FA Cup winners in 2008 and finalists in 2010, Portsmouth FC had their seven season run in the English Premier League end with relegation to the Football League Championship at...
Everyday, a football club owner falls into the media's cross hairs for some reason or another.
One of the common gripes is that Owen Owner is a no good corporate raider. Without a doubt, some
investment banks and American executives fit this Barbarians at the Gate caricature
perfectly. We can all thank our lucky stars that Liverpool ran out of town Gillete and Hicks before
administration entered the equation.
How on earth did it come to this again? Two years ago, Portsmouth Football Club became the
poster boys for football's wretched current condition when they became the first Premier League
club to be nudged into administration. For all the heartache that this caused, the club was due to
be getting a clean start with this move a move which, it should be remembered, sealed the club's
fate with regard to relegation from the Premier League in the first place but it has only taken two
years to get back to administration again, and this time the feeling in the air around Fratton Park
has a distinctly fatalistic mood about it.
After a long wait Franck Songo'o has finally been signed. This is a great signing for Portland
as it adds a starter quality wing who is able to get the ball into the box and is unselfish enough
to set up others. All of this bodes well for Boyd, who arrives in Portland next week, who will most
likely be on the receiving end of Songo'o's assists.
Harry Redknapp was found innocent of tax evasion on Wednesday afternoon in London. The court
hearing did not merely determine whether Harry Redknapp was going to find himself imprisoned, or at
the very least fined and reprimanded, for tax evasion but, perhaps just as importantly, whether
Harry Redknapp was still on course for the top job in English football.
The Football is Fixed prediction of a seriously brand damaging scandal within the British game this
year is coming to fruition nicely - not just with Redknapp/Mandaric, Portsmouth FC and Rangers FC
but with the occurrence of both "a betting accident live on tv" and the inappropriate control over
the selection of match officials as well.
We are not responsible for any Kickette-rs' actions that occur while watching Iker Casillas attempt
to contain his emotions during a surprise video tribute at last week's SNT presser.
Saturday
-Â Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric are set to stand trial for tax evasion at Portsmouth FC in
early 2012.
Follwing their relegation from the English Premier League at the end of their 2009/10 season, 2010
FA Cup finalists Portsmouth FC managed a 16th place finish in the English Football League
Championship during their 2010/11 campaign. Currently in 12th place in the Championship after five
matches played, Portsmouth FC has launched its Kappa 2011/12 third [.
After their relegation from the English Premier League at the end of their 2009/10 campaign and
well-publicized financial difficulties, 2010 FA Cup finalists Portsmouth FC managed a 16th place
finish in the English Football League Championship during the 2010/11 season. As Pompey looks
towards next season under new owner Vladimir Antonov and with several internationals in [.
After their relegation from the English Premier League at the end of their 2009/10 campaign and
well-publicized financial difficulties, 2010 FA Cup finalists Portsmouth FC managed a 16th place
finish in the English Football League Championship during the 2010/11 season. As Pompey looks
towards next season under new owner Vladimir Antonov and with several internationals in [.
For Chelsea, money equals trophies. But are we beginning to see the real costs? (Getty
Images/Zimbio)
At first glance, the best thing that ever happened to football (and us) was the EPL. Bringing
regular football to subscription television has directly contributed to a huge influx of fundage
filtering into the game, not just in England but across Europe.
Recall from my earlier post that the 2009-10 Premiership season was unusually rich in goals. The
season came within a whisker of having the most goals ever in the history of the league, and its
1,053 goals and 2.8 goals per match were among the highest ever.
So now that the first matches have been played in this year's EPL season (with the exception of
Monday's Man U - Newcastle matchup), I thought it'd be useful to take a quick look at goal and shot
ratios for 2009-10 to get us up to speed on how teams got there, and what this may hold for
2010-11.
Nothing like getting to a Harrods 50% off shoe sale late, when the hardcores have been at it for
an hour and folks are getting desperate. Part "pin the tail on the donkey", part rodeo, women and
children are no longer guaranteed safety first. You know the drill.
Seeing Portsmouth FC's upcoming season line-up on their website has left us with a sense of
post-sale ennui.
Nothing like getting to a Harrods 50% off shoe sale late, when the hardcores have been at it for
an hour and folks are getting desperate. Part "pin the tail on the donkey", part rodeo, women and
children are no longer guaranteed safety first. You know the drill.
Seeing Portsmouth FC's upcoming season line-up on their website has left us with a sense of
post-sale ennui.
Along with English Premier League sides Bolton, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham,
now English Football League Championship side Portsmouth FC has been on a summer pre-season tour of
North America. Thus far, the financially-ruined and player depleted FA Cup finalists have lost to
Mexico's Club America, beaten part-times Ventura Fusion and tied FC Edmonton.
We investigate two examples of how quick success has crippled clubs financially but on the other
hand by having success and failure rolled into one will reap financial rewards and over a period of
time give success on the pitch.
JANUARY 2010, Portsmouth FC, bottom of the Premier League, already seen five owners come and go
since the start of the campaign, 80 million worth of debt on their back, in trouble with HM
revenues and customs, was it really all worth it?
At Home Park last night, Plymouth Argyle comfortably beat a scratch Portsmouth side made up
largely of youth team players by three goals to nil in the First Round of this years League Cup.
Seldom could such a result have seemed more trivial in comparison with events going on elsewhere at
a football club than they did in Devon last night.
The video above shows a personal message from Portsmouth manager Michael Appleton to fans of the
club. When a club goes into administration, it is usual that all elements of the club pull together
in an effort to save the sporting institution. But this community spirit has not been lost on
Portsmouth's players this week, [.
With Liverpool having hogged the headlines over the last couple of weeks or so, it is easy to
forget that there are other clubs in considerably greater trouble than they are at the moment. In
Scotland, Dundee FC are understood to be on the brink (more on that in the next few days or so)
and, at the other end of the country, it is starting to become that Portsmouth's difficulties
didn't end with their successful court case against HMRC in August.
It would be funny if it didn't make for such desperate viewing. The above image from Portsmouth
FC's official website isn't a playful spin-off of the Guess Who board game, but in fact the entire
contents of Pompey's first team. The League One outfit has haemorrhaged players this summer after
accepting that the club can only [.
Portsmouth FC is probable to have "no choice" but to nigh on10August unless musicians agree to
transferees or wage slices.
HTTP://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image/44936000/gif/_44936203_portsmouth_66x49.gif
When questions about your football club are raised in Westminster and the Prime Minister agrees
that the situation needs investigation then you know you are in a bad way. Not because you might be
investigated but because the Prime Minister actually knows what Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth
North, is talking about.
Is it allowable under FA rules for someone to manage the England team from Ford Open Prison?
The HMR&C campaign against different aspects of football fraud, tax avoidance, money laundering
and, soon, illegal insider betting activity is parallelling along on numerous fronts - Harry
Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, Rangers FC, Portsmouth FC, and other potential routes of investigation
still to be unearthed via Quest and the News of the World scandals etc etc.
Portsmouth FC administrator Andrew Andronikou is still optimistic that creditor Alexandre
Gaydamak, owed more than £2.2m by the club, will cut a deal and thereby prevent Pompey's untimely
demise.
This from PA:
Asked whether the Championship game at Hull would be the club's last, Andronikou told BBC Radio
5 live on Saturday: "I think common sense will prevail and all parties will come to the table this
weekend but it has to be this weekend.
D.C. United may have finished the match with only 9 men, but it was no contest as the Black-and-Red
pummeled a road-weary Pompey 4-0 last night at RFK Stadium.
I think yesterday football sank almost to the lowest I have ever known it. All week we had had
statement after statement from Wayne Rooney and Man United, Rooney wanted to leave and believe me,
he definitely had an offer from the other side of Manchester, his agent would have made sure of
that before drafting his penultimate statement re-affirming his desire to leave.
Portsmouth, bankrupt and relegated from the premier to the third league after two acquisitions by Arab owners with little real interest in the club, is facing the question whether it wishes to give Middle East investors a third chance.
Harry Redknapp is set to face trial for tax evasion on January 23rd alongside former Portsmouth FC
chairman Milan Mandaric. The first charge alleges that between April 1, 2002, and November 28,
2007, Mandaric paid $145,000 into a bank account ... Continue reading →
It was really bad news for football when it was announced yesterday that Portsmouth Football Club
may go out of existence soon. There has been some late disagreement between the Administrator
Andrew Andronikou and one major creditor Alexandre Gaydamak, Â and the statement said that the
future of Portsmouth FC is now in jeopardy.
