Portsmouth became the first Premier League team to enter financial
administration on Friday, allowing the insolvent business
protection from its creditors as it attempts to restructure.
The bottom club in the world's richest league was granted
bankruptcy protection less than two years after winning the FA Cup,
"At 10:20am today Portsmouth Football Club was placed into
administration following the filing of a notice of appointment at
the High Court," the club said on its Web site.
Relegation to the second-tier is a near-certainty, with the
nine-point penalty that administration brings leaving manager Avram
Grant's team 17 points from safety.
After Portsmouth's fourth owner this season was unable to
clear debts of around 70 million pounds ($105 million),
administrator Andrew Andronikou will try to strike deals with
creditors and could cancel players' contracts.
FIFA is set to discuss the plight of the 112-year-old club at
its next executive committee meeting on March 18.
Pompey have been in administration once before, in December
1998, when Milan Mandaric bought the then-second tier club.
Mandaric invested heavily in the team and it returned to the
top flight in 2003, but the south-coast club overspent on player
transfers and salaries. It won the 2008 FA Cup for its first major
title since 1950 but has since imploded financially.
