This dude may need to call '1-800-DEEP-SH*T' for help
If it’s Tuesday, it must be financial disclosure time. From last week’s doom and gloom from Hull (the curse of the Orange lives on) to Southend saving their tight bum, to the Bombshell that is the Portsmouth Debt Mountasin is unveiled. We can call this the Good, Bad, and WTF edition of Football is a Beautiful Business.
The Good: Southend Southend has avoided administration by paying the £400,000 unpaid tax bill, which was on top of the £2.1m tax bill they paid in November. Can’t they give a guy a break? Looks like supermarket machine Sainsbury is once again playing SugarDaddy for the team, with ideas on their pitch. It’s a small consolation as it looks like they are dropping into League Two.
The Bad: Hull Hull City is crying doom and gloom by claiming relegation will ruin the team. You can insert all the tanning spray jokes here, but they are losing £500,000 a month, and have wage bills. In the three years that Paul Duffen was in charge, they have gone from being debt free and a 4m wage bill to being in massive debt with transfer payments, taxes, and notes. Sounds like they made it to the EPL and got sucked into over reaching (“go ahead, the first overpriced striker is free”), and are now paying the piper. Pompey 2.0 as we may end up calling it.
The Ugly: Portsmouth I guess it was only a matter of time before the bill for the entire party was unveiled, and it is a doozy. They are strapped with £119m of debt. . The list includes the previous owner (Balram Chainrai), who is owed £14m, agents and scouts owed £9 million, and £14m in past transfer fees. Even the parachute payment is not going to help them much, and will most likely go to paying down the transfer fees.
