While the UK elections are the top news coming from the UK, there are two rather interesting notes about the finances of two football clubs who have been in trouble this season. First, the Administrator for Portsmouth revealed the extent of the club’s debt, as well as the details of offers made to creditors, and accusations made by creditors that there was 30 million pounds of missing money. It was pointed out that while this accusation was most likely false, the club is officially 139 million pounds in debt, and that some creditors were offered a mere 20p in the pound to settle the debts. While charities, small businesses, and other football clubs who are owed money by Portsmouth will be repaid in full, it seems that many larger businesses as well as previous investors and owners of Portsmouth stand to lose millions of pounds from having been involved in the investing in the club.
In other news, West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has opened up to ESPN’s soccernet and claimed that West Ham was within days of going into administration earlier this year, and only an emergency influx of cash from Sullivan and another co-owner in the amount of 20 million pounds kept the club from going into administration. Sullivan further noted that the club will need to raise another four million pounds this summer when they will not be playing any matches to remain financially stable. Sullivan came out public with this information after several UK publications started questioning the financial situation of West Ham, partly as he felt the need to claim that some of the wages reported by the newspapers were not entirely true.
Most shocking of the wages: 83,000 pounds a week for Kieron Dyer, especially considering he has yet to play a full season since his transfer to West Ham. In comparison, Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, widely regarded one of the best in the game is said to make 90,000 pounds a week.
On a final note, Sullivan claimed that the club would continue to “trim the excess” during the coming summer months, but he still predicted that a Premier League club is bound to disappear from existence.
Filed under: Current events Tagged: debt, English Premier League, finance, portsmouth, premiership
