Portsmouth 'likely to close down'

[Lagos]

The economics of running a football club are just madness. There's a new way to become a millionaire, be a billionaire then buy a football club.
Euler

....or you could run it like WBA has been run for the last decade or so

No debt, gradually improving all the time from bottom of championship to mid table premiership. No benefactors or egos involved and a top flight team which cost less than 8M on transfers to assemble.

Football is in big trouble and well run clubs will pick up the pieces and holes left by the badly run ones.

[superfrank]

There's a new way to become a millionaire, be a billionaire then buy a football club.

That's always been the way with the odd exception.
Fans and owners have unrealistic expectations - someone always has to finish bottom of the league. It's another zero-sum game.
Take Blackburn - just because they had a rich owner (and tbf a rich history) who bought the title for them they now expect to be challenging for honours even though the money has long since gone. It's a miserable town with a shrinking population. For a club like that to be in the Premier League is an achievement in itself and they should be grateful of the relatively good situation they are in.

[pdupre1961]

I was also thinking of Gretna

Airdrieonians went bankrupt and out of business.
An Airdrie fan then bought Clydebank, who were bordering on the brink of liquidation themselves, and relocated them to Airdrie under the new name of Aidrie United. So not quite a merger, just the formation of a new club from the ashes of 2 dead ones

Also, you can add former league club Scarborough to your list of dead ones, and Newport County, who like Aldershot reformed and are now back in Blue Square Premier

You're right, I forgot about Scarborough and Newport. What happened to Gretna...

[pdupre1961]

Something I thought about before when Portsmouth were in trouble...

The FA should NOT under any circumstances allow a team that previously won the League twice and FA Cup twice go out of business. They should do everything they possible can including be guarantor for the club until new owners can be found to sorted out the situation.

This is only my opinion, but I think it's the FA that's a disgrace...

[Euler]

If that were the rule then you wouldn't have a single solvent club in the league.

[LeTiss 4pm]

All the FA can do is implement more stringent procedures with regards to club finances

If they were to bail out every club bordering on bankruptcy, they would end up bankrupt themselves. Every club would spend silly money, knowing they'd be saved by the FA when they went bust

Your instinct tells you they will survive, as most league clubs do when it comes to the crunch. However, it was interesting to hear Steve Claridge (a Pompey fan) say on last night's Football League show that he struggles to see them finish the season.

[superfrank]

why doesn't the govt instruct the Bank of England to give a couple of billion (out of the hundreds of billions of newly printed money) to struggling football clubs?

"not fair", "it would set a dreadful example" etc. i hear you cry... but if it's Ok for banks then why not for any other business? at least that way the money would find its way into the wider economy!

edit: the US bailed out car-makers with public money because they were seen as socially as well as economically important, including Government Motors (as it's now called).

[sweetybt]

Because it would be unfair on clubs who run their finances in a correct way.

My team via birth is Watford. I reckon they only need to finish above the bottom 4 in the Championship each year to survive because you can be sure one of the clubs owned by a fiscal idiots above them in the table will be deducted points.

[superfrank]

so what about the financial institutions that didn't leverage themselves to the hilt or indulge in reckless lending? unfair on them? yes.
what about the individuals who didn't take part in the credit boom? unfair on them? yes.
same thing.

[Ferru123]

Take Blackburn - just because they had a rich owner (and tbf a rich history) who bought the title for them they now expect to be challenging for honours even though the money has long since gone. It's a miserable town with a shrinking population.

Steady!!!

If you think Blackburn is grim, you should go down the road and visit Blackpool!

Jeff