just been looking at the bbc sports news, and it seems there is a very real possibilitie portsmouth could go to the wall,unless 8 players tear there contracts up. whilst pretty sure nobody wants to see a grand old club go bust, i just wonder what is the possibilitie of that in this day an age ?
I remember our boys tearing up their contracts,these modern footballers have they the heart to do the same. If they don't Pompey are going out of business,I feel for the pompey fans who are some of the most passionate in England.
We should also remember that the Pompey players are already very wealthy young men - our boys back in 1982 were not which makes their sacrifice all the more special I hope Pompey find some way out of this, because it's a proper football club
' The players Geoff Merrick, Chris Garland, Trevor Tainton, David Rodgers, Jimmy Mann, Gerry Sweeney, Peter Aitken and Julian Marshall, all had to agree to the proposed idea that they would only get half of their contract, if they left. They had to weigh up saving their club against risking their family's financial security. With only minutes before the deadline the players agreed and walked away. Their actions saved Bristol City and allowed the club to stay alive.' http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2007/01/24/ashtongate8interviews_feature.shtml
Not got much sympathy left for them. They went into admin then came out of it and signed Husslekup, Benjani, Lawrence etc all on big money. Should've learnt from the first time. Got sympathy from the fans but football needs a club to go to the wall to make the point that you can't just spend ****loads of money you don't have and expect to get away with it. They wont be the last by any stretch unless football in general has a massive reality check. Hopefully with them and Rangers going horribly wrong then the chairmen wont pay agents stupid money/ offer obscene contracts they can't afford.
Spending money the club does not have is exactly what Bristol City have been doing for the past three seasons. Football in this country does have administrators and that is where the fault lies. Football clubs have been allowed by the ruling bodies to carry enormous debts, not only that they have been encouraged to do it by lack of regulation and rewards for failure i.e parachute payments. Portsmouth have gone into administration under TWO different owners. That is a failure by the games movers to look after the well being of football as a whole.
I know, which is why i'm fully behind SL saying we need to cut the costs, bring the wage bill down and not pay over the odds for players. I'd rather us not pay silly money and lose out on a couple of players than bring people in and risk the club. Wouldn't surprise me at all if a couple of teams in this league went to the wall this year. It's ridiculous.
While I agree it seems that the club has still not done anything to make ourselves more sustainable. The first place to start would have been to heavily invest in our academy and run the monopoly on talent in the south-west of the country. The stadium will help boost revenue, but let's not kid ourselves in thinking that SL did this just for us. It creates great business opportunities for himself and the city, and increases a potential buyout from foreign investment.
Don't take this as gospel, but I would expect that the naming rights stadium will be part of a seperate company to BCFC. Ashton Gate is owned by Bristol City holdings not BCFC. Steve Lansdwon said he did this to prevent takeovers. Ashton Vale similarly will be under a seperate entity to BCFC, owned by Steve Lansdown and the projects business partners . Profits will then be split and monies past on to the football club. Who owns waht and how revenue created will be divided is unclear.
Massive agreement from here-been banging my drum about it for years. Think we need to spread the net across Europe though. THAT would be worth spending money on
