Football Diary - On the road to ruin
by Patrick O’Connor
PHEW! Where to start?
So much is going on in football off the field at the moment that it is easy to forget that it is a sport, a competitive, physical encounter between two teams of 11 individuals with the ultimate aim of putting a ball into a net more times than your opponent.
All the current distractions have come about mainly because of greed and the misguided view that to be top dog is all that matters, but it is leading the game on the road to ruin. A recent report by UEFA revealed that Premiership football clubs in England owe more money than all the other top clubs in Europe put together: The total debt of the top English clubs is 3.8bn euros (£3.4bn), 56% of the total across Europe, and much of the debt is linked to the takeovers of Manchester United, by the Glazer family, and Liverpool, by American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
This grim reading does not even include the debts of Portsmouth or West Ham, because they were not granted UEFA licences when the study was compiled due to financial problems.
The case of Portsmouth really is a sorry affair. The club has debts of around £60m and has become the first Premier League side to go into administration. They look set to be docked nine points which will result in almost certain relegation. So one had to laugh when the Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie defended his £1m plus salary. Last year Storrie earned £1,2m, a 30% increase on his previous year's salary despite the club's dreadful finances.
Storrie said: "I've seen £1.4m bandied around, but my basic salary is less than half of what's been reported." So that’s okay then…. "The rest of it has been a bonus given by former owner Sacha Gaydamak every year," Storrie told the Portsmouth News. "That's in recognition of me keeping the club going for him by selling players. "I'm prepared to cut my basic quite substantially," added Storrie.
At the other end of the scale, Chester City have been expelled from the Football Conference after admitting breaching five conference rules. City face a winding-up order next week over an unpaid tax bill of £26,125. Chester's main supporter's body, City Fans United, remain optimistic that professional football will one day return to the city.
In a statement, they said: "City Fans United are dismayed and saddened that this situation has been allowed to occur. However, we have previously stated our belief that years of financial mismanagement meant that this decision was inevitable. "We are angry that Chester City FC was allowed to fall into such a sorry state, and we call upon the football authorities to review their rules on the ownership and financial control of football clubs, before the supporters of another football club are forced to endure the pain felt by fans of Chester City FC.”
On the pitch, which is after all where football belongs, Wayne Bridge refused to shake the hand of John Terry prior to the Chelsea v Manchester City clash after previously ruling himself out of the England World Cup squad. Bridge had been in the spotlight over allegations that his ex-girlfriend had an affair with Terry, his former team-mate at Chelsea. This tacky sub-plot, which has had the tabloid papers salivating with excitement, completes a pretty sordid period for English football.
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