Sunday 16 May 2010

Pay up Pompey

I posted this on Matt Slater's blog:

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Portsmouth fans want to enjoy good results, like the FA cup win a couple of years ago, and disclaim all responsibility for the financial misdeeds that financed those results. But the two go together.

The proper thing for a fan to do is to withdraw support from a team that has stolen its success. Yes, I know that a true fan can't switch allegiance. But imagine if your wife stole large sums of money. Would you applaud her as she paraded the bling she'd bought with it? I disagree with Matt and everyone else who wished Portsmouth all the best for the FA Cup Final. They deserved to lose.

The PL and the FL need to take responsibility too. The priorities should be to stop leveraged buyouts and to stop uncontrolled debts to HMRC. So there should be a rule to stop any team starting a season in the leagues with debts above a certain proportion of their turnover. And a rule to stop any team starting a season in the leagues owing payments to HMRC that are more than 3 months overdue. There would have to be an exception to the first rule allowing teams with large pre-existing debts to continue, subject to a stringent agreed schedule of repayments.

The leagues were quick enough to bring in the rule about footballing creditors. So why are they sitting on their hands regarding the other financial problems hurting football?

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