So
Portsmouth FC has become the first football club in the history of the super-rich Premier League to go into administration, with debts of about £60m.
Pompey become first top-flight club in administrationIt is said that the club will probably survive, but severe cuts will have to be made. Meanwhile local businesses will go unpaid and jobs will be lost in the local community.
Let's face facts - the situation at Portsmouth, who had four owners this season, is shambolic.
The Premier League needs to take a long hard look at their "fit and proper person" test, because something has gone very wrong at the club, which 21 months ago, was being cheered by 200,000 Pompey fans in celebration of their FA Cup win.
Furthermore almost all the clubs in the Premier League are in debt. According to a report by UEFA on the financial well being of European football, Premier League clubs owe 56% of the continent's total footballing debt. Excluding West Ham and Pompey, the combined debts of the 18 Premier League clubs is approx
£3.5 billion ($5.85 billion), with two of England's biggest clubs,
Manchester United and
Liverpool, owing around £1 billion between them.
Premier League owe 56% of European football debtAll this information isn't new (see previous posts on this blog). But someone needs to tell the Premier League that it's a bubble waiting to burst....