Peter Storrie Exits Portsmouth (sort of)

Of course some of the players and the PFA are not so great either.

The Times/Oliver Kay From The Times March 13, 2010

'Scapegoat' Peter Storrie calls it quits as Portsmouth chief executive

Peter Storrie resigned as Portsmouth chief executive on Friday night, saying that he could no longer tolerate being made a scapegoat for the financially stricken club’s battle for survival.

Storrie, who attracted criticism for keeping his job when Portsmouth’s administrator made 85 employees redundant on Wednesday, will stand down from his position with immediate effect, but will stay on at Fratton Park in a “consultancy” role as the team prepare for their FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur or Fulham next month.

Announcing his decision on ESPN, Storrie said: “It is best that I walk away for the sake of the club as well as my family and friends. Despite working non-stop to try to keep this club alive for the last 14 months, they need someone to blame, and there is nobody left to blame but me.

“It is not fair on my friends and family. I can’t take it any more, taking all the stick on my own, so I have decided to quit.”

The season began with Storrie’s name chanted by fans at Fratton Park in recognition of his work behind the scenes as the club lurched from one crisis to another, but, having been instrumental in the ill-fated Ali al-Faraj takeover and endorsed the reckless spending that has left Portsmouth in serious danger of liquidation, he became synonymous with the calamitous mismanagement of the club in recent years.

While successive owners and managers have come and gone, often in a matter of months, Storrie has been the common denominator throughout the club’s lurch towards meltdown.

Storrie agreed on Wednesday to take a £400,000 reduction in his basic wage, which had stood at a little less than £900,000, albeit with a large bonuses structure attached, but he was criticised by supporters for retaining his job after Portsmouth had become the first Premier League club to go into administration, then forced into making so many employees redundant.

Criticism has also been directed at the Professional Footballers’ Association, whose rules regarding players’ contracts mean that the playing staff, whose salaries form the vast majority of the club’s £4 million monthly wage bill, have been immune from redundancy while large numbers of administrative, catering and cleaning staff have been laid off.

David James, the goalkeeper, has organised a whip-round among the squad in an attempt to raise the money needed to save the jobs of a number of groundsmen, catering staff and cleaners, but Andrew Andronikou, the administrator, has struggled to conceal his frustration with the players’ watertight contracts and the PFA’s refusal in discussions this week to countenance contract terminations or pay cuts.

But Gordon Taylor, the PFA chief executive, has stated that, while players such as James are welcome to take action on an individual basis, the union cannot back down or else its members throughout the game would lose all job security and the “sporting integrity” of English football would be severely compromised.

“Football is a very precarious profession, with an average eight-year career, and contracts have to mean what they say,” Taylor said. “As much as I sympathise with creditors who lose out and with employees who lose their jobs, it is vital for footballers that their contracts are worth more than the paper they’re written on.”

Portsmouth appear certain to be deducted nine points by the Premier League on Tuesday for going into administration, but Storrie believes that salvation is nigh. “I really hope Portsmouth survive — and they will do if the South African group I brought to the club take it over,” he said.

“They have now produced proof of funds, so I see no reason why they shouldn’t go ahead with a takeover.”

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article7060219.ece