Portsmouth Football Club have been hit with yet another punch as the threat of administration
looms – with manager Michael Appleton stating he is ‘ready for a points deduction.'
But is a points deduction really fair on Portsmouth Football Club?
Pompey's recent dogged luck has been created by individuals who were inadequate to run the football
club and a controversial system in which they were appointed: the so called Fit and Proper Person's
Test.
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.
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, has said in court that he believes he is being
victimised because of his cockney accent (an accent peculiar to those from London). The cockney
accent in British culture has long been associated with deviant behaviour, much like in New York an
Italian might be stereotyped as being part of the mafia simply on the basis of the person being
Italian.
Redknapp is to face trial accused of tax evasion relating to his time as manager of Portsmouth
Football Club. The trial is due to start Monday 23rd January, and is likely to last for two weeks.
Two payments totalling $295,000 (about £183,000) were allegedly made by Mr Mandaric to a Monaco
bank account opened by Mr Redknapp, apparently linked to a bonus scheme where Redknapp was given a
small percentage of any profits from transfers.
Its a form of 'Pass the Parcel'. A crowd of Russian, Israeli, Hungarian, Hong Kong and even
British businessmen sit in a darkened room and spin poor old Pompey around until it ends up in the
hands of one or more of them. The holder then has to keep it going until he finds an exit strategy.
Then it goes back on the table with the same players and gets spun around again.
In what could take him out of the running for the England manager job, Tottenham Hotspur boss
Harry Redknapp will face trial for tax evasion next year.
Redknapp is accused of two counts of cheating the public revenue between specific dates in 2002
and 2007 when he was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.
