Portsmouth Wound up tomorrow wed?

[Gully]

Have to admire the Chester fans protesting, much better than those other fans who just still line the pockets of their owners but buy different coloured scarves

But are they, a lot of them are boycotting home games...which isn't doing much to help a club in a financial mire.

 

[DerbyGull]

Don't know, think it all kicked off when the bus driver demanded payment before leaving their home ground, nobody was in a position to stump up the cash...it appears that the players may have then refused to travel. I was a bit gutted, was looking forward to a Rovers win...had raced home for a bite to eat, lucky I checked the internet to see who was likely to start before heading off to the game...unlike the six Chester fans who turned up, only to be told the bad news!

You should have all gone to Cheltenham

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

You know what, this is a terrible thing to say but I hate that club and wouldnt mind if they went under. I would never want Palace to go out of business being our proper rival but Pompey I couldnt care less. In fact if they go under it massively widens our catchment all the way to the West Sussex/Hampshire border.

Never going to happen though. Same old Admin con. They have got to change the rules so any club that goes into Admin gets instantly relegated to make them think twice about overspending.

It is a terrible thing to say and from a Brighton fan, after all the shit we have had to endure over the years too.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Not looking too bright for Chester City either, apparently their players haven't been paid much recently and declined to travel to tonight's game at Forest Green...the match was postponed at just after 5 o'clock when it became obvious that they couldn't raise a team. I understand that they will have to explain the situation to the Conference and could well be expelled from the league for failure to fulfill a fixture...apparently their players had already intended to try the same tactic a few weeks back, but the games ultimately fell foul of the weather.

Thats the sad thing about all this, Chesters situation has hardly been mentioned in the papers etc, they are in serious trouble and all the attention is focused on Pompey.

I hope no one does, but if a club had to be wound up then i hope its Pompey, not because they are Pompey, but because they are a Premier League team and hopefully that will make the football authorities, clubs and players realise that this current situation can't continue and curbs on wages are urgently required.

It could be just the wake up call that the game needs to end this fantasy football period we are in where clubs are ignoring their long term survival prospects and risking everything for short term gain.

 

[Albion Dan]

It is a terrible thing to say and from a Brighton fan, after all the shit we have had to endure over the years too.

I know, and I said it was a terrible thing to say, but its how I feel. A club needs to go to the wall to fix football and Id be happy if it was them.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Apart from the wages the biggest problem appears to be buying players on the never never and paying in instalments. All the clubs in trouble appear to owe huge amounts to other clubs. This is something that the authorities can easily change. All transfers should be money upfront with further payments only for appearances etc and these sanctioned by the FA.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

portsmouth fans won't really be "losing their club" if they go out of business.......they'll start afresh albeit much lower down the pyramid, so they'll still "have a club", it'll just be playing at a shit level

accrington and aldershot both went out of business, but their fans still had a club and now they're both back in the league

it's a sad situation that football has got itself into, and unfortunately i think that a club folding will be the kick up the arse it needs, and you may start to see some of the clubs who have lived within their means and struggled for years, start to do well

it's sad that it had to come to this, but its fairly necessary for the future of the game imo

 

[Gully]

You should have all gone to Cheltenham

errr...no!

 

[cuthbert]

But i bet AFC Wimbledon fans have had fun watching thier team win promotion after promotion and now on the brink of returning to the FL. It's not all bad.

Good point Aldershot and Accrington did much the same, Aldershot generated a lot of money for Rymans League clubs with their huge (at that level) away following and then Wimbledon did the same. As someone who watches non-league football I would like to see another "big" club start again from the bottom, as long as it's not The Albion.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Avram Grant's moaning last night about football clubs being different from other businesses was pretty disingenuous. They may be different in as much as they can exploit the loyalty of their fans more than some businesses - but not paying your taxes but still going out and buying players/committing to high wages.....that's just negligent (and bloody arrogant).

When you're in the mire you stop digging - there is no reason why HMCR should accept Grant's argument (such as it is) and I suspect they won't this time.

To cap it all they had that irresponsible chanced Redknapp on the news yesterday talking about how they deserve to get out of it. It all stinks and at some point the Prem clubs need to realise they are not immune. I just hope Portsmouth don't go out of business for the fans - but maybe bumping down a few leagues would help with the reality.

 

[Mendoza]

In theory today two clubs could go out of business, all for the sum of £10million - which is about the monthly wage of the England team. Do people like John Terry, Ashley Cole, Rio etc care?? I bet they dont, but I guess they shouldnt need too. But they must be slightly embarressed as they pick up their wage packet and do stupid things to give the press ammo

 

[Simster]

That is all.

 

[little al]

Pompey fans aren't the most endearing of people, but they don't deserve their club to go to the wall. Good luck to them today.

 

[Brovion]

It is a terrible thing to say and from a Brighton fan, after all the shit we have had to endure over the years too.

It needs saying though and I agree with him. And, like you say, we ENDURED the shit. We didn't try (too much) to spend money we didn't have in order to maintain a too-high league position - despite many calls on here for Knight to 'open his chequebook'.

Football needs a big club to go bust and re-form, preferably several. Not llittle, insignificant ones like Aldershot, Accrington, Chester or even Brighton, but a decent-sized one like Portsmouth. I truly believe it's the 'least worse' option for football in general as the financial problems aren't going to solve themselves.

 

[Zebedee]

Pompey fans aren't the most endearing of people, but they don't deserve their club to go to the wall. Good luck to them today.

I'll echo that.

 

[pasty]

Not looking good. Breaking news on SSN "Inland Revenue reject cash offer from Portsmouth"

 

[hans kraay fan club]

ooops.

And frankly, why wouldn't the IR reject it? If I'm supposed to pay £600 in tax each month, I don't ring the tax office and say "Tell, you what, I'll offer you £200 cash".

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Squeaky bum time in Portsmouth!

 

[Napper]

Inbreds, wind them up !!!!!!

will be adjourned though I'm sure


on a side note, 16,242 crowd last night and away end looked like had good 1500. What passion for what could be there last ever game

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Not looking good. Breaking news on SSN "Inland Revenue reject cash offer from Portsmouth"

Quite right too and 10/10 for HMRC, it was never Pompey's money in the first place.

Perhaps if the Premier League had used to withheld TV cash to pay off HMRC instead of the other football clubs...........................