Seeing the financial woes of my home-town club, Portsmouth FC, being highlighted in the press recently, is a sad indictment of how football in England is being run.
Pompey, I’m sure, isn’t the only team likely to enter administration over the next couple of years but how has it been allowed to happen? Who takes responsibility for the management of the business side of life? In the case of Pompey, it doesn’t seem that its £1.4 million a year Chief Executive, Peter Storrie (see ‘Pompey – A Sorry Storrie‘), has any cause for concern. Nor its former Manager, Harry Redknapp, who presided over the acquisition of average players on well above average salaries (when compared to ‘normal’ jobs). He’s now safely entrenched at Tottenham where he can continue his good work…
Football, in this country, is in a dreadful state and it seems from the very top right through to the players themselves. You have great clubs, such as Liverpool FC and Manchester United, being plundered by Americans looking to cash in on ‘the franchise’.
Then there are the governing bodies. The FA? How many ‘fit and proper’ tests were carried during the various buy outs of Pompey recently? When are they going to stop just making sound bites about investing in grass root football and actually get on with it?
What about the staff? Of course, there are some managers, such as Sir Alex Ferguson, who are worth ever penny they earn because they are excellent at what they do but others are/were being paid huge salaries yet clearly aren’t very good. Rearrange these words to see if you can spot any:
Reid Steve Dennis Gary O’Leary Brown Gareth
McLaren David Wise Southgate Peter Megson
Obviously, this is a subjective list and not based on any manager’s ability to trot out endless clichés.
Then there’s the players themselves. Obviously, there have been some high profile ‘off-field’ issues highlighted recently but my concern would be more to do with those ‘professionals’ who are happy to accept long term contracts on inflated salaries yet either not be good enough or simply not put the effort in that is necessary. Utaka.
I’d best leave it there before I get the highly paid union rep, Gordon Taylor, on to me!
Related posts:
- Pompey – a Sorry Storrie Portsmouth FC – Administration 26th February 2010 – 10:20am Peter...
- South Coast Team Reach Final of Proper Football Cup Competition After a turbulent season, Portsmouth Football Club finally have something...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 1 trackback }