So according to a report published by the administrators, Portsmouth Football Club’s debt levels now stand at £119m, and could rise even further.
Several issues jump out from the report.
The people I really feel for are the smaller creditors – the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers who are owed money, ranging from a few pence to thousands of pounds. Most of them are prominent local businesses – caterers, shopfitters, florists, plant hire companies, and such like. If Pompey’s debts to them have to be written off, several at least may go to the wall. The knock-on effect locally may well be huge. Even if debts are paid, may companies have already got a lot of un-welcome publicity.
Yet the FA and Premier League have to shoulder part of the blame, for creating an industry where football debts have to be paid up first. This means that non-footballing creditors are seen as of a low priority. People like players, former owners, agents like Pini Zahavi, are not going to go bankrupt over Portsmouth’s state. But several smaller businesses may well do.
The report also puts beyond doubt the assertion that those running the club did nothing to solve the problems. OK, so players were sold. But PFC were still living extravagantly, spening money they didnt have, knowing full well that a time might come where businesses may go bust because of it.
The FA’s role in all of this is also rather odious. It is not good enough for people like Richard Scudamore to shrug their shoulders at the mess. OK, so financial mismanagement was taking place, but how was it allowed to go on? Why were there no checks and balances? In all probability, because all Football Clubs – and Football itself – run in the same way. It just so happens that Pompey are the first club to go to the wall.
It does seem as well that the football authorities are not overly concerned by the fate of Pompey. A small, provincial, unglamorous club, you cannot help but feel that they cannot wait for us to disappear, having never wanted us in the limelight in the first place. West Ham are probably in a far worse position than Pompey are, but no-one would dare make them – darlings of Fleet Street – go into administration. ’66 and all that, you see!
As for the issue of European qualification, its also clear that the FA do not want Pompey in Europe, and that other clubs have lobbied to make sure that it does not happen. Funnily enough, if Pompey are not allowed to enter the Europa League, Liverpool are one of the teams who stand to qualify instead – fancy that!
All this shows just how rotten the institution of English football has become – corrupt, ill-scrutinised, insolvent, bent on success, and centred on the big, rich and glamorous clubs with everyone else there to make up the numbers.
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