The Financial Situation with British Football

Or the situation at both Rangers and Portsmouth. and no doubt other clubs.

The situation at both clubs has been one that has been evident for sometime, after all if you spend more than your means then surly you are going to end up eventually facing the consequences. The sad thing about this from a fans point of view is that many are being punished for the errors of those above. Or you could say that chasing the dream was what the fans wanted and that none realised what could go wrong.

There is also another angle at Rangers that question marks have been raised over how the owner was financing the club. Of course there will be some Celtic fans who will be thinking "whoopee well win the SPL"(Scottish Premier League) which in more likelihood they will, but this doesn't exactly make the product exactly valuable. I am sure the SPL will do all they can to keep Rangers going if to try and make the competition competitive. Especially if you think that most of the marketing of the competition around the world is marketed with both Celtic and Rangers in mind. You can see the same mistakes of Leeds United who had to lease back their training pitch, among many cost cutting measures due to them 'Chasing the Dream'

The situation at Portsmouth is a sad one as well. OK as with Celtic there will probably be Southampton fans going whoopee but one needs the other to bring some spark to that area of Hampshire.

I could go further down the league and talk about the situations at both Wrexham and Darlington both former league clubs who have struggled in terms of finding owners and enough support financially. Whilst the situation at Wrexham has improved and the fans trust have secured a deal the situation at Darlington is less so. The idea that one of the former owners decided to have a 22000 seat stadium when Darlington were in league 2 wasn't exactly ideal. Rather than allowing the fans to build up and then talk about expansion the idea went the other way, and now you end up with a huge stadium which barley has a third of fans filing it.

There are many other examples but Football never seems to have learned the lessons and even when Preston North End was founded as the first professional club there were still issues.

The examples of Wrexham and Darlington show that there are still communities out there willing to support their local clubs and long may it continue. After all AFC Wimbledon have lead the way in which fans were not prepared to see their team move away from their heartland and on to Milton Keynes, and instead follow their local team. These teams and fans are essential in keeping the spirit of local football and will be the future of the sport.