Fratton Park could be permanently empty after Feb 10th.
Poor old Portsmouth, what a mess. You would think that being bottom of the table and getting stuffed at home by Arsenal yesterday was bad enough right? Well think again, the Fratton farce of finance continues as Pompey are broke.
Portsmouth owe the tax-man 5.5 million quid and if they don’t find it by February then a winding up order will be placed on the club ending over 110 years of history. So how will they find the cash? They sell their best players in January, that’s how.
The trap door was half open but the re-opening of the transfer window will see it gaping below the south coast club, waiting patiently to swallow them into the competitive misery that is the Coca Cola Championship.
Relegation and money troubles are hard enough for fans to understand but the boardroom bull-sh*t behind the scenes resembles all the makings of a good Mel Brooks film. How on earth did Portsmouth fall into the hands of Ali Al-Faraj and his imbecilic friends?
Over the years the FA have crowed about ‘club ownership’ and lauded their ‘fit and proper test’ as the way to guarantee situations like the one at Portsmouth didn’t happen. So how did they FA allow Ali Al-Faraj to swindle his way into a club he could not afford to run? A club living well beyond its means then and now. Mind blowing.
The club has changed owners twice this year alone, players have not been paid and the product on the pitch is set to see Pompey drop back to the second tier. To suggest ‘mismanagement’ would be kind. Its an absolute mess of moronic, ego driven stupidity.
First of all Sulaiman Al-Fahim bought the club and could not afford it, so then he sold it to oil baron Ali al-Faraj, who is supposed to have some money, but clearly does not. The FA allowed dead beats to buy Portsmouth not once but TWICE, in the space of TWO months!
At the time, the new chap declared he would free up some money for Paul Hart to spend on new players. Well Hart was sacked and instead of buying new players in January, Portsmouth FC will be flogging as many as they can to pay a tax bill of 5.5 million that an oil baron cannot afford.
Sorry Portsmouth fans, kiss goodbye to David James, Younes Kaboul, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Nadir Belhadj, Angelos Basinas, Steve Finnan and Michael Brown, you have been jobbed by con men, wannabe Premier League owners who have used your club as a toy for a quick sale and profit. Well, forget that idea Mr. Faraj, you now have a worthless turkey on your hands and one that will soon be plying its trade in the Colaship, sans stars, sans TV money and sans you hopefully.
The Premier League are now involved and Chief Exec Richard Scudamore met with Mr. Faraj last night to find out what is going on. All the meetings in the world wont make HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) go away, they want their cash and Pompey are just another troubled business to them.
HMRC have already delayed the payment by 6 months but come February the 10th they are unlikely to do so again. Just 18 months ago Portsmouth were lifting the FA cup at Wembley under Harry Redknapp with players like Diarra, Defoe, Crouch, Kranjcar, Distin and Glen Johnson on the books. Johnson alone was sold for 19 million pounds. Millions and millions in received transfer fees have disappeared and now Portsmouth face bankruptcy. Very Sad indeed.
What else do they need to do at this point to get docked points? The FA is more poorly run than a guy with no legs.
I wonder if Arsenal will go after Younes Kaboul…..he’ll be pretty cheap and possibly better than Silveste…..which doesn’t say much
@Wacman: He was a bust at Spurs, no? However, Arsene has shown a penchant for picking up players who emerge from the Auxerre academy, most notably Sagna. Kaboul and Sagna played together at AJA for two seasons, so Wenger may look for adaptability and understanding on the backline (which has been embarrassingly absent at times this season).