Portsmouth is in shambles – time to overhaul the Premier League rules governing club ownership?
Update: Ali Al Faraj has completed his takeover of Portsmouth, acquiring a 90% stake in the club. Sulaiman Al Fahim retains a 10% share.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
After Sulaiman Al-Fahim pulled the wool over the Premier League’s eyes once during the Manchester City takeover by pretending to be the owner and making pre-posterous claims on who Manchester City could sign, the actual owners quietly sidelined him and brought in a more measured representative.
The damage had been done though, and to date some of the criticism leveled against Manchester City’s approach to the Premier League can be traced back to Al-Fahim’s botched PR efforts during the takeover.
So you’d think that when Fahim came in at Portsmouth offering, amongst other things, to inject 50m into the club, wipe out the debt and finance a new stadium, you would have asked to see proof of funds before even having a second conversation.
But that’s not how it happened – Gaydamak didn’t care much – he wanted to cut his losses – and neither did the Premier League, who have in recent years allowed clubs to be mismanaged and laden with serious debt, not to mention shown no concern with the background and financial strength of prospective owners as long as they ‘talked the talk’ and looked the part.
Appearances, it seems, can go a long way when it comes to taking over a football club.
And now we have a situation where a club in relative free-fall couldn’t pay their players last week. Not a bright start and it certainly doesn’t give any hope of the squad being strengthened in January if Al-Fahim was to stay in charge.
As things stand though, Saudi Arabian businessman Ali Al-Faraj is expected to make an offer to Al-Fahim for Portsmouth and if things go as planned, could be taking over the club as soon as the end of this month. Al-Faraj was also involved in chief executive Peter Storrie’s consortium that lost out to Al-Fahim last month – and given Peter Storrie’s ambitions for the club it’s likely that he will be behind this move as well.
A spokesman for Al-Fahim said that “Sulaiman’s lawyers are engaged in talks with lawyers for Al-Faraj”, that “He expects an offer to be made today” and “In the best interests of the club he is willing to forego full ownership and if or when an offer is on the table it will be considered on its merits.”
For Pompey’s sake, let’s hope that this will be the end of their financial troubles – about time too, they desperately need to keep their focus on matters on the pitch and possibly bring in reinforcements in January – although the look of the squad suggests it’s primed for the Championship.
All this points to one thing – that the Premier League and the Football League (think Notts County) need to be more proactive and consistent in regulating club ownership in England. It should start with demanding solid proof over financial backing, include full disclosure of ownership (this need not be made public knowledge but it should be known to the Premier League and the people in charge of the club) and it should definitely include regulation to ensure that clubs are able to repay their debts without going bust or selling all their players.
Portsmouth’s current plight is a direct result of the club over-spending for several years in a bid to achieve European football – the FA Cup win masked their troubles but in the long run, Gaydamak’s inability to backup his excessive spending meant that the club was bound to suffer. There’s no need to punish clubs for spending a lot of money (that’s a separate debate), but the least the footballing authorities can do is ensure that owners can afford to keep the club afloat, and if they can’t, they shouldn’t be allowed to put the club in a position where it’s in the situation Portsmouth (or West Ham or Newcastle) find themselves in.
Topics: English Premier League, Help Football, Manchester City, Portsmouth
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Pompey fan here, take issue with a couple of statements:
“although the look of the squad suggests it’s primed for the Championship.”
I’d say our squad is comparable or better than about 5 others in the premiership.
“Portsmouth’s current plight is a direct result of the club over-spending for several years in a bid to achieve European football”
This is a quite incorrect. At no times were we competing for a Champions League spot, and there would have been no great financial motive to enter the Uefa Cup. Prior to our financial troubles our football income and position was as good as anyone could predict.
Our situation was some combination of the following factors:
October 5th, 2009 @ 16:22- Gaydamak’s long term plan interrupted by his personal losses due to the credit crunch.
- Gaydamak, Storrie and Redknapp incorrectly assuming that they would make money on player turnover.
I dunno mate, looks like a Premier League Rejects XI to me…
October 5th, 2009 @ 17:27Interesting piece Ahmed, along with some equally interesting suggestions.
When it comes to regulation of ownership, the fit and proper person test is only applied proactively and is nearly impossible to fail. Full ownership disclosure is definitely a must (see also David Conn’s work into Leeds in recent weeks). Not sure how you’d get regulations into ensuring clubs can repay their debts – that would probably hit a fair few of the bigger clubs as well.
To me, though, a wage cap is a priority as well, as this is where a lot of the problems at Pompey come from. I’m going from memory here, so feel free to correct me, but wasn’t something like 90% of Pompey’s turnover spent on wages at one point. That said, Notts County have found novel ways to get around this…
Again, I’m sure Pompey fans might correct me on this, but I don’t think they spent irresponsibly in a quest for European football per se – Mandaric seemed happy to fund them up until they sold. It was rather Redknapp was spending a lot on players and wages and Gaydamark was happy to sign them without must thought as to the future.
Again, it shows the perils of putting your future in the hands of one rich person – if their money runs out, or they get bored, your club is screwed.
That said, why they ever considered al-Fahim, I have no idea.
[Point of pedantry here, I don't think al-Fahim ever claimed to be the owner of Man City, rather this was a assumption that didn't really get corrected until he started waffling on about signing Ronaldo. Again, I may be wrong, but I don't recall him ever being described an an owner - I could Google but I'm literally shooting out the door here.]
October 5th, 2009 @ 18:12Aloha
At least 8 clubs i can think of ‘look loke their made up of Premier League Rejects’. It ain’t what they look like individually – it’s how they play together that’s important. And over the last few games Pompey have become a true team with a spirit Pompey fans can be proud of.
As for how we’ll fair – lets wait til May!
PUP
October 5th, 2009 @ 18:16The fact that you lose Defoe, Crouch, Johnson, Diarra, Kranjcar, Distin, Muntari and, lest we forget, Harry Redknapp in the space of less than a year doesn’t exactly help matters.
I sincerely hope Pompey stay up as I have a lot of family that support them and it’s a fantastic club with terrific supporters. I worry about the future if they do go down though.
October 5th, 2009 @ 20:31First the moneybags shouldn’t buy clubs. Now you want to change the rules to make sure the money comes in. Seriously people. People should have the freedom to sell to whom they want.
October 6th, 2009 @ 02:59The problem with regulation by the Football bodies is that it constantly runs into legislation issues. As I keep saying, football is now big business and in a free market (capitalist) environment there’s little the governing bodies can do.
As for a salary cap…this is the least likely thing ever to happen. Some of the proposals being put forward from time to time could succeed if the Clubs agreed….that in itself is a big ask, especially from the ‘big’ clubs.
However, even they can’t get a salary cap under the wire as the players (who now have huge power) won’t accept it and everything in Eurpean employment legislation will back them up.
October 8th, 2009 @ 13:09Salary caps will kill the game. You will see plyers leaving Europe to go to Asia. That or the Cristiano Ronaldo’s of the world or Tevez will simply go to a Hull City or West Brom because they have space in their salary cap for those players. IE: Michael Owen in Newcastle.
October 9th, 2009 @ 07:56