Here's an easy one for college students to relate to. Think about those two different kinds of professors regarding deadlines; The first who set deadlines but really don't mind if you miss them, usually because they can't be bothered to stick to their own deadlines. Then there's that other professor who doesn't care if your laptop got a virus, or if you had some make-believe emergency. A deadline is a deadline.Well to Portsmouth F.C., the Football Association is the latter. The FA refused Portsmouth's appeal to allow them to submit their application for a UEFA club licence, which they need to play in next year's Europa League.
Pause here...I'll let you confirm we're talking about the same Portsmouth. Already relegated, bottom-of-the-league-rooted, in administration Portsmouth? Yes, one and the same!
How did they achieve being painfully close to a lucrative place in next year's Europa League? Check who's playing in the FA Cup final on May 15th. That's right, Chelsea (potential league winners) and Portsmouth (guaranteed league losers).
As Portsmouth were in administration, they weren't in a position to apply for the licence. By virtue of Chelsea (their FA Cup final opponents) already being guaranteed Champions League play next year, their Europa League berth falls to Portsmouth. Well it should have fallen to Portsmouth.
However now that Portsmouth aren't getting that spot, this fantastic game of pass-the-parcel ends with the 7th place Premier League team. Currently that lies with Liverpool who are 5 points clear of Merseyside rivals Everton, and with 3 games to play should manage to retain this place.
Liverpool could finish 8th in the league and still make the Europa League next year, if they win this year's competition. They are currently at the semi-final stage.
Back to Portsmouth though, how fair is this on them? The obvious argument is that Portsmouth's fiscal irresponsibility is totally their fault and they are suffering the consequences now.
Personally I feel like the FA should take this opportunity to throw them a life-line. Give them the licence, allow them to play in Europe next year and allow them to benefit from it financially. Will it totally save the club? Probably not, but every little bit helps.
At the end of the day, the FA aren't going to reverse their decision.
Let Portsmouth's woes be a warning to other clubs, being irresponsible financially can cost you a lot more than Peter Crouch!
First an extra English club might make it into the Europa anyway because they're in the top 3 in the fairplay league. Second I don't think Portsmouth deserve to get out of this mess. The only reason they even got to the FA cup final is because they carried on spending money which they didn't have which is the only reason they can afford players like Piquionne, Dindane and James. They have 38 players in their squad! It's a badly run club that deserves everything it gets and I hope more of the top clubs take notice and start sorting out their finances instead of just buying their way to success.
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