O'Neil calls for more control over club finances

11 February 2010 15:29
Former Portsmouth midfielder Gary O'Neil has called for greater regulation of football club owners as Pompey fight for their lives. The south coast club was on Wednesday granted a seven-day stay of execution in the High Court as HM Revenue and Customs sought a winding up order over an unpaid tax bill of £11.5million. O'Neil, who left Fratton Park for Middlesbrough in a £5million deal in August 2007 after emerging from the ranks there, is hoping they can dig themselves out of trouble, but insists they should never have been allowed to get into their current situation. He said: "I don't know the ins and outs - I don't think anybody does - of exactly what happened at Portsmouth and what went wrong. "From the outside, it looks like they signed a lot of players on decent wages because the owner could afford to, and then the owner decided he didn't want a part of it anymore. "If that happens at any club, I'm not really sure how you can guard against that. There are all these fit and proper tests for people who are buying clubs, but I'm not an expert on stuff like that and I'm not really sure what you can do."

Source: PA