Posted on 26th February 2010
Derby County’s administrators have been given an extra month to provide proof of how the Championship club will be funded for the rest of the season.
Pompey go into administration
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Since the Premier League’s formation there have been 53 ‘insolvency events’ – we now see the 54th and the first to take place in the top-flight. Fans shouldn’t be fooled though, over the past two decades many clubs have fallen into financial ruin as a result of reaching for the stars and falling short.
Relegation from the Premier League can all too easily lead to collapse as fans of the likes of Bradford, Leeds and many more can testify.
There is no doubt that the imbalance of wealth between the Premier League and Football League has wreaked havoc upon our national sport.
Portsmouth’s case yet again shows the inadequacy of the Fit and Proper Person test and is a failure by the Premier League and FA to ensure owners have real and sustainable funds.
We welcome the Premier League’s new, tighter regulations around finance and ownership but they simply don’t go far enough and, in Pompey’s case, it’s locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Most fans will find it extraordinary that clubs have managed to get themselves into this situation during a time when football has never been richer.
Top-flight clubs receive billions via TV deals alone, how do they end up in administration? Which other industry has such passionate ‘customers’ willing to part with fortunes so easily and yet gets itself into this predicament?
If you ran your household budget like this, it wouldn’t be long before you didn’t have a roof over your head.
The financial mismanagement of some of our clubs is astounding.
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