"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Articles about football clubs facing or going into administration.
Real Mallorca is the latest club to apply for the Spanish form of bankruptcy administration, but their troubles are the latest symptom of the problems affecting La Liga clubs outside the big two. Even Real Madrid have faced financial challenges not so long ago, but their clout is such that they were able to find a route out of them.
There are many losers when a football club hits financial problems and this interesting article about cup finalists Portsmouth touches a number of bases. It includes a testimony from their most famous fan who changed his name to include that of the club, but also a community organisation that had to curtail some of its other activities when the club failed to pay for the hire of pitches.
This article is an interesting and evocative piece by a fan about events at Portsmouth. A bit sepia tinged perhaps, but well worth reading nevertheless. At the end he suggests that someone should write a book about what has happened there and probably they will. If we were not an amateur site run by two people trying to find time in between doing their day jobs, it would be worth launching full-scale imvestigations into cases like Portsmo
Lloyds Bank face a difficult dilemma. CPFC 2010, the consortium trying to take Crystal Palace out of administration, are prepared to pay £3m to buy Selhurst Park off them. But the ground is valued at £6m and both property developers and Sainsbury’s, who have a supermarket at one end of the ground, are interested in buying it. However, selling it off to developers could involve the bank in controversy wh
Welsh businessman and Cardiff City supporter Annis Abraham is ready to pick up the pieces once Merthyr Tydfil are liquidated on May 3. He cannot pay off the £315,000 debt and the only way forward is to start again. Merthyr will be rebranded and are likely to apply to join either the Western or the Hellenic League next season (they have never been interested in the Welsh League with its small crowds). They have successfully renegotiated a £100-per week lease for their Penydarren Park ground next season.
Portsmouth’s many creditors are unhappy with what has been revealed about the club’s finances and are unlikely to agree to a Company Voluntary Arrangement which is necessary if the club is to avoid a further points dediction next season. 75 per cent of creditors have to vote in favour of such an arrangement and Revenue and Customs, which controls 15.1 per cent of the vote, is likely to oppose it. &n
Flight delays caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud have held up the completion of talks on the takeover of Crystal Palace. The matter needs to be resolved soon as the administrator does not have the funds to keep the club going beyond the end of the season.
The football authorities have refused Portsmouth a Uefa license for next season that would have enabled them to compete in the Europa League. The place will now go to the team that finishes 7th in the Premier League. Consideration is being given to a legal challenge but it would be difficult to argue that the decision was unreasonable or that procedures had not been followed.
Portsmouth Football Club’s debts amount to a staggering £119m. A sum of £14m is due on three transfers and £14m is owed to a secured creditor, former owner Balram Chainrai in the form of loans. There is £90m owed to unsecured creditors, of which £38m is due to three previous owners in the form of loans, £9 million to 15 agents (one is owed £2.3m alone) and £5m to trade creditors. It is difficult to see how a debt of
After three months no buyer has emerged for Crystal Palace and the club’s position is increasingly perilous as the season draws to a close. In a sense, it is no surprise that Palace have not find a buyer. There are a number of clubs available for purchase and fewer buyers out there than there were. The club does not own the ground and it operates in a relatively crowded London football market. Admittedly, all t