You are tearing us apart, debt!

Erik Huseklepp to Birmingham, Liam Lawrence to Cardiff, Stephen Henderson to West Ham, and now Hayden Mullins to Reading. Despite a resilient spirit, our Pompey team is being torn limb from limb, and now we lay desolate in the gutters of the Championship. We now have the choice - we can try to get up and fight our tormentor once more in what will almost certainly be a vain bid for glory. Or, we can cut our losses and plan a life away from this monstrosity.

The befuddling metaphor above (and I'm not trying to be condescending when I refer to it as befuddling; I don't really understand it) regard's what I see as Pompey's choice now. We are faced with a pretty dire situation - Pompey sit eight points adrift of safety and are being broken up into pieces by an administrator who is, surprisingly, doing his job effectively. We must now decide whether we shall continue to battle against relegation, or admit defeat and concentrate all efforts into keeping the club alive.

At the moment it seems we are hedging our bets a little, and that's not the right way to go about it. What started as a squad capable of dealing with the ten points deduction is being whittled down into a demoralised mess. However, loans are still being brought into the side (albeit they are probably wage-free) and some of the club's major earners continue to play for the team. It's difficult to speculate on what measures may have been taken to remove some of these players, but if we were truly concentrating on financial survival, every single one should have been attempted.

It may be that we are doing our best to tick both boxes. Whilst steps are being made towards saving the club, the administrator may not want to take truly radical approaches to the situation in the interests of the footballing aspect of the team. However the time for radical steps is now, and while I can see the argument for both a gun-ho bid for survival financially, and a fully concerted effort to keep the club in the division, I cannot see how it is beneficial to try and do both.

Let us first consider survival in the league. Probably a less desirable option with regards to the short-term future of the club, one could still argue that the money drawn in from being in the second tier of the football league would justify not loaning out key members of the squad. Increased attendances and advertising revenue could all be considered as vital for the future of the club, so relegation could possibly be seen as a bigger disaster financially than continuing to pay the wages of the players.

On the other hand, there is the option to make every possible decision that will benefit the club financially. Firstly, this should involve the attempt to sell each and every player on the club's books. If this is unsuccessful, then each player should be given the option to either play for free, or to dissolve their contract with immediate effect (for free) and pursue their playing career at other clubs. If all that fails, then the club may even resort to a simple refusal to pay their players. This could lead to legal battles, but one would question whether or not a former player of Pompey would feel comfortable filing a legal suit that would potentially see the death of the club.

In place of the broken squad should go the youth team, or even local players (or just fans - I'd fancy myself to score more than Dave Kitson at the moment) who are willing to play for the club for free. While this measure would inevitably lead to relegation (and possibly lower attendances, although the novelty of having a completely inexperienced team on the field might be a draw to begin with), it would make every possible step to ensure the club's survival. If it was successful, then the club could try and build themselves up from League One, and that wouldn't be a disaster. We've seen teams like Leeds, Norwich, Leicester and even... them come out of the third tier looking a lot healthier.

Personally, I think our decision has already been made. We're too far off of 21st place, too many players have gone and it would be far too much of a risk to put a real push into staying up this year. We must now sacrifice the rest of this season in a last ditch attempt to keep the club alive. It may not work, but we don't want to be ruing the fact that we kept players on the books for an unsuccessful shot at keeping the team in the league.

I've done this post in about a half-an-hour (I'm between lectures), so I'm not really sure if my sentiments are coherent on this one (I say that like I'm normally sure, but that's far from true). However, my general feeling is that I can accept League One. I can accept some awful performances and scorelines for the rest of the season. I can even tolerate a bit of embarrassment on April 7th. If there's even a thread of hope that we can keep the club in business, then I think it only makes sense to begrudgingly pull out all the stops to make it happen.

Survival Instincs

Winding-Up orders. Administration. Points deductions. Players being sold. HMRC. Non-existence. Kelvin Etuhu.

Just a number of things Portsmouth Football club has been threatened with over the past few weeks. It's been a frustrating, confusing and difficult time for anybody associated with the club, and I think everyone has been embittered so many times that they're starting to wonder if a fresh start would be the best option. Even if it meant a throw down to the lower divisions and a long steady rise back up, perhaps this would be Portsmouth most desirable ticket out of the dirge.

I have tried hard to gather my thoughts on this. I've begun following a myriad of excellent Portsmouth blogs that keep track of the situation tremendously well. I could never offer a summation as good as those that I have seen, but my pure feeling on the matter resides with my survival instincts. I want us to survive, by any means possible, and for that I defend my club when the case is perhaps indefensible.

As a business, there's little denying that Portsmouth Football Club is lucky to still be running, and seems to be heading inevitably towards a timely demise. They owe HMRC another £1.6m, and there are suggestions that the club are not running profitably enough to pay off their existing CVA. Any other company operating under such circumstances would be seen as a complete black hole and promptly shut down.

However, I want to call back to my recent article 'Death of a Football Club' (referring to Darlington). In it, I argued that football clubs aren't businesses. If you think they are, you aren't a football fan - sorry (I hope I didn't break that news to you harshly). A football club the size of Portsmouth is a necessity to the sport. You have a sizable fanbase of paying customers that will be totally disillusioned with the game if the club ceases to exist. You have an institute of footballing history that, should it be destroyed, would pose a permanent and serious question about the state of English football (consider that a club which won the FA Cup in 2008 should not exist four years later - what sort of thing would that suggest).

It could also capture the intrigue of investors. If they see a club with the potential profitability of Portsmouth Football Club going out of business, they may begin to think twice about plugging millions into the game. I think it will take a bigger domino to tumble in order for the big investors to pull out of football, but I'm certain Pompey's death will be worth more than just a glance from the men with the money.

All this is really saying is that there's many entities, some simply supporters and others major organisations in the sport, that will take a heavy blow from Pompey ceasing to be. You can argue that Portsmouth have to be taught a lesson and an example should be set for other clubs, but I must stress that these 'retribution' arguments get aimed at the wrong people. If Portsmouth Football Club dies, it's not the owners who turned Pompey into a financial catastrophe that will suffer. It's the fans. It's not the chief executives that allowed gross overspending who will bear the brunt of Pompey's demise. It'll be the employees of the club.

Of course FIFA and the FA need to make it as clear as a greenhouse that clubs have to operate in a financially stable manner. This is presumably what points deductions are for. However, I don't think a club folding teaches anyone anything, other than if you end up with the wrong owners, hard luck, that's the end of your football team.

This will all probably look self-centred and unreasonable to anyone who isn't a Portsmouth fan, but you must consider your own ties and passions to a football club. You will defend to the death that they are worthy of a place in existence, regardless of their previous actions and financial woes. I'm no different. There may even be some ridiculous people claiming that it's the fans fault in the first place. I'm not even joking there, I've been on websites where people have retorted "Well, you never protested when you were winning the FA Cup, so I have no sympathy for the fans. Let the club die."

Right. Two problems with that. 1. Nobody asked for your sympathy. 2. What the hell kind of fanbase would be protesting having just won the FA Cup? Nobody could have possibly known that Pompey were travelling headlong into disaster at that point. After all, practically every Premier League club was living beyond its means. The only difference with us was that Gaydamak's debts got called in, and that's when everything turned sour. I don't think you can blame fans purely on the fact that they aren't Nostradamuses and weren't able to fortell that there was a tremendous mismanagement occurring.

That's just a minor section of fans who have never had to worry about so much as a relegation fight though. When you go through these motions, not only do you appreciate the football itself more, but you realise that the strength and loyalty of a fanbase makes little difference in these situations. The problem is, and always has been, that fans have little control over the owners of their club. The only protection they have from their club being taken over by a nutcase is the FA's Fit and Proper Persons' Test. I'll allow you to consider whether or not you think this has been effective, but if you aren't sure here's a hint: We've had four sets of owners in a row who have allowed the financial chaos at Portsmouth Football Club to grow.

But yeah, I guess that's the fans' fault.

Death of a Football Club

Why nobody wins when a club closes its doors.

Over the past couple of weeks, Darlington Football Club has limped and stammered around having received a stab to the heart through administration. Upsettingly, it seems that time has run out and The Quakers are rushing headlong into the hard, cold dustbin of non-existence.

You may be saying “So what?” (in your head). Well that’s very despicable of you (even though you only thought it). Any football club going out of business is a depressing event, and I’d argue that the story becomes even more harrowing when it’s a smaller club involved. All I imagine during an event like this is the 65-year old lifelong supporter who has had the same seat for 40 seasons and harboured dreams of seeing the club in the FA Cup Final. It’s alright if a team had that moment, but for a club like Darlington they never enjoyed the grand day out I’m sure many of their supporters dreamed about. When a club that never reaches its ambitions is obliterated, you can’t help but feel people’s hopes ended up wasted.

There’s nothing to smile about when a club goes out of business, even if said club happens to be your nearest and most reviled rivals. Jobs are lost, years of footballing history are blown away like dust, fans end up feeling betrayed and disillusioned with the sport in general and everyone involved with the team is just generally unhappy. Even through a competitive eye, outliving a club is nowhere near as satisfying as actually beating it. It’s like being the victor of a boxing match because your opponent suffered a fatal heart attack as he climbed into the ring – it’s not a good spectacle, it’s not an enjoyable victory and it leaves fans baying for blood.

It is perhaps an inevitability that in the economic struggles this unlucky generation suffers, a team in the Conference that has a 25,000 capacity stadium and only fills 8% of it is destined for bankruptcy. The more unshaken of you may argue that a football club has to operate like any other business, and if it lives beyond its means or dives into financial catastrophe it should be left to deal with the consequences. However, if you believe that football clubs are simply a business, then I’m sorry, but you really are missing out on the true beauty of the game.

Football clubs are an endless amount more than just a business. They are a community. After all, what other business would you keep returning to over and over again despite the fact that they eternally disappoint you? What other business would you indoctrinate your own children to support from birth? What other business would you give decades of faith towards in the hope that things will get better? What other business would be content with you turning up and bellowing offensive songs? Certainly not Posh Windows and Conservatories or anything like that, anyway.

I believe this sort of attitude is most common in those who have never seen their club face the abyss and yelped in terror over the prospect of their team being destroyed. Nothing in football is worse than the utter helplessness you feel when your team is constantly undergoing the threat of liquidation. You, as a fan, have done nothing wrong and yet it’s you who bears the brunt of the mistakes that emanate from the board. Nevertheless, people tell you that the fanbase doesn’t deserve sympathy because “you enjoyed the good times”, which is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

In truth, football should be united when events like this occur. We should all pull together and keep teams from going under, because in the end it will be hugely beneficial to the sport. Fans would feel reinvigorated by the justice of their team being kept alive, new life would be exhaled into grass-roots football, and people would continue to attend matches as a result. I mean, just imagine if Manchester City donated enough money to save Darlington Football Club. It would cost barely a fraction of their routine transfers, and yet Man City would be seen by many as a hugely positive force in football.

It’s not fair to throw the obligation upon them. Really, it should be the FAs job to prevent things like this from happening through the ‘stringent’ examinations of the Fit and Proper Persons’ test and the division of prize money across competitions. The point is, though, that there’s enough money in football today to keep a club like Darlington in business, for the good of their fans. Whether or not you want to set a precedent is irrelevant, when a club goes bye-byes, it is the local area, the fans and the employees of the club that suffer. Not the owners.

Stop! We Want To Get Off!

Ahh, for a moment I thought we’d reached stability. Reassuringly, it’s today been revealed that Portsmouth’s parent company CSI has been declared insolvent and has gone into administration. Thank Christ, I thought we’d found someone who was fit to provide boring financial security.

The implications for this afternoon’s revelation are unclear. Whilst Portsmouth themselves are ‘not in administration’, the only funds we can be definite about are for the very non-specific ‘short-term’. That could be the next three days for all we know, so the situation could again be absolutely dire. This seems especially likely when you consider the very downbeat tone of the club's official statement.

On top of that, the FA may well be docking Portsmouth points, as their rules indicate that the insolvency of parent companies can lead to the penalties of the club. Already in a relegation fight, this would be a sturdy iron blow to an already depleted and somewhat deflated squad, and one that our money troubles will only exacerbate.

Supporters can only ask how this has happened again. Since their FA Cup triumph in 2008, Portsmouth have been passing through fiscal travesties relentlessly, and every ‘new horizon’ has proved to be further murky waters ready and willing to suck the club into the mire and drown it.

Sacha Gaydamak, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, Ali Al-Faraj and now Vladimir Antonov have all proven to be walking (yet sometimes invisible) disasters for the club. It beggars belief really. The FA’s ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test seems to be a completely phantom process. If it had any sort of effectiveness, at least one of the above names would have been prevented from running the club.

It truly is a disgrace. Sorry, but I’m going to keep this point going. The FA has the balls to threaten clubs with the deduction of points if their owners or parent companies go into administration, and yet can’t be arsed when it comes to actually preventing these people from being involved in football in the first place. The consequences of that are now subject of a beautiful summation at Portsmouth.

Worst could come to worst here. With the club statement itself projecting a gloomy outlook on the future, a grim pessimism is possibly the wisest prediction. If Portsmouth Football Club - champions of England in 1949 and 1950, and winners of the FA Cup in 1939 and 2008 – go out of business, then the FA have tragically failed at maintaining an iconic part of the English football picture.

Being a Pompey fan has been a difficult experience over the past three seasons. It’s been a stream of terms that no football supporter likes to hear: ‘insolvency’, ‘administration’, ‘the end is nigh’, ‘Carl Dickinson’. Really, all I want is to get out of this tedious and potentially fatal roundabout, and it’s clear we need help with that from a governing body. We need someone to put us directly in the hands of someone who is interested in the team and wants to provide financial composure.

I hold out hope things will get better, as I always do, but Pompey fans have been punched into the ground so often that it’s no longer easy to conjure up the spirit that embodied our terrific fanbase. One possible subdued ray of light could come in the form of Balram Chainrai. Perhaps the only man in the last five years who offered any degree of steadiness in his time as owner, Balram will presumably be owed money by Portsmouth still, and may be able to assume control of the club. He was never particularly bothered by the club, but he did keep us alive and we have to give him credit for that.

Again though, it’s complicated and we can’t know for sure that he’ll come to our rescue again. All we can be certain of is that, once more, we need a miracle.