Be interesting to see just how democratic the "fans" trust board ends up being. It's not going to be one member one vote from what I can tell and not seen it clarified as to how fan representatives get elected to the board (there was no election of the trust board to start with was there?). They are clearly better off without Chainrai and all that legacy, but... The debts remain. They will be in League 2. Will attendances rise now? Maybe, but I doubt by much. And I strongly suspect that the "high net individuals" will soon start to exercise control over day to day decisions, so will it REALLY be a fan run club?
Congratulations to the PST who now have control of their club. The hard work starts here. They have a lot of work to do and a long way to go.
I hope that given a fresh start, they demonstrate how to run a club in a financially sound manner. Mustn't go down the same road.
I hope they get the best outcome possible whilst not being favoured. I want them to survive and make half of my family happy
i think a supporters trust running a club is a good thing, but it will make slow progress. Their fans will need to have patience as the PST won't have the financial power to turn them around quickly. I've already seen a number of fans declaring they'll be roaring back up the leagues now that Chainrai has left the club
The supporters must be patient...they haven't suddenly had a huge input of money. They need to sign permanent players and then meld them into a team. They could probably get a second division side together, but it costs money to get a decent first division side together.
I agree , lots of hard work and a long way to go , but they have hopefully seen the last of Chanrai , be interesting to see what the actual details are .
Now the hard work starts. If I'm honest I can't see how it is going to work long-term and how much progress will be made. But best of luck to them, impressive.
It's like a game of snakes and ladders, their current situation is that they are at the bottom of the lowest rung of the lowest ladder, lets hope the dice fall their way for a while and that they survive, but there is a long way to go yet, so many possible pitfalls on the way. First step is to come out of administration, BBC says April 22nd is set for that, presumably the minus 10 will kick in straight away, unless the League wait to see if they can stay up on merit and impose it then, if not carry it over to next season?
Have to hope PST really is and remains the SUPPORTER's trust. I have my doubts... but then, what other alternative was there? They wanted to keep the club rather than start a new one which is exceedingly foolish but still totally understandable. I hope PST and the supporters turn their attentions now to things that matter and forget about trying to protest the ten point deduction.
No doubt the local press will not ask any tough questions of the PST, in much the same way they all heralded Chainrai etc when they took over the club. Now is the time to ask the searching questions, not a year from now when they always end up saying "why didn't anyone see this coming?" For a start, I laughed out loud when the new PFC chairman said live on Sky Sports News that "the club is debt free" What a stupid comment to make.
One other thing to mention, this deal would not have happened and the PST takeover and running of the club would not of happened without the Sky TV deal parachute payments still being received. So, you could say that Sky have a greater financial input into PFC than the fans do
I think this has the potential to be a landmark in the history of English football. If the supporter's trust is a succes then it will demonstrate that it is possible to run a club ethically. There does seem to be quite a bit of money amongst the individual backers but I remain to be convinced that this will remain democratic and the the club will effectively be run by the fans. After what Portsmouth have endured, their fans desire a bit of luck. They are a massive club and should not be where they currently find themselves in the league. My concern is that the PST will effectively confine Portsmouth to the lower leagues and with more money coming in to the PL next season they will find the gulf to have widened considerably. I will be fascinated to see how this develops and whether PFC can indeed provide the model for how football will be run in future. Heaven knows, the sport needs to be managed better and the parity between the professional clubs re-established so that teams can compete on a sporting level and not dictated by finance. Oddily enough, the deduction of ten points from Coventry made me think of a possible situation in the future where so many teams in a league have points deducted for going in to administration that the fixtures are meaningless! I think points deductions must stop and better regulation introduced to prevent any future shambles of the proportions of Pompey in the future.
Oddily enough, the deduction of ten points from Coventry made me think of a possible situation in the future where so many teams in a league have points deducted for going in to administration that the fixtures are meaningless! ___________________________ Or, so many do that it makes the deduction meaningless.
