Is British football in complete disarray? (Part two)

Unfortunately this tale gets more rather than less woeful. For a club to be mismanaged in to administration once is bad enough, but this has happened Portsmouth twice in about two years. It is the third time they have been in administration in fourteen years! The situation could possibly not be worse at Fratton Park without the club going out of business altogether. (Which is not beyond the bounds of possibility!)

The hallowed turf at Fratton 

Portsmouth are in a situation where if their debts are not sorted out very quickly then people will refuse to do business with them.
Portsmouth's creditors are rumoured to consist of other football clubs including Wolves, West Brom and Bristol City as well as The Football League itself. Portsmouth City council are also said to be owed £78,000, and the electricity and gas suppliers have been threatening to cut them off for some for non-payment of bills. You have to wonder how far can it go, and I have said all this without even mentioning the bill to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It is also said that Portsmouth owe previous owners Balram Chanrai and Alexandre Gaydamak in the region of £20 million. Portsmouth are not even worth £20 million, they never have been and probably never will be, so how on earth can they be allowed to end up in this kind of mess?

As Portsmouth are the closest football club to me geographically, some of my friends and family are Portsmouth fans, and a lot of them are in complete despair, and who could blame them? Portsmouth fans are among the most passionate you could meet. They're trophy count might not rival the likes of Liverpool or Manchester United, but the unequivocal support they give their club certainly would. Do they deserve to be treated in this way by businessmen from foreign shores looking on the club as some sort of cash cow? In a word, NO!


The football powers that be have to take some accountability here. In a recent BBC Sport article it is said the The Football League were 'misled at best' regarding former owner Vladimir Anotonov's finances, but surely it is their job to leave no stone unturned in matters of this nature? Particularly as they had been in exactly the same situation less than twenty four months previously with the same club! The man had been refused a license from the GFSA to operate his bank in this country for not complying to rules and regulations, what more of an indication could you want?


All this said about the sad situations at Glasgow Rangers and Portsmouth, here are some further brief reasons why football needs a complete overhaul; starting at the very top.

• We have a player in Carlos Tevez, who does not come from a wealthy background, sees earning nearly a million pounds a month as being treated like a dog. He feels that bad about these abhorrent working conditions he went on strike.

• We have a governing body, that three months before the second largest tournament England enter, see fit to undermine (rightly or wrongly?) Fabio Capello to the point where he felt he had to resign leaving us without a full-time manager. 

• The custodians of our wonderful game also see fit to make the game a laughing stock, by on one hand banning one player for alleged racist remarks for eight games with little more than hearsay evidence. On the other hand, the England captain is caught on television cameras clearly abusing his England colleagues brother, and God forbid it should interupt his playing season we'll defer the criminal charges until the end of the season. 

• Players that want to retire from international football for one reason or another. David Beckham has it right; as far as he is concerned he will always be available for selection until he retires from the game completely. 

I don't intend to discuss the rights and wrongs of these issues, but all the average fan wants is clarity and consistency throughout the game on every issue. Please governing bodies, get your heads together and sort this mess out. We do not need to be the laughing stock of world football any longer.

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