Portsmouth paying heavy price for FA Cup win

SOCCER ANGLES: A plan is in the making to get clubs to advance Portsmouth €12.6 million so they can go into administration, play out the season and not skew the league so obviously

PORTSMOUTH JUST won’t go away, will they? Not as an issue, not as an example of the perils of gross financial mismanagement and overstretched, under-checked short-term ambition. Not as a cause for head-shaking.

But they may go away in another sense. It is hard to believe that in 2010, 18 years after the land-grab foundation of the Premier League, which is on the verge of a massive overseas TV deal, that one of its 20 members, and the winners of the FA Cup just two years ago, can not just be placed in administration but can be liquidated.

But that is where we are.

It is 15 years since Alan Sugar, then Tottenham owner, aimed his “Carlos Kickaball” accusation at Jürgen Klinsmann over the German striker’s desire to earn bigger wages at Bayern Munich, but while the term has hung around, its meaning and its implications were left on the shelf.

As a former Portsmouth player said on Radio 5 recently, it was known within the game that Sol Campbell’s salary on joining Portsmouth in 2006 – one month before his 32nd birthday – was €120,000 per week. The average attendance at Fratton Park in Campbell’s first season was 19,862. Those two figures belong on different graphs. At different clubs.

Campbell did his job. Having finished one place above relegation the season before, Portsmouth came ninth. They beat Manchester United and Liverpool. Soon Campbell would be joined by Jermaine Defoe, Niko Kranjcar and Sylvain Distin, among others.

It seems reasonable to speculate that that quartet alone commanded wages of €345,000 per week, 52 weeks a year, at club with an average attendance below 20,000, who had 19 guaranteed home games.

Because there was a Russian multi-millionaire’s name above the door, Alexandre Gaydamak, no one at Premier League HQ appeared to question these economics.

And the thing is, no one there has the legal power to do so. Providing Gaydamak could prove his wealth, which he could, the Premier League was and remains hamstrung. They were not to know that Gaydamak would suddenly withdraw his investment. But this is the free market. As in other walks of life, deregulation is the key.

What we can do without is the self-satisfaction. The chief executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, yesterday referred to it as “my league” while discussing foreign rights. Scudamore is of the belief that the scale of television deals prove the Premier League to be the biggest and the best in the world and he was generally typically positive about the situation as a whole. He has an argument.

But where do Portsmouth fit in that? The club, founded in 1898, were in the High Court in London on Wednesday over €14 million of unpaid taxes. They were given a week’s stay of execution.

Realistically they have three options: go into administration, thereby accepting a nine-point deduction and automatic relegation; liquidation, meaning the end of the club, the sale of all its assets and the cancellation of all contracts; or hope for a saviour.

Options one and two are the bookmakers’ favourites. Liquidation sounds drastic – it is – but it is clearly a possibility.

Thursday’s newspapers produced a 19-club Premier League table to show the effects of Portsmouth’s liquidation. All the club’s results would be void and so those teams who have beaten Portsmouth this season would suffer a three-point deduction. Arsenal, Fulham, City and United, who have beaten them twice, would lose six points. Alarmingly for West Ham and their new owners, they would drop from 14th to 19th.

Then take Burnley and Hull. At the moment Burnley are third-bottom on 23 points, Hull one place and one point above them. If Portsmouth go into liquidation those placings are reversed. Think of the implications, think of the finances, think of the law suits.

It is an embarrassing position for the greatest league to be in. So a plan is in the making to get the clubs to advance Portsmouth €12.6 million so that they can go into administration, play out the season and not skew the league so obviously.

However, if Hull City say yes to this plan before administration, and Portsmouth then overtake them on the run-in, Hull might feel a bit foolish. It is therefore hard to believe they, for one, will vote in favour of the plan before the next court case.

But if Portsmouth were to take their points deduction and go into administration – thus accepting relegation – then the clubs would probably vote to give them €12.6 million as an up-front instalment on revenue due later in the year. Portsmouth would go out of the Premier League but not out of existence.

There could still be moaning. Portsmouth being reduced to seven points would surely obliterate collective if not individual motivation.

So it could be argued that the table would still be skewed: Burnley host Portsmouth in a fortnight, Hull go to Fratton Park next month. Wolves’ penultimate game of the season is at Portsmouth. You can imagine the clamour should there be even one duff performance from Portsmouth in the run-in.

Ordinarily the fact that Portsmouth have a local derby today against Southampton would be enough reason to focus on them. It is, moreover, in the FA Cup.

Portsmouth fans, however, may not wish to mention the Cup for much longer.

Effectively they bought it in 2008 on unfair terms over more prudent rivals. They got some great days out, which must have upset those rivals who would also have liked them.

Who’s sorry now?

Ridsdale runs into more trouble

IT IS one of those amazing coincidences that the club Portsmouth defeated at Wembley, Cardiff City, were also in court this week to discuss their finances. We’ve had the White Horse final: this must have been the white elephant final.

Cardiff also owe the government taxes. That the club is run by Peter Ridsdale of Leeds United infamy is another of those causes for consternation. How do they get away with it?

Ridsdale will say he has done nothing but good in south Wales and has overseen the move from Ninian Park to what by all accounts is a fine stadium. Cardiff also possess a revamped training ground.

Providing they do not go into administration, there is a chance Cardiff will be promoted to the Premier League.

Considering they have sold Aaron Ramsey, Chris Gunter, Cameron Jerome, Roger Johnson, James Collins and others over the past three years, manager Dave Jones is doing some job.

Cardiff, too, are still in the FA Cup. They go to Stamford Bridge this lunchtime.

Superficially, Cardiff look in good shape. As with Portsmouth, it’s when you see the books you discover the truth.