Pompey Play Up

It’s not every weekend that you witness your team get relegated. It’s not every weekend that you witness your team reach the FA Cup final. Both happened to Portsmouth fans this weekend. The pain of relegation following West Ham’s victory over Sunderland was immediately numbed by a trip to Wembley and victory over the man who last led them here, Harry Redknapp.

It is really a fairytale and the Cup has provided a few of them in recent seasons; Milwall reaching the final in Cardiff, Barnsley reaching the semis, Cardiff contesting the final and Leeds eliminating Manchester United. Now Portsmouth, a club in a dire financial position and bound to linger in the lower reaches of English football for the next few seasons at least, found the fight and determination to give their fans one last hurrah, for now at least.

Portsmouth deserves to be where it is. The excessive spending of a previous regime gave the club an unfair advantage over its rivals in recent years. Spending on players that they couldn’t really afford propelled the team to FA Cup glory in 2008 and carried them into Europe. It has all come crashing down this season, however, and the club received a nine point penalty deduction in the Premier League for entering administration. Such a penalty is meted out because the club has, effectively, cheated.

The points deduction, however, is extremely unfair on the fans and players of the club. It is not their fault that the decisions of those upstairs have resulted in the entire club staring into the abyss. It is not the players’ fault that they were lured in with such exuberant wages and certainly nobody can blame them for accepting the generous offers. As a collective they did not know that they were cheating for it was the actions of a minority within the club that crippled it.

Such sanctions as points deductions exist as a preventative measure against clubs spending beyond their means and to highlight to club owners that they cannot roll the dice and use administration as a fall back when their numbers don’t come home. As a supporter you are left to assume that your club is being run correctly by those in charge and it easy to get carried away when times are good, yet just as easy to look for scapegoats upstairs when times are bad. It is frustrating when your team is relegated due to off field occurrences as the blame does not lie with the manger, players or fans.

But the blame doesn’t always lie with the manager, players or fans in all instances of cheating, either. The calciopoli scandal that rocked Italian football in 2006 was the fault of a few club directors. The punishment that was handed out to Juventus was severe, but just as unfair on the fans and players of the club as taking back nine points for entering administration. Juventus fans and players would have been none the wiser to the actions of club director Luciano Moggi using his influence to get favourable referees for Juventus’ games. The players, who were stripped of the their previous titles from 2005 and 2006, as well as being barred from competing in the UEFA Champions League, were not privy to the plans, but have had their careers tainted by Moggi and calciopoli.

Yet such punishments are clearly merited, if not to fit the crime, then to act as a deterrent to potential future offenders. Occasionally, however, there is one last triumph in the midst of all the adversity and Portsmouth will enjoy its one final day in the sun at Wembley against Chelsea in May. It is a chance for the real victims of the crime to celebrate one more time, to compete one more time against the big boys. Given the state in which the club finds itself, it could well be a long time before we see Portsmouth competing at this level again.

By Miles Reucroft