"We won't do a Leeds...!" - Part 2

Back in February I had a look at the football clubs desperately trying to avoid 'Doing a Leeds!'

That particular post and Part One of this series can be found here - PART 1

Two months later and  more clubs have joined the race to imitate the Mighty Whites. It seems that all the laughing and back-slapping at Leeds' demise over the last few years has somehow drawn attention away from the fact that there were very serious lessons to be learnt from Leeds United's mismanagement. All of which have been overlooked amidst the gloating.

Individuals in the civilised world are taught in the early years of schooling the fundamentals of money, the most basic of which being that 'you can't buy what you can't afford'. However, it seems that English football is so far up its own ass, with The Premiership now a global brand and home to some of the world's best players that more than a few Chairmen now believe that they're untouchable. Believing that the most basic rule of economy, the cornerstone that civilisations have been built upon for Millennia, now no longer applies... Currently the biggest culprits are:

Portsmouth F.C.
Possibly the second biggest financial implosion of a football club (behind ourselves) in living memory. Guilty of over spending on transfer fees, wages and 'Chasing the dream'. The hierarchy at Fratton Park deemed that an improved squad of players would ensure Premiership revenue for the foreseeable future and gambled thus... Unfortunately the unforeseen banking collapse and a few other factors have left the South coast club £119M in debt, in administration and struggling to stay afloat. Despite already being relegated to The Championship they have reached The F.A.Cup Final for the 2nd time in 3 seasons but have seen another financial lifeline severed today when they were refused permission to compete in next season's Europa League due to their financial problems. Quite what the future holds for 'Pompey' this Summer is unclear but a brief look at Leeds United's horrific close season in 2007 might shed some light on the matter.

Southend United
Escaped a 'winding up' order this week when they successfully scraped together £370,000 (approx.) for our old friends at H.M.R.C. I'm assuming the money was saved by not paying their players on time for the last few months. Odds on for relegation to the basement division in the next week or so, it doesn't appear that this will be the end of the troubles at Roots Hall. Another club that got excited after promotion to The Championship and is now clinging on to existence.

Liverpool F.C.
You might think that this is a surprise inclusion but when your millionaire owners put the club up for sale, something is afoot. Destined to miss out on the money-spinning Champions League places this season after already cutting the gravy train short at the group stages this year. The Anfield faithful could be set for some rocky times as Roberto Mancini lines up Fernando Torres and surely Steven Gerrard's undying love for all things 'scouse' will be put to the test this Summer. If that wasn't bad enough they're lumbered with a 2nd rate manager, sat on a £15M contract and refusing to admit defeat. Subsequently they find themselves in a very expensive and damaging catch 22 situation. I'm not suggesting that financial implosion is on the horizon but it could certainly be a lean few years for 'The Kop'.

Cardiff City F.C.
Like a bad smell that won't go away, Peter Ridsdale's Welsh inbreds have seemingly been on death row for an eternity. Several court hearings have come and gone, lies, apologies, more lies and cover-ups have left The Bluebirds on a precipice. Putting all their hopes in a successful Play-off campaign that will see a bank-busting promotion to The Premiership and thus solving any financial problems is all that remains (you'd have thought Mr Ridsdale would have learnt not to put all his goldfish in one tank by now). Failure to secure promotion will hopefully put them to the sword in the coming months and Ridsdale will finally have to start telling the truth.

As usual there are lots of other Chairmen nationwide blindingly claiming "We won't do a Leeds!" and convincing supporters and the public alike that their club is not in a financial mess... I'm sure as the season comes to a close these cracks will start to appear...

Just a quick note, since my last post on this matter Chester City have ceased to exist. Victims of more men in suits playing Russian roulette with historic football clubs. Likely to be the first of several smaller outfits who disappear off the face of the Earth (perhaps Bob Geldoff will form a charity to save endangered clubs). As crazy as that notion is, its likely to happen before the Football Association realise that Mr Murdoch's billions are  only serving the elite few whilst the smaller clubs that hold the whole thing up are scraping their pennies together in order to 'Live the dream..'

Perhaps the fact that English football is slowly slipping the way their Italian counterparts went in the early part of the Millennium will provide a wake up call. No teams in the last four of The Champions League, the 'Big Four' consistently losing top players to La Liga and all of this whilst the 20 top flight clubs carry a debt that is more than the leading leagues from Spain, Italy and Germany combined.

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"We won't do a Leeds...!" - Part 2

Pompey On Death Row....

Portsmouth F.C today played their final hand in a increasingly unlikely struggle to survive both as a business and a football club. Fratton Park chiefs have asked Premier League and FIFA officials to allow them special dispensation to sell their players outside the transfer window in an attempt to raise the £11.5M Mr Tax is demanding immediately.

Now it would be very easy as a Leeds United supporter to get very upset about this should the respective governing bodies offer a helping hand and allow such actions to take place. For less than 3 years ago my beloved club found itself in a similar precarious position and the 'football family' stuck the boot in by voting for an official punishment to stand. Instead though I'm going to look at the practicality of what the South coast club are asking...

The major flaw with their request is that for them to sell players, another team has to buy them. So in affect they're asking for the transfer window to be re-opened indefinitely until they've sold enough players, which if you ask me is absurd and should be totally out of the question. Last month, clubs across Europe spent their money on players they could afford (or not in some cases) from what was available at the time and with such a small 'window' of opportunity to purchase, naturally prices across the market are escalated. Its a strange system but one that everybody knows where they stand and know that they can spend all their available cash without fear of missing out on a bargain that could materialise soon after, until now it seems...

To put it into perspective, imagine we spent all our available on cash on Max Gradel (Bates haters can comment at the bottom) and were confident, that in him we had the best player who was available to us at that time, we had no transfer fund left but we wouldn't need any until the Summer. Then FIFA announce they're re-opening the transfer window for Portsmouth and Norwich snap up David James and Jon Utaka (Hypothetical of course but you get the point). The level playing field and nature of competition has gone.

I think its very unlikely that Pompey's plea will be granted and 2010 may well see the first Premiership club go out of business. Its amazing, given the revenue available to the 20 elite clubs that any of them could have such problems, maybe now they'll have some sympathy for the likes of Luton, Rotherham and Chester who continually scrape an existence form minimal income, but I doubt it... Making it even more unlikely that the Premiership fortune might one day filter its way down to the lower leagues.

This week Gerald Krasner (remember him) predicted that other Premiership clubs will follow Portsmouth into oblivion as early as this Summer! I'd take his predictions and financial acumen with a pinch of salt but watch this space.

Pompey On Death Row....

"We won't do a Leeds...!"

I can't tell you how many times I have read those 5 words over the last six years or so. "We won't do a Leeds" has been uttered by football chairmen up and down the country since our implosion and subsequent nose dive to the depths of League One. Whether the men in question penned the statement in confidence, hope or sheer ignorance it seems that there are plenty of clubs 'Doing a Leeds' at this present moment.

Portsmouth F.C.
Rapidly spiralling out of control, The Premiership and possibly even existence! Several owners already this season and we're still 6 weeks from Easter. The South Coast, over-achieving minnows are reportedly £60M in the red and our old friends at HMRC are demanding £7.5M immediately! Today they have been granted a 7-day stay of execution as they cling onto the faint hope of a takeover. Could possibly be the first Premiership club to go out of existence.

Cardiff City F.C.
Ah now this is an interesting story... Several years ago that serial clown Mr Sam Hamann claimed that Leeds' demise started on a wet and windy January afternoon in Cardiff when his team at the time dumped Premiership leaders Leeds United out of The F.A. Cup. Leeds United went into reverse for many reasons following that defeat but that game was far from being one of them. Incensed by such an accusation Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale decided to teach the Welsh b******* a lesson and donned his Special Agent façade and several years later appeared as a director at Cardiff City - Agent "Publicity" Pete had successfully infiltrated the enemy from within. Systematically he began to rip the club apart, negotiated them a new stadium that they couldn't afford, lied to the fans about season ticket receipts being spent on players and not ornamental orchids for his plush 3-acre office. As we stand Agent P is 28 days from successfully completing the biggest undercover operation that World football has ever seen.

Sadly for Peter it would be a hell of a lot easier if any of the above was true. Cardiff City are on the brink of administration (again) whilst Ridsdale claims that everything is ok in a style non too dissimilar to the Iraqi Foreign News Minister when he claimed that coalition troops were not even in Baghdad... as 3 heavily armoured American tanks rolled by in the background! How Peter Ridsdale is even allowed inside a football ground is beyond me?!!?

Having said all that it couldn't happen to a nicer club.

There are other clubs who are currently 'Doing a Leeds' albeit to a lesser extent; Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Charlton Athletic, Notts County even Liverpool and our friends at Old Trafford are giving it a go! Eventually luck is going to run out for one of these companies and we will lose a professional football club, the corner stones of communities, heirlooms passed from Parent to Child for generations, all that history - lost! and when this happens I will utter 5 words too "YOU'RE NOT LAUGHING ANY MORE!" how you would all have loved Leeds to have gone to the wall in 2007. I have absolutely no sympathy for any of you.

PART 2 of "We won't do a Leeds...!" can now be found here

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"We won't do a Leeds...!"