Its not just a big day in the High Court for Portsmouth but also the whole of football.
I used to work for/with a bloke who just couldn’t bring himself to accept other points of view (he was a Tory and a pompous geete after all) and would utter the words “we are where we are” to announce a combination of his displeasure and lack of patience. Those words are actually very apt for football today as lots of significant things begin to happen, some hopefully for the better of the game. Starting with this sites mainstay Leeds United where yesterdays decision of the Football League to tie up its transparency rules with the Premier League leaves the secret owners, Mr Bates and his cohorts with a dilemma. They seemed to have pre-empted things by issuing a statement that made no sense what so ever (see here: http://clarkeonenil.co.uk/front-page/contributions-on-the-leeds-united-quagmire/leeds-united-explain-this-in-english-win-beer/) and of course being the manipulating people they are have co-operated with this: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Leeds-United-Selling-the-Whites.6456514.jp to ensure a positive spin on things. What do you think the chances of the club claiming in 2011-12 no one person owns more than 9.9% of the club are…yes very, very high.
Meanwhile in the circus that is Portsmouth FC the High Court has to decide today whether to turn a blind eye to a massive tax fraud or to just let the person who put the club into administration just take it back all things forgotten. To me its a scandal already that Portsmouth won’t start the season on at least -15 points and its a bad reflection on the PL, the FL and the FA that it will take a Judge to protect decency and the public purse. We will know by this afternoon, one thing is for sure, if the whining about going under if the CVA is stopped persuades the Judge then their is no prospect of effective governance of the English game for a significant time to come.
Our next regular in this column is Ron Martin and the Jamie Oliver club of Southend United. One can only marvel at how a Chairman of a football club can make it a positive that it has been effectively taken over by Sainsbury’s, that it took numerous trips to the High Court to pay off HMRC debts and even though they still have another winding-up order next week they trumpet all this. Then it gets worse, because despite all this and two relegation’s in 4 years the local Supporters Trust spends its time praising Ron Martin! Sometimes maybe some supporters get what they deserve; enjoy your trip the Chelmsford City next season!
Whilst the Essex boys spend 12 years dreaming about a new stadium at least Cardiff City have one. What they don’t seem to have however is stable financial arrangements in the post Ridsdale world. Despite being owned (allegedly) by a multi-billionaire from Malaysia the club seems to still lurch from week to week. A transfer embargo remains in place, the PFA step in to pay ex players, the whole place stinks of a second Pompay, which would be nice. The more that comes out from South Wales the more it seems that a certain ex Chairman invested the house on promotion last season and came up short. Administration before Xmas is a certain.
To be fair to Cardiff, they will most certainly get to administration behind Hull City who quite frankly don’t have a pray and don’t deserve an ounce of sympathy. The wage bill they carry from the bloated squad of relegation that Brown put together can’t be wished away. Bullard hasn’t gone, Barmby is staying, Fagan won’t be shifting his overpaid lump out, its going to be carnage at the KC very soon. The two Pearson’s have a job on their hands just staying in the division this season, the harsh truth of Hull being a Rugby League town first and foremost looks like returning.
But for all the casualty’s of the next few weeks they will be the lucky escapes and the biggest symbal of that will be Liverpool. Their will be something teeth-grating about a club that burden’s itself with debt and then gets bailed out by another passing billionaire with sporting business backgrounds. Whilst I wouldn’t begrudge Roy Hodgson some stability what I would not want to see is Liverpool returning to the top 4 of the PL and thus joining unsustainable Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City in that permanent circle mind-boggling expense and income. Every football fan in the country from outside that 4 should support Arsenal to ensure English Football has at least one decently run club in its CL locker.
Michael Green.
