The people on the board will no doubt be Pompey fans (as opposed to the chancers they've had in charge), but I don't think the average fan will be any more involved than we are. The individuals who have put the most money in will be in charge (just like every other club). They may get out of League 2 fairly quickly, but I think getting out of League 1 will be hard without real financial input.
The PST can hardly claim they have carried out an ethical takeover whilst so many people are still owed so much. When saints were in the championship relegation zone and entered admin they had 10pts taken off that season and 10pts at the beginning of the next. Will this/should this happen to pompey? Why dont other clubs get more upset about the amount of points taken off it seems strange the disparity. EG Luton, Bournemouth and Aldershot all had far worse penalties imposed on them despite their crimes seeming far less...
Best wishes to them, from what I've seen and read the structure of the new ownership has been vague at best. Let's hope they can get something together which does make it a proper fans owned club as opposed to 3 or 4 wealthy fools
No we didn't. If we had escaped relegation from the Championship we would have lost the 10 points that season, but we went down anyway, and had the deduction the following season.
Yes sorry got that a bit wrong. Will the same rule appliy to Pompey as they find themselves in a very similar position?
Difference is, we've already had the ten points off for entering administration this time. Plus, points deductions are completely stupid.
Not yet you haven't. But I do agree with your final point. Though what do you think is the alternative?
You mean, apart from the already existing well run fans owned clubs like Exeter, Brentford, Wimbledon AFC, Wrexham, Ebbsfleet & FCUM? All of which have a more democratic model than being proposed by Pompey. All of which are not being propped up financially by Sky Parachute payments, property developers and loans from their local councils.
What's wrong with points deductions? They happen because the club is considered to have gained an advantage over more stable clubs.
Yes we have. We got deducted 10 points last season which were the difference between using going down and staying up and this is still the same period of administration. I dunno. But what about the clubs that stay up when they should go down? Haven't they gained an unfair advantage as well?
Lincoln did this ages ago. A board that are fans and a trust being the largest shareholder owning 26% with fan reps on the board and has been run like a shambles, struggling against relegation from Blue Square this year. What makes you think the PST is the first? I rate what has happened at Lincoln as similar to Lowe at Saints. People with big plans that are too big for them to achieve. A lot of these 'businessman' are small time but think they can do what they say with disastrous results. We are lucky with Cortese as he is big enough to achieve what he says. He also hasn't got thousands of people that can oust him questioning his intent The season after Lincoln got relegated from L2 the chairman was warbling on about a new stadium further out from the city centre? In the blueSq? When they had no money anyway? When they already have a 10k stadium IN the city centre? These things can go very wrong!!! I hope for Pompey's sake they are different because they are very close to where Lincoln were when they went into admin. Just after they were relegated from L1 with crowds in the 5-6k region. (Pompey nearer 12 but crowds can disappear very quickly when things don't go well) http://www.impstrust.org.uk/
What do you mean? If the club goes into administration but stays up, they still take a 10 point deduction. They are penalized for their unfair advantage. The clubs that stay up because another team gets a 10 point deduction should have stayed up in the first place. They are only in the relegation zone because some other team broke the rules. I don't know whether a 10 point deduction is too much or too little but the idea of a punishment to try and offset the advantage gained by the club makes logical sense to me. Its a little silly to punish the team the year AFTER they broke the rules (or in this case perhaps some years after) but I don't see the alternative. There has to be some sort of punishment to deter clubs who do this. I always hear the supporters saying "It's us who suffer when the points deduction is applied." But the fans of other teams suffered when you cheated. And you would suffer far worse if Portsmouth ceased to exist so that's why there is a disincentive to do so. In Portsmouth's case though, the ten point penalty is such a minor trifle it's not even worth worrying about. Your team has no money-- even if PST takes over their pockets are far less deep than you'd like. And players will not want to play for the club knowing their history of financial troubles and that they could go months without wages. Going into administration the way you have has hurt Portsmouth massively. You are unlikely to get promoted to League One right away and you shouldn't even try to get promoted to League One really as you don't have the finances for it. So in the end, the 10 point penalty won't matter. Take the extra time in League Two to get your crap together. I'm not saying it in a mean way, it's just... true.
PST to pay 3 mill to Chanrai for FP, with 350K over 5 years. Extra 2 million payable if they reach PL within 10 years!
Think Bradford is the best comparison to Portsmouth as they're clubs of a similar size. They've been kept afloat by several high net worth supporters who have made huge sacrifices in terms of time and personal wealth. I was thrilled for them to have there cup run this season and they're now making a late charge for the play offs. But despite this, life in league two has been a struggle and they spent last season near the foot of the table. Much of the reason has been down to the inability to offer several long term contracts to players and the squad merry-go-round only hurts the team, plus they've been head & shoulders the biggest team in the division which as we found in league one (brings its own pressure) One great thing Bradford have done is make ticket prices cheap and not just the odd game but season tickets for less than £150 for adults etc Even the don gave us season tickets for £240 in his 1st season, so I hope the 1st act of the PST is to make ticket prices cheap especially to those that have donated. If they want it to be a true fans club they need that shed filled every week and cheaper tickets is the best way to do it.
But a ridiculously long period. There is an argument you should never have started this season for being in admin. Anyway, that is just semantics. If I were in your shoes, I'd just keep my head down and be grateful I have a club to support, rather than singing about things not being fair. Too many people have been hit by what has happens down there to be moaning if you should or shouldn't have more points deducted. I hope your club survives this and comes out cleaner the other end. I am just not sure this will be the case. I have been abroad and not had time to look at all the details; has the PST taken on any or all the debt, or is it a Phoenix company?
Be interesting to see how many more Pompey fans will stump up money to the trust now. They have about 2000 members, which is still quite a bit less than "smaller" clubs like Brentford and Exeter have contributing to their Trust. So until their membership is higher than any other Fans Trust, these claims already being spouted about being "the biggest fans owned club in the country" are more Pompey porkies. The PST should never focus on being the biggest, much better to focus on being the best & most transparent. Still got a gut feeling there are more trial & tribulations ahead.
I'm happy p*rtsmouth still has a football club. I'm happy they'll soon be in the fourth division. I hope they continue to survive. But not thrive, obviously. I hope there's a hell, so Chanrai, Gaydamak, Kieth Harris and Maggie Thatcher can all meet up there. And lastly, I hope a suitable Care In The Community bed can be found for John Westwood.
if they can get a decent young team together and start winning some games they could have a good time of going around the country with more away than most the home teams and winning .
