Portsmouth Football Club are in growing danger of becoming the first top-flight club to go into administration. This has come to light as the club faces an estimated 60 million pound debt whilst remaing six points from safety in the premier league.
These debts include a reported £28 m to the former owner of the club, Sacha Gaydamak, whos deadline for a large chunk of repayment of that debt was missed by the club causing a dispute. Aswell as this, the club are thought to owe around £7.5 m in unpaid VAT to HMRC on top of a £1.7 m settlement to sol campell who is sueing for unpaid image rights.
All these debts have put high financial pressure on the club wich threaten its very existance. The debts are also having massive effects on the stakeholders of the club.
Firstly the players and staff, portsmouth have been late paying wages four times this season alone. As a player or member of staff, the first and main objective of their job is to get paid, without this the staff and players could become demotivated and generally unhappy as even their basic needs from the job are not being fullfilled. However the club obviously realised it had to pay it players and staff and, although late, they eventualy did so. Aswell as uncertainty around wages and pay, players and staff will also have their future job security in mind. With the future of the club in doubt and the possibilty of them being forced into administration, the staff and players jobs are far from secure meaning that the stakeholders, in the form of the staff and players, needs and objective's are not being fullfilled.
Secondly the fans. Without a fan base, a football club would be unable to function as the majority of income will be gained from fans directly watching a game in the stands or on TV. No fans equal no football club. Portsmouths fans will want to see their club doing well with the money that they pay too see them, in order to achieve this goal in plaesing fans the club has to win games, something it is currently far from doing. With the team failing and currently doin very poor, all the fans can hope for is an improvement and some hope for succes in the future which at the moment also is in doubt if the club were to go into administration. Overall, stakeholders of the club in the form of fans will not have long term stability proven by the current situation of 4 owners in this season alone. This lack of stability and abilty to win games will cause a massive dissagrement between the fans and owners and therefore force fans against the owners who only seek short term stability at the clubs expense. If this disagrement between these two stakeholders continues, it will ultimately lead to either a change in owners or in the extremes, the fans abandoning their own club.
These debts include a reported £28 m to the former owner of the club, Sacha Gaydamak, whos deadline for a large chunk of repayment of that debt was missed by the club causing a dispute. Aswell as this, the club are thought to owe around £7.5 m in unpaid VAT to HMRC on top of a £1.7 m settlement to sol campell who is sueing for unpaid image rights.
All these debts have put high financial pressure on the club wich threaten its very existance. The debts are also having massive effects on the stakeholders of the club.
Firstly the players and staff, portsmouth have been late paying wages four times this season alone. As a player or member of staff, the first and main objective of their job is to get paid, without this the staff and players could become demotivated and generally unhappy as even their basic needs from the job are not being fullfilled. However the club obviously realised it had to pay it players and staff and, although late, they eventualy did so. Aswell as uncertainty around wages and pay, players and staff will also have their future job security in mind. With the future of the club in doubt and the possibilty of them being forced into administration, the staff and players jobs are far from secure meaning that the stakeholders, in the form of the staff and players, needs and objective's are not being fullfilled.
Secondly the fans. Without a fan base, a football club would be unable to function as the majority of income will be gained from fans directly watching a game in the stands or on TV. No fans equal no football club. Portsmouths fans will want to see their club doing well with the money that they pay too see them, in order to achieve this goal in plaesing fans the club has to win games, something it is currently far from doing. With the team failing and currently doin very poor, all the fans can hope for is an improvement and some hope for succes in the future which at the moment also is in doubt if the club were to go into administration. Overall, stakeholders of the club in the form of fans will not have long term stability proven by the current situation of 4 owners in this season alone. This lack of stability and abilty to win games will cause a massive dissagrement between the fans and owners and therefore force fans against the owners who only seek short term stability at the clubs expense. If this disagrement between these two stakeholders continues, it will ultimately lead to either a change in owners or in the extremes, the fans abandoning their own club.