your means, then making an example of Pompey isn't going to make them see the light. Everyone knows how things have been going for some time and that's why FIFA (or as Clingo says, it may be UEFA, not sure) is bringing in rules that clubs cannot spend more than they generate in income. Can't come quick enough.
