Premier League Shut the Stable Door

Premier League shut the stable door

One of the Sunday heavies reported that the Premier League has acted to curb the possibility of any more clubs getting into the financial mess Portsmouth find themselves in.

By March 1 PL clubs will have to submit detailed financial reports and spending plans to independent auditors. The bean counters can then look at the numbers, stroke their beards sagely, calculate their own bonuses and, like a Roman emperor, put the thumbs up or down as required.

Marvellous.

Forgive the cynicism but doesn’t this smack of a huge stable door closing as the football nag disappears over the horizon?

Clubs spending huge amounts on wages and running up debts while revenue stagnates or, worse, falls, are asking for trouble. Hasn’t the lesson of Leeds United sunk in at all?

Yet the league perpetuates the frantic, desperate battle for survival by rewarding speculative financial dealing involving huge corporate debt.

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has called on the PL to limit club spending to 25% of annual turnover. It’s a start but won’t be accepted because it is not in the interests of the PL.

The clubs, also, can’t comply. Manchester United’s debts are currently £716m – more than 250% greater than turnover.

The situation reminds me of the dot com bubble of years ago, or the banking crisis: we all ignore it so hope it will go away.



Doesn’t life have a wonderful way of providing a fitting symmetry to the pompous or the just plain dumb.

Vernon Kay, married to the lovely Tess Daly, is caught “suggestively texting” then compounds the folly by being pictured sneaking through the undergrowth to get into his Bucks home and thus avoid the snappers. Daft.

Dear Ashley Cole, wed to the equally gorgeous Cheryl, gives up his phone with naughty – allegedly – pictures of himself in a hotel room. This hot on the heels of the Chelsea man’s apology for a drunken arrest last year and copious allegations of more naughtiness.

No-one wishes injuries on footballers but Ashley’s busted ankle may keep him out of mischief for long enough to get back to thinking about the World Cup.

Maybe he could referee the John Terry-Wayne Bridge situation.