Post by Macmoish on Feb 4, 2012 8:13:39 GMT
[Posted this a year ago But still relevant]
David Lacey/The Guardian
Without will of the fans some football clubs would just fade away
The capacity of clubs such as Portsmouth to carry on in apparently hopeless positions is one of the game's phenomena
In football perspectives have obviously changed. There was a time when the merest hint of a famous old club threatened with extinction would have been regarded as a major crisis within the game. Now the news of Portsmouth being issued with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs for unpaid taxes is greeted with a shrug.
So what. Portsmouth have been this way before, HMRC having filed a similar petition in December 2009 which was eventually withdrawn, leaving the club to face a nine-point penalty for going into administration.
Pompey have experienced a series of financial crises since the late 90s which have usually involved last-minute rescues by foreign investors, though with mixed results. Harry Redknapp's two spells as manager between 2002 and 2008 saw them gain promotion to the Premier League and win the FA Cup but their cash problems have only ever been put on hold.
Now Portsmouth's bank accounts have been frozen following HMRC's latest wind-up. The tax man is owed £1.6m which may seem trifling compared to the sums being paid to Premier League players and the debts run up by their clubs as a result, but is posing yet one more threat to the club's future.
The winding-up petition is due to be heard on 20 February. Portsmouth are seeking a validation from the court to have their accounts unfrozen so that wages and money owed to suppliers can be paid. Meanwhile their supporters will be wondering who will take over the club next, always assuming that there is anyone left out there likely to show an interest.
Elsewhere life goes on. The season's issues continue to grab the headlines … the Mancunian arm-wrestling contest at the top and the struggles of the rest to keep up, John Terry, Carlos Tevez, red cards that should or should not have been shown, two-footed tackles … and so on and so forth. Winding-ups are not big news.
Portsmouth will probably live to be wound up another day. The capacity of football clubs in apparently hopeless positions to carry on somehow is one of the game's phenomena.
In the mid-80s Middlesbrough were broke and had to borrow £30,000 from the Professional Footballers' Association to pay the wages. The gates at Ayresome Park were padlocked and Boro, then in the old Third Division, kicked off the 1986-87 season with a home game against Port Vale except that "home" on that day was at Hartlepool.
Ten minutes before the deadline for registering with the Football League, at a cost of £350,000 which up to that point Middlesbrough did not have, Steve Gibson, the present chairman, led a consortium to the rescue and Boro ended up winning promotion. In the early 80s Derek Dougan headed a similar salvage operation to bail out Wolverhampton Wanderers, again with minutes to spare.
Broadly speaking, football clubs live on so long as the will to live is strong. For Halifax Town read FC Halifax, riding high in the Blue Square Premier. Cast a glance through the Evo-Stik North Premier and there are Bradford Park Avenue, a point ahead of FC United of Manchester. Darlington's financial woes may have cost them 10 points in the Blue Square Premier but at least they are still there, the fans having rallied round to keep them going.
Older followers of Leyton Orient will remember Arthur Page, then the chairman, walking around the running track at Brisbane Road with a plastic bucket into which supporters were invited to drop contributions to ease a cash crisis. The will of the fans to ensure that their team stays in existence should never be underestimated.
The restoration of Brighton and Hove Albion as a serious footballing force, epitomised by the way Gus Poyet's side have just swept Newcastle United out of the FA Cup, owes much to the energy and vision of Dick Knight. But if Albion supporters had given up when, the Goldstone Ground having been sold from under them for development, they were asked to travel to the ends of the earth, otherwise known as Gillingham, to watch home games, the club might have faded away.
Maybe a franchise system, requiring those who would own a football team to stick to an agreed set of practices or lose control, might save clubs from themselves. At present the tendency is to apply the Billy Bunter principle in matters of finance : the Owl of the Remove was forever expecting a postal order. Either this or hope that the figure shimmering in the heat haze of an Arabian desert is Omar Sharif with oil wells and not merely a mirage
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/03/fans-portsmouth-winding-up
David Lacey/The Guardian
Without will of the fans some football clubs would just fade away
The capacity of clubs such as Portsmouth to carry on in apparently hopeless positions is one of the game's phenomena
In football perspectives have obviously changed. There was a time when the merest hint of a famous old club threatened with extinction would have been regarded as a major crisis within the game. Now the news of Portsmouth being issued with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs for unpaid taxes is greeted with a shrug.
So what. Portsmouth have been this way before, HMRC having filed a similar petition in December 2009 which was eventually withdrawn, leaving the club to face a nine-point penalty for going into administration.
Pompey have experienced a series of financial crises since the late 90s which have usually involved last-minute rescues by foreign investors, though with mixed results. Harry Redknapp's two spells as manager between 2002 and 2008 saw them gain promotion to the Premier League and win the FA Cup but their cash problems have only ever been put on hold.
Now Portsmouth's bank accounts have been frozen following HMRC's latest wind-up. The tax man is owed £1.6m which may seem trifling compared to the sums being paid to Premier League players and the debts run up by their clubs as a result, but is posing yet one more threat to the club's future.
The winding-up petition is due to be heard on 20 February. Portsmouth are seeking a validation from the court to have their accounts unfrozen so that wages and money owed to suppliers can be paid. Meanwhile their supporters will be wondering who will take over the club next, always assuming that there is anyone left out there likely to show an interest.
Elsewhere life goes on. The season's issues continue to grab the headlines … the Mancunian arm-wrestling contest at the top and the struggles of the rest to keep up, John Terry, Carlos Tevez, red cards that should or should not have been shown, two-footed tackles … and so on and so forth. Winding-ups are not big news.
Portsmouth will probably live to be wound up another day. The capacity of football clubs in apparently hopeless positions to carry on somehow is one of the game's phenomena.
In the mid-80s Middlesbrough were broke and had to borrow £30,000 from the Professional Footballers' Association to pay the wages. The gates at Ayresome Park were padlocked and Boro, then in the old Third Division, kicked off the 1986-87 season with a home game against Port Vale except that "home" on that day was at Hartlepool.
Ten minutes before the deadline for registering with the Football League, at a cost of £350,000 which up to that point Middlesbrough did not have, Steve Gibson, the present chairman, led a consortium to the rescue and Boro ended up winning promotion. In the early 80s Derek Dougan headed a similar salvage operation to bail out Wolverhampton Wanderers, again with minutes to spare.
Broadly speaking, football clubs live on so long as the will to live is strong. For Halifax Town read FC Halifax, riding high in the Blue Square Premier. Cast a glance through the Evo-Stik North Premier and there are Bradford Park Avenue, a point ahead of FC United of Manchester. Darlington's financial woes may have cost them 10 points in the Blue Square Premier but at least they are still there, the fans having rallied round to keep them going.
Older followers of Leyton Orient will remember Arthur Page, then the chairman, walking around the running track at Brisbane Road with a plastic bucket into which supporters were invited to drop contributions to ease a cash crisis. The will of the fans to ensure that their team stays in existence should never be underestimated.
The restoration of Brighton and Hove Albion as a serious footballing force, epitomised by the way Gus Poyet's side have just swept Newcastle United out of the FA Cup, owes much to the energy and vision of Dick Knight. But if Albion supporters had given up when, the Goldstone Ground having been sold from under them for development, they were asked to travel to the ends of the earth, otherwise known as Gillingham, to watch home games, the club might have faded away.
Maybe a franchise system, requiring those who would own a football team to stick to an agreed set of practices or lose control, might save clubs from themselves. At present the tendency is to apply the Billy Bunter principle in matters of finance : the Owl of the Remove was forever expecting a postal order. Either this or hope that the figure shimmering in the heat haze of an Arabian desert is Omar Sharif with oil wells and not merely a mirage
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/03/fans-portsmouth-winding-up