Source: Telegraph
FA Cup final: Eyewitness accounts of Portsmouth's year of hurt
The former owner: Sulaiman al-Fahim I have a professional interest and a passion for the game. I was the architect and deal-broker for the Manchester City FC acquisition by Abu Dhabi United Group. Following that acquisition, I began to look, along with an investor group, for another attractive club in the Premier League. That search process led us into talks with Portsmouth FC. [LNB]As in any business, a certain level of debt is to be accepted and is generally manageable but it is important to set the debt-to-capital ratio at the right level. We were not aware of the magnitude of the club's debt or the scale of the financial mismanagement when we made the purchase. [LNB] Related ArticlesFA Cup final suits and bootsPortsmouth target PoyetPortsmouth's final hurrahJames: Portsmouth fans will be vital at WembleyGrant: Portsmouth's FA cup run is a fairytaleSport on televisionI would describe the last year at the club as tumultuous. It is deeply regrettable that the hard-working Pompey staff suffered as a result of the financial turmoil. However, it would not have been enough to 'patch a hole in the crumbling dam' we were seeking a long-term solution in an effort to protect Portsmouth FC and the livelihoods that were dependent on it. [LNB]I will be cheering for Pompey today and plan to watch the game at home with my family. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]The player: Hayden Mullins What's happened has been unbelievable and I've never seen anything like it in football. I've been involved at Crystal Palace when I was young and they were in and out of administration but this has been unbelievable. You think it couldn't get any worse: nine points, then administration, no money and the debt is getting bigger every week. [LNB]There's going to be a lot of people here who are going to be gone next year definitely. The administrator says he wants to sit down with everyone and discuss their futures after the final so we'll wait and see what happens. [LNB]You have to have a sense of humour to get through it. You have to look at it and laugh because it's such a bad situation. Hopefully this is the end of it and we can build next year. The manager had a large part to play in us getting through it. To the media he must look stern but to us he's cracking jokes. He's a very good manager, very knowledgeable and deserves the plaudits he's getting. [LNB]We were relegated before the semi-final, but he kept the boys upbeat and we keep trying to put some performances together. There's been a few remarks since I've been left-back. I'm not left-footed and I am just struggling my way through. The manager is a bit of a joker, he tries to humour me because he knows I don't like playing there. He said, 'You're playing a bit like Roberto Carlos' — but he's lying. I don't mind, though, if I'm helping the team. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]Sacked and then reinstated: Tug Wilson, training ground manager I remember the moment quite clearly. I got a phone call and was just told to be in the boardroom at 2pm. There were 85 people who lost their jobs. They just said that the redundancies had been announced and the people in the room were part of it. We were basically herded in and given the chop. It is strange feeling to lose your job when it has been your life but I'm 64 now and I felt much worse for the younger guys it was a bigger shock for them. [LNB]I am still in touch with some of the others who lost their jobs; thankfully some of them have found work but not all of them have. I was off for 12 days and then, out of the blue, I got a phone call. David James, Hermann Hreidarsson, Michael Brown and some of the players had got together and decided that they would pay my wages. [LNB]At first I didn't really want to come back I felt hurt by what had happened but not coming back would have been like sticking two fingers up at the players. It was a magnificent gesture. People slag off players for earning so much money but they are talented athletes. Most are good people and normal guys like David. He is someone I have seen almost every day for the last four years. We are work mates, we chat about our families and we are both greens so we talk all the time about the planet. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]The administrator: Andrew Andronikou We turned up in February having watched the demise of Portsmouth like everyone else. We approached it like any other administration, but what was very different is that the company is central to a whole community and it is the first Premier League club to go into administration. The stakes are high. There has also been a media frenzy which is something I had never experienced. [LNB]People have been looking for something sensationalist or fraudulent, but the basic problem is clear. If your overheads exceed turnover then you are going to be in trouble. In one accounting year the wages at Portsmouth were 109% of the turnover how does that work? Over a five-year period, the turnover was £247 million and [LNB]£221 million went to the players. I think they got carried away with being a Premier League club. Portsmouth is a lovely club, but the reason those players signed is that they were getting paid a king's ransom in some cases. [LNB]The Cup run has been important financially — it is another £900,000 if we win — but has also helped to change the perception of Portsmouth. People are starting to look at us as a football club again rather than a soap opera. [LNB]I'm optimistic. As we speak, I'm writing the Company Voluntary Arrangement. The Inland Revenue came into this ready to take on the club, use it as an example to other clubs but I think we have now got them on side. We have made changes, we have taken out the old board, we have changed the overheads. The players on money the club cannot afford are going to go and it is for the new board to learn the lessons of the past. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]The fan: John Portsmouth FC Westwood We have had an incredible seven years and, if we don't go bust, I think it has been worth the gamble. Never did I imagine that we would go to two FA Cup finals, be in Europe and be beating the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool. It has been a roller-coaster of emotions and just typical Pompey. [LNB]What has gone wrong? Where do you start? We have had every obstacle put in front of us, starting with some idiotic owners. It beggars belief that the Premier League has allowed it to happen. I don't think they really care about us; to them we are just a scruffy little club from the south coast. Yet we have got more character that the rest of the Premier League put together. They will miss us next season much more than we will miss them. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]The local creditor: David Rowlinson, head of Cowplain Community School We have state-of-the-art football pitches and Portsmouth booked them for their academy to use. The money owed is for a block booking they made during the holidays last year. They paid one instalment of around £8,000 and we are still owed £14,700. [LNB]We've been in ongoing discussions with the club but as the real state of the finances became more apparent we came to realise that getting anything back would be a bonus. We are assuming the worse and hoping for the best. We have absorbed the loss, but it has slowed the development of our community programmes in literacy and numeracy. [LNB]I think the one thing that has struck me is how important any football club is to the financial well-being of an area. Until a club goes belly-up like this you just don't realise it. They just have their fingers in so many pies and, when it is going well, everyone benefits. [LNB]Despite the sadness at what has happened, the community is still very proud of its football club in Portsmouth. It is absolutely central to the hearts of a lot of people and the pride at reaching the FA Cup final is unbelievable. The way the players and the manager have kept going despite the mess has lifted the entire city. [LNB]-----------------------------------------[LNB]The campaigner: Colin Farmery I'm a lecturer and was just about to start a lesson when my mobile phone started vibrating urgently with the name 'Sulaiman al-Fahim' blinking at me. [LNB]Proof, if I wanted it, that the 'fan voice' was suddenly in demand. Three weeks earlier I had drawn up on the back of a fag packet the concept of the 'Pompey Virtual Alliance', comprising message board moderators and website editors, calling for a bit of clarity on Sulaiman's floundering takeover. [LNB]Did we get it? Well, sort of. Within 10 September days Peter Storrie was in a room with us busily briefing against al-Fahim. A fortnight later, al-Fahim had decided to call me, deciding it was better to meet fans than cancel a pre-match forum on the basis that it would 'disrupt the players' preparations'. [LNB]My apparently influential position was brought home as I chaired that meeting with al-Fahim to my left, flanked by two PR people, and the rest of the PFC board of directors and senior managers at the back of the room. How on earth did I get here? [LNB]With the situation at Fratton Park degenerating fast by Christmas, it was then the turn of former owner Sacha Gaydamak to call me. Five exhausting hours of telephone interviews later I had the scoop of my life and the media attention that goes with it. It was not without heartache. Message boards are an unforgiving place and some fans, covered by the anonymity a username grants, were happy to dissect usually wrongly my every motive. [LNB]Ten months on, I am proud of the fact the 'PVA' helped spawn the Pompey Supporters' Trust and the SOS Pompey campaign which have both worked tirelessly to try to hold those responsible for Pompey's demise to account. [LNB]Between us we have influenced the Premier League hence its acknowledgement that its fit and proper persons test is anything but - and kept Mark Jacob, Balram Chainrai, Storrie, Gaydamak, al-Fahim, Andrew Andronikou and Co on their toes. [LNB]In an extraordinary year, I have rubbed shoulders with all of the above bar Chainrai, and even his press guy contacted me to set up a meeting, but never rang back.I still have the odd exchange with Sulaiman, who is a genuinely nice bloke. [LNB]Whatever happens in the future, our fans now have a voice. Our efforts have surely shown that any new owner would be wise to listen to it. [LNB]
