The demise of Portsmouth, lessons that could be learned?

Hey,

I see Portsmouth have fallen into administration, yet I do not feel sorry for them at all, really. Not because of my family ties to Southampton, though that has meant I have always found a reason to not like Portsmouth, but because their demise seems fitting a punishment for what was essentially cheating. By vastly over-spending on players they could not afford, Portsmouth for a year or two lived the dream. Winning the FA Cup was arguably the best day in the club's history, as were the consequences of winning the Cup. Their entry into the UEFA Cup granted Portsmouth a glamorous visit from AC Milan.

Obviously one feels sympathy for the Portsmouth fans - I know if Celtic were in a similar mess I would be devastated - but the fact is the ambition (or greed, dependant on your outlook) was not victimless. For a start, Cardiff City were denied winning the FA Cup because of the unfair playing field. Should they be given the trophy retrospectively, such as the case in Italy after the match-fixing scandal? It would be pointless. Portsmouth FC may be ruined but the memories can never be taken away. You can give Cardiff the trophy but you can't give them that European night when Ronaldinho and Kaka went to Cardiff can you?

The debt of the Premiership - which by all accounts is extraordinary - is frustrating because of the unfair playing field it creates. The crisis of Portsmouth is, albeit more extreme, similar to the financial worries of Rangers up here in Scotland. Rangers are effectively being controlled by Lloyds TSB, with the entire squad effectively up for sale. It seems they too are paying the price for the over-zealous buying under Dick Advocaat in the late 1990/early 2000s. Looking back, the purchases of Advocaat - £12 million for Tore Andre Flo, £6 million for Michael Ball - are, for want of a better word, stupid.

But what makes the situation most annoying is that Rangers' debt, by comparison to those in England is small. Rangers were as good as put up for sale by Lloyds TSB because of a debt of £30 million which is a lot of money by anyone's reckoning. Yet Everton, a team who's bank balances are admired by most in England as being stable for a Premiership team, are also £30 million.

I hate money in football. It makes everything unfair. It means that a team can, under the right process, buy success. I know it is not as easy as that (ie Manchester City, QPR, Hoffenheim, Gretna) but it does certainly help. In 1967, Celtic won the European Cup, Rangers got to the an European final and Kilmarnock (yes, Kilmarnock) got to a semi-final. Today, this would never happen. How can there be equality in football when England has four teams in the "Champions" League? I am going off on a tangent here, but the point is football - like banks - should really ought to be regulated. Self-regulation, as we have seen with Portsmouth and Leeds, simply does not work.

There are many ways this could be done; transfer limits, price caps etc. It will never happen though, which really is a shame. As most Portsmouth fans are probably feeling the pain of their club's over-ambition.

DC x