Reuters Soccer Blog

Portsmouth have a chance to come back fighting fit

Every football fan should be delighted that Portsmouth Football Club are all set to go into administration on Friday — for all the right reasons.

Anything that will save Portsmouth from a High Court appearance when they face being wound-up by the British taxman, should be welcomed by fans not only of Portsmouth, but of every other club.

Of course, going into administration is not exactly the most desirable thing for any business, football club or otherwise, to have to endure.

But if it means Portsmouth survive, then it is by far the lesser of two evils and must be relatively speaking, welcomed.

It has been well documented how Portsmouth’s various owners have contributed to the club’s downfall. Yes, they “lived the dream” and paid unrealistic wages based on their income streams. Yes, they were unlucky in being hit by the global financial crisis.

But … we all know that while professional football clubs are in fact businesses, they are not businesses like a supermarket or a factory that makes cuddly toys.

Portsmouth’s woes unlikely to slow Premier League’s journey to oblivion

There is something of the boy who cried wolf about Portsmouth’s appearance in the High Court this week as fans were warned that the 112-year old club was within hours of going out of business.

In the last 20 years or so literally dozens of English league clubs have gone into administration, some more than once, but how many have actually folded?

A few points docked here, a new holding company set up there and within no time the same “club” with the same players are still doing their thing in the same stadium.

And even those that have disappeard since the Second World War – Accrington Stanley, Aldershot and Maidstone – resurrected themselves down the line and after moving through the minor leagues, are now back plying their trade in the professional league or high in the pyramid.

Portsmouth will be back in court next month when they will have to prove that they can come up with some quick money to satisfy Revenue and Customs officials who say the club owes around 12 million pounds in various unpaid taxes.

Many leading names in and around the game have expressed shock that a Premier League club, FA Cup winners less than two years ago and on the receiving end of countless millions of pounds of TV money, could get into such a mess.

West Ham shock as Englishmen buy Premier League club!

Londoners David Sullivan and David Gold have bucked a growing trend in England’s Premier League by taking control of 50 percent of West Ham United.

It returned a club steeped in the tradition of the English game to home ownership after an ill-fated three years of foreign control that has left the club deep in debt.

While West Ham are still half-owned by Icelandic bank Straumur, Sullivan and Gold are confident they can attract local investors to help the club back on its feet and in the words of Sullivan “return it to the fans”.

It will be music to the ears of detractors, who have watched half of the Premier League’s clubs sold to overseas owners — a state of affairs that has been criticised by UEFA President Michel Platini.

One only has to look at the mess at Portsmouth and the debts carried by American-owned Manchester United and Liverpool to see that Platini has a point.

Sullivan and Gold, who ran a reasonably tight ship at Birmingham City for 16 years, re-building the club before selling to Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung last year, face a huge challenge at West Ham.

But far from promising instant miracles and fancy signings, they are determined to stabilise the club on and off the field and then eventually move to London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium which they believe would allow them to offer tickets that local fans can actually afford.

Argentine fans cry foul over season delay

In Argentina, where footballing great Diego Maradona is worshipped in his own church, everyone is asking the same question: What will it take to get the ball rolling again?

Fans are angst-ridden over the delay of the season as bad management and the global slowdown leave the country’s world-famous clubs unable to pay players and heavily in debt.

“It makes you mad,” said Nicolas Luca, a Boca Juniors fan who toured the club’s stadium last week. “Everyone’s waiting to see if it starts. Soccer is more than a passion here.”